Night Owl Cards

The last Awesome Night Card post was dedicated to World Series cards and how I wish that there was a card for every World Series game in each year's Topps product. Topps has adopted the scattershot method with regard to World Series cards, presenting them however the mood strikes it over many years. I also mentioned that other card companies have picked up the slack for when Topps ignored the World Series altogether. Fleer and Upper Deck in particular. This is one of the Upper Deck examples. I wasn't even aware of UD's tribute to the 1997 World Series until Dave K. sent a bunch of night cards a few weeks ago. Baseball cards, and baseball in general, were not on my mind much in the late '90s. These are all from the 1998 UD set and do the World Series right. One card for every World Series game. And the card backs do it up right, too. That's a full boxscore of the game and a brief summary on the side. The 1997 World Series is noted for Edgar Renteria...

Exactly two weeks ago, Topps released Heritage to the masses. Or so they made you think. Case breakers displayed the very latest cards, the very latest hits and short-prints, and everyone got high on the 1965 design. Later, people who ordered boxes received their shipments and displayed them on their blogs. Around that same time, folks in certain parts of the country begin to find Heritage in stores -- and, yes, in the usual places that I've mentioned before. Dallas, Texas, always seems to have the latest cards before everyone else. Still more Heritage appeared on blogs in those favored locales. Then it arrived in other parts of the country and people began to notice: "Hey. Where are the blasters? Where are the blisters? It's just rack packs." This was an understandable question, but I couldn't question it because I couldn't find even a rack pack in any Target or Walmart in my area of Upstate New York. This week, evidence of Heritage blasters fina...

I think cards that replicate magazine covers is one of the best ideas that ever happened to cardboard. I'm not afraid to say that I was coming up with that idea when I was a youngster in the late 1970s. Blending my love for cards, drawing and reading, I would try to replicate magazine covers -- mostly Ranger Rick -- on index cards. But it took national card companies until the late 1990s, when Fleer and Sports Illustrated knocked heads, for that idea to appear as I dreamt it. Those late '90s cards that pay tribute to Sports Illustrated covers of the past are fantastic, and I just ordered a couple of the Dodger-centric ones that you'll see when they arrive. Believe me, it took all of my self-control not to order a bunch more. Since that time, there have been a few other "cover cards," most notably from the ESPN set of about a decade ago. A few days ago, I saw this Eric Gagne ESPN cover card during one of my online searches and I instantly had to have it....

No Heritage, no time. But, don't worry, I got this for ya. A few posts ago, I thought I had all of the 2011 Topps base set diamond parallels for the Dodgers, only to realize the long-forgotten Marcus Thames had eluded my clutches. In stepped Commish Bob , scary prompt-like, and Thames arrived outside my door in no time flat. So, now ... now, I do have all of the 2011 Topps base set diamond parallels for the Dodgers. And I can now do this: See how they sparkle and shine? I have a few SPs, too. I don't know if I have them all, probably not.   But Koufax, Campanella and Robinson is pretty good. With those rascals complete, it's time to move on to the 2011 Update diamond parallel Dodgers. I need three of them still. Jamey Carroll, Matt Guerrier and Juan Uribe are now on the Nebulous 9 list (I probably won't have that thing back up to a full nine for a few more weeks -- I've got some cards coming in and a card show coming up). Of co...

Last month, Chris from View From the Skybox put on a charity group break to benefit children affected by the massive typhoon that hit the Philippines last year. I've pretty much cut myself off from all group breaks in the last couple of years, but this one drew my interest. Collecting cards is a hobby and is mostly about myself. This was a chance to make my hobby about someone else, something bigger. I missed out on grabbing the Dodgers in the break, which after viewing the acquisitions by the person who did get the Dodgers, is probably a good thing. Most of them would've been dupes. Normally not getting the Dodgers would eliminate my interest in a group break. But this was different. The money was going to people in need and I had to join regardless. So why not join in the spirit of charity and get some cards for someone else? So that's what I did. I got some good cards, too. Unfortunately, this is where the post falls apart. I can't show you the cards...

  Just barely getting through March here. Bear with me for a few more days. I'm sure a lot of people are aware of this card and that it was hashed over to bits in 2007, but I'm curious. Despite what the front of this card says, this is a card of Chris Denorfia, from 2007 Topps Updates and Highlights. Card No. 40. That's the back. Chris Denorfia all the way. But the FRONT says Carlos Carrasco of the Philadelphia Phillies. At the time, Carrasco was a minor league pitcher for the Phillies. He was a top prospect, but he didn't even appear in a Topps base set until 2010. Here he is on his first Topps base card: He was traded to the Indians in the Cliff Lee deal. And as you can see, Denorfia and Carrasco do not look alike: I don't even want to get into what warped situation caused this mix-up. Carrasco shouldn't even have been a thought in Topps' head during the making of the 2007 Updates & Highlights set. But t...

Almost two years ago, I received this magnificent card from Paul at Carl Crawford Cards. It was meant to be a very worthy candidate in my countdown of "The Best Glasses On Baseball Cards. Period". But the card was too effective. It's so perfect for the countdown that it basically killed my will to compile it because I didn't think anything could come close to matching this card. So even though I promised I would go through with that countdown , I don't really see it happening unless I'm suddenly out of work and have a lot of time on my hands. I do feel bad about that. But I also feel bad about misidentifying this card. In the labels of the post that I just linked, I identified this card as from the 1933 Goudey set. The set is iconic and one glance at the card and I know what the set is. Or so I thought. Months and months later, I decided to turn the card over and look at the back -- yes, it took me that long to turn it over, what can I say --- h...