Night Owl Cards

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the explanations behind people's blog names. But every once in awhile I puzzle about them for a minute or two. Baseball Card Breakdown is one of them. The name, I'm assuming, could mean a few different things: Having a "breakdown" over a certain set or card, "breaking down" a certain set or card by analysis, or even manipulating your cards in such a way so they appear to be dancing, thus "breaking it down," as in the parlance of certain early '90s rappers. Baseball Card Breakdown's Gavin does all these things, so that's living up to your blog name right there, and I'm sorry I was even confused for a second. After all, this night owl doesn't exactly live up to his blog title these days as I don't post in the middle of the night anymore (I save that for the set blogs). I received some cards from BCB recently and I'll do my best to break them down here. I can...

Note to Night Owl: Introspective posts don't work when everyone is off at a cookout. OK, on with today's rambling. Even though I've been pretty busy with my job this Memorial Day weekend, I have managed to squeeze in some card things here and there. So let's see what I've been up to. (I've addressed most of this on Twitter, so if you've seen it there already, you can go play frisbee, or whatever people are doing outside now). I am in the middle of updating my Dodger binders again. This is something I do maybe three times a year. Some might consider it monotonous, but I like doing it -- a lot. What I don't enjoy doing is discovering in the middle of updating that I've forgotten some key cards, which happens ALL THE TIME. It happens a lot to me because I pull cards for blog posts and then forget I've pulled them. I pulled a bunch for that face percentage post and totally blanked that there were Dodgers cards for that post, and then upda...

I'm fairly certain that I have never slid head-first in a baseball game in my entire life. When I was learning to play baseball, the head-first slide wasn't a thought. Almost nobody but Pete Rose did it back then. It wasn't taught in youth baseball or by any coaches. It was considered "hot-dogging it" by just about everyone. Obviously, that was a long time ago. Head-first sliding -- although it seems a lot more jarring and messy than feet-first sliding -- is now as common as any 100-year-old baseball activity. And it makes for very dramatic baseball cards and video highlights, meaning it's never going away. Head-first sliding means business. It gives the perception of urgency, of someone willing to do anything to get that base. But I don't know if it's any more successful than a feet-first slide. It seems like a lot of show. Imagine, if you would, Heath Bell charging in from the bullpen during the 2011 All-Star Game and instead of sliding ...

Greetings on this Memorial Day weekend. This is my long weekend gift to you. No, I'm not going anywhere. It's much too busy at work at this time of year to ever consider Memorial Day as a time to get away. But I know many of you are. You won't be reading blogs much, or even posting to them much. I thought I'd leave this here to last the weekend. These posts are a lot to digest anyway. Maybe I'll add another post before you're grumbling about the end of a 3-to-4-day weekend, maybe this one will still be at the top when you return. We'll see. With these four sets, I'm starting to approach some sets that are certain collectors' favorites. Maybe I've already done so with some of the earlier sets, but I haven't exactly heard many people proclaim 1997 or 1961 Topps the love of their lives. However, a couple of the sets to follow I know for a fact hold a place in the heart of some collectors. Maybe it's the first set they ever collect...