Night Owl Cards

I don't keep up on the current major league baseball scene as much as I should. There are fantasy geeks and seamheads and stadium junkies. And then there's me -- a lover of baseball who tries to keep pace in a crazy, modern world, but knows it's impossible to memorize the No. 4 starter for the Oakland A's. When I get a chance to review the league leaders -- which happens about, oh, once a month (I remember when it used to happen once a day) -- I am perpetually amazed by who is in the top 10. Josh Willingham has 35 homers? Paul Goldschmidt has 42 doubles? Marco Scutaro has 180 hits? Fans of the teams who field those players may chortle, but it's a damn, fine feat that I even know who they are given what blows up on a daily basis around here. Mostly what I do is try to grab a few names as I rush out the door, hoping that they'll stick in my brain. Like Jurickson Profar. That name stuck. And I'm lucky it did. Because Matthew at Number 5 Type Collection...

(Did you know that this month is "Little League Month"? ... Little League? In September? Aren't kids in school this month? Wasn't the Little League World Series LAST month? Is this like when the Atlanta Braves were in the National League West? Anyway, time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 160th in a series): I am convinced, and have been for a number of years, that even if I moved to a deserted island, far, far away from organized baseball, some how, some way, the Yankees would still be part of my life. I'm forever cursed with being forced to think about a team I hate. It will always be that way. I'm resigned to it. Take Sparky Lyle. Lyle was a Yankee for the most memorable part of his career and hated by me for that exact same period. But because I grew up in the Northeast where Yankee games were always available, even in the days before YES, I knew a great deal about Lyle and the rest of his Yankee teammates. They were in the papers. They w...

I've got quite an eclectic foursome for you today, and they're not even all night cards. In fact, I'm not sure if this card of The Duke is a night card. There ARE a number of night cards in the terrific 1976 SSPC set, true, but I hesitate on this one. If you look real close, you can see in the background what appears to be newspaper articles or papers of some sort hanging up on a wall or board. If that's what they actually are, it's possible that the photo was taken in a basement concourse of the stadium outside the locker rooms. Those things are as dark as the Holland Tunnel during an energy crisis. Day or night, you'd need lights to take a photo there, especially back then. Normally the "I don't know if this is a night card" factor would prevent me from officially considering a card worthy of a night card post or binder enshrinement. But c'mon. It's Duke Snider. In an Expos uniform. As a batting coach. On an SSPC card. Night ca...

I came home from work after another crazy fall Friday night and, as I do every night, hopped on the internets to unwind. It didn't work this time. About one minute into bliss, I learned that Chris Stufflestreet, owner of the Vintage Sportscards blog and the 1973 Topps Photography blog , had died from a heart attack earlier this week, at the age of 39. Whoa. I didn't know Chris as well as some others in the hobby. He was active on the Old Baseball Cards site and many other vintage sites long before I ever created this blog. He was a regular in those circles, known by other vintage collectors, by people on the Net54 forum , who would see him at The National every year. Chris had other card sites, including the very informative Vintage Baseball Cards , which spawned his Vintage Sportscards blog in 2010. Collectors and non-collectors would write to him looking for answers about old cards. He knew and wrote about vintage cards that I never knew existed. T204 Ramly, 193...

I have been in a Luis Tiant frame of mind lately. I have no idea why. But just today I scanned the 1979 Topps Luis Tiant card to use for a Cardboard Appreciation post, and then realized I just featured the card three short weeks ago. I have very little brain left. Then, on the 1971 Topps blog, I just wrote the entry for Tiant's card, and that made me think "hey, I haven't done a 'Best of the '70s' post in a long time!" Guess what? It's POLL TIME! I haven't done a poll in probably a year. That isn't good. If this was a smoothly run blog, there would be a poll up on the sidebar every day. With different topics every day. And prizes for the voters. But you're stuck with me. With no money. And no time. And a shrinking brain. Anyway, back to Luis Tiant. He is one of my favorite players of my childhood. A character. A talent. Part of some of the greatest games from the '70s era. He was central to Red Sox-Yankees showdowns and ...

OK, that's probably a lie already. I am certain that a relic card or two is going to find its way onto this blog even after I've sworn them off. But at the moment I have no desire to buy any relic card for the first time since I returned to collecting modern cards in 2006. The fake jersey news stinks so high that giraffes on Mars can smell it. So I am treating the following cards as the last relics I will conceivably purchase. Future me will just have to prove me wrong. These cards were obtained immediately before the fakes hit the fan. I feel bad for them because I look at them differently now. No longer do the cards see a gooey-eyed collector, with hearts swirling around his head, looking back at them. Instead they see a critical, cynical, pissed-off malcontent who is practically boring a hole through the card because he's trying to figure out what that jersey REALLY is, mister. But let's try to have fun with these cards anyway. First up, an Allen & Ginter...

I don't expect my success on Listia to last, especially if I keep showing my successes on the blog. It's only a matter of time before people connect "free cards" with "get rid of stuff you don't want," and all I'll ever see on there anymore is 1988 Topps. Already I'm starting to struggle with finding something I want. I'm in my longest drought so far. But immediately before that came along, I enjoyed my greatest success. Josh D. at Royals and Randoms asked last night "What's Your Best Listia Card So Far?" His best card is an Eric Hosmer short-print from this year's Topps. That's pretty good. He asked if anyone could top it. I'm not sure if I can top it. It depends on your perspective. Here's a Listia card I received fairly recently. It doesn't top the Hosmer short-print, but I like it a lot. These 1995 Select Can't Miss inserts are some of the best-looking cards of the '90s. I love...