Night Owl Cards

  Every starting pitcher in the Dodgers' rotation this year has had injury issues, except for Clayton Kershaw. It's particularly ugly right now (also grrrrrr to the schedule-makers for pitting the Dodgers against the Padres, Twins, Cardinals, Braves and Rays consecutively with the back two-thirds on the road and just one day off). Only Kershaw and Gonsolin are able to pitch, and I think maybe Syndergaard. Almost none of them can go more than five.   I received this Big League Noah Syndergaard card from madding of Cards On Cards recently and it's to be determined if the diminished Thor is the Dodgers' top offseason acquisition of 2023. J.D. Martinez and Jason Heyward are also in the running but nothing's been too inspiring so far. A couple of weeks ago the blog Red Sox Fan In Nebraska listed out the Red Sox's top offseason transactions for each year going back to 1991 . I thought that was interesting and looked up the same for my Dodgers. But I went through the ...

I was talking to the night shift maintenance man at work last night. We were discussing the World Series opponents and how each of them hadn't won a Series in a looong time, how the two teams had waited a combined 176 years to win a World Series. Then he dropped a heavy thought on me. "I just feel sorry for whoever is going to lose," he said. I hadn't even thought of that. Wow, that's devastating. Somebody is going to this Series after such a long wait and -- dammit -- they're going to wait even longer. I will never be one of those people who says, "it's a shame someone had to lose" but it's a shame someone is going to have to lose. Perhaps I'm feeling so connected to this future loser because my team just lost. It's been pretty difficult I am surprised to admit. It isn't difficult in a "real world" sort of way, but in terms of the teams that I root for and the severity of heartbreak when they do eventually...

It's funny how a World Series can affect you when you have no horse in the race. By "funny" I don't mean "oh, golly gee, this wacky timeless diversion that tugs on our heartstrings that we collectively adore through every delightful morsel, this base and ball of hills and valleys that we relish no matter who the participants. Jolly good show lads, jolly good show." No, by "funny," I mean IS THIS GAME EVER GOING TO ENNNNNNDDDDD SO I CAN GO HOOOOOOOOMME????!!!!!!!! I don't have an interest in the Red Sox or Cardinals. I'm rooting for the Red Sox by default, but by "root" I mean, "oh, so, the Cardinals won that game? What was the score? Has the boxscore come in yet? Where's my story? WHERE'S MY STORY????? ... Oh, damn, the Cardinals won." I have seen only snippets of this series, which is is sort of expected for the job that I hold but not to this extreme. Through a quirk of scheduling, every game that ...

Out of all the manufacturers of the trillions of sets issued during the 1990s, the one I find the most elusive is Pacific. I don't particularly care. I've never been fond of Pacific's cards. But as a team collector, I have this unhealthy interest in accumulating everything , and you don't know how distracting it is (or maybe you do, since you're reading this) to see all of those cards that I don't yet own under the name "Pacific." I am convinced that if I ever become lucky enough to complete everything on my want lists, that the last card I will need will be from a Pacific set. Fortunately, I feel a little bit better about Pacific's avoidance of me after receiving a package from Metallattorney, who is a Red Sox Fan in Nebraska . I'm assuming that's a bit unique. I don't know the typical baseball rooting interest of a fan in Nebraska. Royals? Twins? Rockies? Red Sox seems like a smart choice to me. Whatever the case, I wouldn...