Night Owl Cards

(Here is a quote about appreciation: "Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." The author of that quote was Winnie-the-Pooh. Or, more accurately, A.A. Milne. No wonder I liked Pooh as a kid. That's my kind of bear. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 49 th in a series): I have about 30 different cards of former major league pitcher Jerry Reuss . This card is my favorite one. It's one of those cards from my childhood that I would marvel over while thumbing through my collection. The Pirates were an early favorite of mine. Plus, the card featured an action shot, something that was still a bit of a rarity in the mid-1970s. Throw in the all-star designation -- Reuss was the starting pitcher in the All-Star Game in 1975 -- and it adds up to a card that will suck a boy in until it's dinner time. Those of you who know about Reuss ' 20-year major league care...

For real this time. No funny business . I actually did receive my first pack of 2010 Topps cards on Monday. But it didn't come from Target. And it didn't come from Wal -Mart. It came from Georgia. Yep. The southerners with the beautiful weather and the beautiful women and all the best card shops are taking pity on me again. Or at least one guy is. And I'll gladly accept his pity this time, and also display it here for all to see. Dayf sent me an unopened pack of baseball cards! Well, damn, let's see what I tore open in the school parking lot as the wind tried to topple my vehicle! First the note. My scanner doesn't like hand-writing. So, if you can't read it, it sayeth : "Hi Owlie . You never get these up in the frozen north until they've been everywhere else for two weeks. I thought you'd like a pack early for a change. Enjoy! Dave." Aww . I really, really like pity. We actually don't have any snow on the ground at this ver...

I can't believe someone like Josh Wilker or Ben Henry hasn't addressed this in a post yet. Perhaps they have, and I missed it. Anyway, this is something that has interested me for quite awhile in the way that things of absolutely no consequence interest me. This is the 1974 Topps card of Sparky Lyle. It was the last card I needed to complete the 1974 set. But that's not the topic of this post. The topic of the post is on the back of the card. Please note the cartoon. Click on the image if you can't see tiny type. Note what it says: "Sparky enjoys birthday cakes." Pretty innocuous wouldn't you say? Who doesn't enjoy a good birthday cake? But to me the cartoon is suspicious . What a very strange thing to put on a cartoon on the back of a player's baseball card. I mean, like I said, it's pretty much understood everyone enjoys birthday cake. I'd say 95 percent of everyone in North America likes birthday cake at least, say, oh, once...

Since the start of this blog, I have entered a fair number of card contests. Shockingly, I have won several of them. This is stunning because prior to blogging, I never won contests. I may have mentioned that before. But it's the reason why I cling to the memory of the honorable mention ribbon I received in my seventh grade science fair, and the two circus tickets I won on a radio call-in show as a kid. Because those are the only documented cases of me winning anything that didn't include cards. But thanks to my recent winning streak, all that is ancient history. I have a whole lot of cards that I won from contests. I couldn't tell you how many. But the boxes that house them could, and I'll get to that in a minute. The most recent victory came in the contest held by Grand Cards . Dan received about 12 boxes of cards as a gift and couldn't possibly keep them all. So he gave most of them away. I came the closest to guessing how many cards he kept, so I won all the Dod...

HEY! THORZUL! WAKE UP!!!!! THESE ARE ... THE CARDS ... I RECEIVED ... FROM YOUR GROUP BREAK!!! THANKS! (And with that, Annoying Yelling Guy has become a recurring character on this blog). A few notes: 1. I also received some Mets in the break, but I'm not showing those because they won't be staying here long. 2. The break also yielded a healthy stack of Dodger doubles. It's a testament to other bloggers' generosity and a year-and-a-half of trading that I'm accumulating plenty of doubles from the 1990s, a period in which I barely collected. 3. Go back and look at what Sandy Koufax said about Valdes. I suppose Sandy can claim he was misquoted.

I heard a rumor that 2010 Topps packs had made it to my Target. I was shocked that cards that I normally don't see in person, until a week or two after they've been plastered all over everyone's blog, would be available. So, I took a detour during my errands, pulled into Target, and picked up a single pack of 2010 Topps . That's right, a single pack. I showed remarkable restraint. What? You don't believe me? Then I'll show you the cards. And I have to tell you, I must have gotten a mutant pack with all the inserts. First the base cards: Woo- hoo , a Dodger! OK, onto the inserts. The '51 Topps retro card. The Turkey Red insert. Oops, there's that blasted Toppstown card. Here's one of those "When They Were Young" cards. And here's one of the "Tales of the Game" inserts. Finally, two of those "Cards Your Mother Threw Out." There you are, one pack, 12 cards, of 2010 Topps .* Barenaked Ladies, play us out...