Night Owl Cards

Hey, I'm back. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be fully back. I did receive some cards for Father's Day. My daughter, growing wiser by the minute, picked up a hanger box of Heritage for me. I have nothing to say about those cards because I basically like Heritage this year (graininess aside) and needed just about all of the cards. My sister-in-law, who is usually very talented at selecting packs -- she grabs stuff I never buy, things like Bowman Chrome, and they almost always contain something cool -- didn't exactly step up to the plate with a fat pack of Topps Series 1. However, it is better than no cards at all. We must all keep that in mind. What I noticed in that Series 1 pack is a couple of word usage problems. I won't explain it more than that and just show you. Amid the 32 cards in your regulation-size fat pack were six Future Stars cards. That seems kind of high to me. That's more than 18 percent of the cards that came out of the pack. But when...

(I've figured out a way to post a few more times this week. We'll see how that works in the next few days. There is about to be "worlds colliding" hubbub in the night owl nest. Meanwhile, here's some Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 241st in a series): I was watching the last few innings of the Mets-Pirates game last night. Noah Syndergaard was dealing and the New York audience, as is their habit, responded like he was setting 'em down in the Series. Although I greatly enjoy this golden age of starting pitching, I miss the days of a finely-crafted complete game without anyone thinking we should throw rose petals in front of them as they walk off. (Of course Syndergaard wasn't allowed to complete his game after giving up one run and still possessing a 10-run lead). Still Kershaw, Snydergaard, Sale, Cueto, Arrieta, Strasburg, Scherzer, Fernandez, Bumgarner, it's silly the amount of starting pitching that exists today. Leave it to m...

Father's Day is coming up and I am not one of those dads who you throw a tie or wooden duck at and hope he goes away. I know what I want and there is no shortage of options for you to choose from either. I expect it to be that way when I'm long into retirement, too. I will always want something. Just ask. There's nothing more infuriating than when you ask someone what they might want for an upcoming birthday or holiday and they say, "oh, I don't need anything." I didn't ask you what you NEED. I asked you what you WANT. Everybody wants something. Now tell me. Don't be dopey. So, yeah, I want stuff and I'm happy to broadcast it during gift-giving season. But apparently I am still difficult to buy for. Even though my want list is vast and I am 100 percent certain that there are hundreds upon thousands of cards that I want that aren't even listed there, people say I'm tricky when it comes to finding cards for me. In fact, that was m...

Not sure how much I'll be posting here in the next few days. Posting is already sporadic and it's about to get super-radic, if you know what I mean. If you do see regular posting know that I'm exerting myself far beyond what I usually do to get something on here. The only thing there's time for today is opening a pack. No thought, just cards. I had planned to save this for A Pack To Be Named Later , but desperate times, man. Besides, Series 1 and Series 3 of '94 Stadium Club have already been opened there. I don't want to be too repetitive. This is one of the dollar packs acquired at the card show in Vermont. 1994 Stadium Club is a weird bird. Much like everything in '94, Stadium Club was trying to get younger. Trendy. What the kids like. So it overhauled its three-year look, added some edgy graphics, slapped "extreme" and "premium" on everything, and hoped that kids would buy baseball cards -- in the middle of a baseball strike....

I grabbed another rack pack of Topps Archives a few days ago for the sole purpose of obtaining some more '79s. These are the ones that came out. The old-time legends (Slaughter, Kell) don't do it for me, but ones like Aaron, Kepler and Sheffield are what make this portion of the set shine. The other cards in the pack were worth a look -- I think Archives has done a finer job duplicating the feel of the respective tributes than past Archives sets have -- but pretty much disposable to me. Then there was this card: It's one of those 1969 Supers that is an insert in this year's Archives. I know I am belaboring this point and you're all bored with it, but let's turn it over to the back solely to appease my obsession. This is the regular "base" version of the insert (no, we're not going to get into how frustrating insert variations are). I know it's the regular base version because I've seen y'all pull these and they all feat...

This is the only "sealed" card in my collection. By "sealed," I mean an encased card that is not removed easily. I own a handful of cards that are housed in screwdowns of various kinds, but all I need to release them is a screwdriver. With a graded card, it takes more effort, more force. So this is my only graded card that is still encased. I don't really believe in graded cards, but I keep this one secure because it's the most beautiful Dodger card ever made, and also because I think it's comical that a card so magnificent received a "poor" grade from PSA. Foolishness like that must be preserved. Any other sealed card that I receive gets extracted, released, freed. I recently received a handful of cards from madding of Cards On Cards , two of which I would describe as "sealed." I don't know how this was obtained. But I'm sure it wasn't pulled from a pack like this. Some sort of exclusive or redemption from...

Your friendly neighborhood herpetologist will tell you that a king cobra sometimes lives to be as old as 20 years of age. But I know a cobra who is 65 today. I have no real connection to Dave Parker. He didn't play for the Dodgers. In fact, I'm sure he damaged the Dodgers in more than a few games. I wouldn't know though because I was probably too busy waiting for Willie Stargell home runs to land after being launched off of L.A. hurlers. But Parker, as troublesome as he was during his playing career, holds a special place in my heart like all '70s ballplayers do. And it's an extra special place because of what Parker was able to achieve during that time when I was getting to know baseball -- those amazing moments during the 1979 season. First, there was the All-Star Game throw , and then a number of postseason starring roles afterward. Today, Parker, once one of the young stars of my youth, is now retirement age. He's turned 65. In his honor, I pulled 12 o...