Night Owl Cards

All right. I am absolutely certain that this card is a night card. There can be no dispute. We have the lights on. We have the dark sky. We have Jerald Clark bathed in illuminosity. We're batting 1.000. I bring this up for two reasons. First, two bloggers have sent me this particular card over the last few months. I do enjoy it when another blogger actually makes the effort to track down a night card, and there is no question that this is a beauty. The second reason I bring it up is because there seems to be some question as to whether the card below is a night card. Motherscratcher sent this card to me because he thought it was a night card. Two other people commented on the previous post that they thought it was a night card, too. I, on the other hand, am not so sure. I'm saying that it's not a night card, although there's not a lot of confidence behind that statement. The reason I say it's not is because the bank of lights is turned off. Also, the sky looks da...

Look at this card. It's a disgrace. It's an affront to any self-respecting Dodger fan on the planet. I can't look at it without getting a dull pang in my stomach. Gooden rounding third? Dwight GOODEN rounding THIRD? Look at the scoreboard. The Mets are leading the Dodgers 7-3. In the third inning . And the pitcher is rounding third. I'm sure if I was watching this game, I changed it to "Bowling for Dollars" at this point. I looked the game up. It took place on July 21, 1991 at Shea Stadium. The Mets won 9-4 on the strength of their six-run third inning. Gooden went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a run scored. Dodgers pitcher Bob Ojeda gave up eight runs in 2 2/3 innings. And I've got to relive it every time I look at this card. You know what Stadium Club did to me by issuing this card don't you? They peed on my rug. They peed on my f-ing rug. Yeah, this is one of the cards that I pulled from the many packs of early '90s wonderfulness that Mike...

Today is a day of completion, as well as a day of freakish coincidence. First, the completion. The card here arrived in the mail today from Max, more commonly known on the interwebs as jacob mrley. He sent a whole heap of amazing cards, probably one of the most pleasant card packages I have ever received. But I'll save those for another post. This card of Joe Orsulak is the last card I needed to complete the 1986 Topps set. It has eluded me for quite awhile. I even whined about it on this post . It must have struck a chord because two other bloggers have said they would send this card to me, as well. In fact, I believe one of them has already sent it (Sorry, Johngy! ). I am happy that I don't have to whine any longer. Orsulak has been rooted out and captured. And that brings me to the freakish coincidence. On the same day that I received this Orsulak card, Jeff of Card Junkie riffed on my Orsulak post on his blog. He needs the Jeff Francoeur card to complete his 2009 ...

Who was the first person to come up with "The days are just packed" saying? Was that from the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip compilation? Or did Mr. Watterson take it from somewhere else? At any rate, it accurately sums up things around here. The busy season at work and at home is winding down, so now I'm trying to catch up. I have lots of card packages to blog about and lots of trades to straighten out. One request: if you don't have a want list on your blog yet, please, please, think about adding one. My brain is getting older by the minute and without a want list to check, I lose track of exactly what everyone needs. That's especially true with certain teams, like the Mets and Red Sox and Orioles, in which I'm dealing with multiple fans. (Meanwhile, I'm trying to add to my want list bit by bit to hopefully give all you friendly folks a few more options). I'll be sending out a couple packages later today, a few more later this week ...

The fifth blog bat around asks us to brag a bit. "What is the best experience you have had acquiring cards or memorabilia?" OK, I'm gonna brag a bit. But first I'm going to address the question. The question implies that you actually DID something to acquire these cards or memorabilia. It assumes there is a story about "the process," a journey, an undertaking. Hopefully, it's an interesting story. Maybe it's funny or uplifting or fraught with danger and intrigue. But there is no "process" to my acquisition. I did absolutely, positively, 100 percent nothing to acquire a bunch of 1956 Topps cards. Sometimes, believe it or not, just raising your hand and saying, "I collect baseball cards!" is enough. So, here is my story. I mentioned it one other time on this post . But I want to go into a little more detail this time. My father worked for the city. He was in charge of the city's water supply. It was a job with a lot of respons...