Pausing for Cards from Night Owl

I received a surprise in the mail.  I had a bubbleope from Night Owl!  That can only mean some good Triber cardness. 

First up, we've got 2012 Topps Opening Day Grady Sizemore.  I don't know if you can tell, but he appears to be look up at a ball he just hit.  His facial expression suggests a long fly out.  The next card is also a 2012 Topps Opening Day.  Jason "Hitnis" is shown turning a double play.  The guy on the ground is a Rangers player.  Next, we have a 1990 Score Young Superstar Felix Fermin.  He is catching some serious ball-tossing air here!

Mark Lewis starts off the next few cards.  This is probably the pose that most sticks out in my mind when I think of Lewis.  He is poised on a 1994 Upper Deck.  The next card is UBER-SWEET!  Greg sent a mini-1975 Topps featuring John Denny, Rawly Eastwick, Jim Kern, and Juan Veintidos.  That is probably the only picture of Kern where his hair is not wild and crazy, sticking out all over the place.  He also looks way more serious in this photo than I think he looks on any other card I can think of.  Rounding out this trio, Omar Vizquel on a 1999 Topps Hands of Gold.  Oh, ladies and gentlemen, this card is a thing of beauty.  I am a sucker for the die cuts.  Where is Pacific when you need them?

Finishing out the bubbleope, Justin Masterson is hurling ball on a 2012 Topps Opening Day.  Frank Herrmann just finished hurling.  That is one mean leg-kick there, buddy.  Stay out of the way of that one!  He comes to us on a 2009 Topps Black Parallel.  Nice!

I am sending out a HUGE "Thank You!!" to Greg at Night Owl Cards for some great Indians baseball cards!! Wahoo!!

Night Owl strikes again!

When I got from work the other day, I found a bubbleope on the island in the kitchen.  Inside were cool cards from Night Owl himself!

First up, we have 2011 Topps Opening Day Carlos Santana.  I love the vibrant green against the dirt here. Photography classes will tell you to "never" take a picture such that the image is divided in half (vertically or horizontally).  Of course, one can really say "never" - especially when one wants the effect intentionally:

He also included a couple Sizemore cards: a 2011 Opening Day and a 2011 Bowman.  Each card features one of his characteristics - hitting and fielding, respectively - that is, when he isn't sidelined by injury:

Next up a 2011 Topps Heritage "Rookie Parade" featuring two tribers: Josh Tomlin and Jeanmar Gomez.  He also sent a 2011 Allen and Ginter Shin-Soo Choo!  I actually like these A&G's a lot this year.  i like the team logo in the lower corner. Nice effect:

Lou Mason comes to us on another 2011 Topps Heritage, plus we have a 1983 Fleer "Big Chiefs" card with Toby Harrah and Andre Thornon! I loved these 'inserts' as a kid. Well, I suppose by '83, I was a bit bigger than a kid.  The next card is a 1990 Topps Traded Carlos Baerga:

The Indians card fun doesn't stop there, either!  How about a 2009 UD O-Pee-Chee Scott Lewis, a 1989 Classic Greg Swindell, and a 2008 Topps Heritage Kelly Shoppach.  The Shoppach card is the same I used a couple years ago for a "custom" version I made (see below):

And now, for the team-collector's conundrum. Do you, as a team collector, add cards to your collection where the player is in a team uni but listed with another team (or in which the player is in another uni but listed with the team you collect)?  I am adding this to my collection if I don't already have it: 2009 UD Spectrum CC Sabathia.  Night owl threw in a "Sarge" Connally from the Conlon Collection, too:

The last two cards feature a 1994 Fleer Charles Nagy and a 2009 Topps Historical Commemorative Patch card of Duke Snider with the 1954 All-Star game patch:

A **HUGE** thank you goes out to Night Owl for these cool cards, and a trip down custom card memory lane to boot!  That is a bonus in my book. Thanks again!

*The custom Shoppach card was posted in 2009: http://www.tribecards.net/2009/02/ultimate-utility-player-for-madding.html

Awesome Night Cards features Indians card and great analysis

Night Owl runs a regular feature called "Awesome Night Cards" on his blog.  Number 105 turns out to be the 1988 Topps Indians Leaders card featuring Joe Carter and Cory Snyder.  And while the card itself is worthy of a Night Owl post (who specializes in night-time sports cards), what transpires in his post covers the really, REALLY bad years of Cleveland baseball.  Well, more than that, it is about the broken promise of a breakout season. 

I could do no justice in summing up his remarks or in adding my own.  Instead, I strongly urge you to read the post yourself, traveling down memory lane to a dark place we Tribe fans would hope the world would forget: http://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2011/03/awesome-night-card-pt-105.html

And the Home of the Braves

In my last post, I talked about our upcoming trip to Turner Field to watch the Braves.  The only problem was that we didn't have tickets to WEDNESDAY night's game, we had tickets to THURSDAY night's game!  Luckily, we discovered this before we left the hotel parking lot.

When we arrived at the field, we parked in the GREEN LOT.  It was a relatively short walk from the lot to the ballpark.  There was an adventure before we got to the parking lot, but I'll regale readers with that story over on my personal blog (www.poppedinmyhead.com) later.

We took a lot of pictures with my wife's camera!  That's the good news.  The bad? We left the USB/Media cable back in Arkansas.  Yes, that was my fault.  Well, fortunately, I had my Droid!

From Drop Box

This is the view from our seats. We were in Aisle 109, seats 101-104! I cannot believe the incredible tickets we bought from the Braves website. Not only did we *not* have to deal with StubHub, but we ended up with a killer view of the game to boot. Naturally, the parking lot was on the opposite side of the park from our seats. We stopped for supper on our way to the seats. We arrived late (midway through 2nd inning), but the game had either been delayed or had a really long first inning because we had not missed much of anything given the time we finally made it to our seats.

From Drop Box

The Braves played the Rays tonight (er, last night for many readers). Did I mention we had GREAT seats!? I took most of these shots as the sun faded, hoping NightOwl would enjoy them.

From Drop Box

I have to say, except for the nose-bleed seats, there didn't seem to be a bad view from anywhere. Having watched the incredible Braves machine in the 90's and first half of the 2000's, it was disheartening to see how many empty seats there were. Of course, that's what led to our great seats, so I am not complaining too loudly!

I pulled into the parking lot running on fumes in the gas tank, so after the game I waited in the parking lot until traffic seemed to actually move. Sure enough, we inched our way out of the lot and headed for the nearest gas station. Call me the big, bad boy, but it was a BP. I had to stop. Think of the family!

We had a great time at the ballpark!

Cards from Night Owl!

A few days ago, I received a bubbleope from Greg over at Night Owl.  Inside was a fine collection of Tribe cards that covered several years and different brands, types, players, and more!

Brad Komminsk played one season with the Tribe (1989) and later went on to manage the Akron Aeros. Tom Couston is the man that helped bring Jim Thome to the bigs. CC Shows off on some Topps Chrome while Aaron Laffey winds up on a 2009 O-Pee-Chee.  I am a fan of the holographic cards, especially the "Grand Slam" variety from Denny's!  Greg included several 2010 Topps in here too!  I have to say, I sure do like the '10 design.  For good measure, we've got Thome himself as youngster.

In the next group, we've got Attax, Topps Regular, some UDX, and a Gallery.  I love the Gallery cards, especially the older ones that actually felt like canvas.  Even though Branyan's is not one of those, it is a very cool card!  What can I say about Wood?  Welcome to the Tribe, the end of your career.  I love my Indians, but I am also a realist: players come to be born here or to die here, passing through the Cleveland farm system either on to greater things to their MLB retirement.  The great thing is that we Tribe fans can say "so-and-so" was a Triber once!

Oh, yeah! We've got Blake, Dilone, Choo, Peralta and Pronk!  Throw in the others and we've rounded out an eclectic collection of Cleveland clubbers!

THANK YOU, Night Owl, for some GREAT Tribecards!!

Dinged Dinged! And in this Corner(s), NightOwl!

The other day, I received a gift pack of my own from Patricia and the girls at Dinged Corners! Some time ago, she had a post describing an Indians card she had, and through a series of high-level meetings, a deal was inked that had cards being traded for other cards among several card bloggers, and when all was said and done, I ended up with a VERY nice auto from DC!

Before I get to that though, I opened the package to find Julio Franco in triplet! Julio is one of my all-time favorite players from that era! Wahoo!!


There were also two 2008 A&G mini "World's Leaders" cards - Greece and Ireland. These are very cool! The best part, to me, are the looks on the faces. It is as if Bertie (Ireland) just heard something very shocking and Konstandinos (Greece) was the one to tell him:


Of course, the main attraction of the pack is the 2005 Donruss TeamHeroes autograph card of Jake Dittler!


THANK YOU very, very much, Dinged Corners for some great cards!! I am going to take the words of your note and redirect them back to you, "thank you for always making trading fun!"

On the same day (or I think it was the same day), I received a bonus item from NightOwl! How about a 2009 O-Pee-Chee Kerry Wood!?


Now before everyone goes all "Tipton" on me, let me assure you the card was in great shape when it arrived here. The investigation is still ongoing, but somehow there is a seven year old girl involved with the "Case of the Crinkled Kerry Card." (Yeah, I was going to use all 'ks' but that was going a bit over-the-top in cheesiness. Of course, I do loves me some cheese... Where was I?)

So far, it appears the youngster was checking the Woot of the day, and somehow the card ended up as the seating cushion. I still don't have all the details, but I can assure you justice will be served - most likely in the form of office-cleaning child labor.

Thank you, NightOwl, for a very cool card! For those that don't know - I'm kidding about the justice thing. I collect Indians cards, condition is never a factor - whether the arrives having previously sat upon or becomes that way while in my possession - either way, I'm a happy collector just to have received the card(s) in the first place!!

Sunset at Arlington

I meant to post this 'custom' card back when I was posting cards of the night game I went to in April for my birthday. Since I am eagerly awaiting cards in the mail, and since I will be out of town Thursday evening, I thought I'd throw this up there to take my mind off all the rain we've been having here in Arkansas lately!

Cards for Night Owl

As promised, a few 'night cards' from the Rangers-Royals game the other night:




And, in case you didn't see the 'answer' to my birthday post, each card featured in the post is Card #40 in its respective set - in honor of the 'milestone' I reached.

Night Owl cards in the mail!

Night Owl Cards sent me an envelope of cards! He said "it's not 12 days of Indians, but that's because I stuck to your very thorough want list (for the most part).

12 Days worth or not, I love opening the mailbox to discover the postman (yes, ours is a man) put a surprise in there for me!

The first few cards are from "Baseball Cards Magazine" and they are great! They sport various retro themes from Topps in the 70's. I like the '08 UD Timeline die cut, too. Nice throwback to the SPX die cut days. Of course, I'm pretty much a fan of all cards Triber!

I am also a fan of the Topps Gold versions of their regular issue cards. Here's a weird thing. According to my database, the Swindell BC-24 comes in two flavors, but I am not sure what the difference is. So far, they all seem the same to me... That's why it has appeared on my 'want' list. I'm sure the answer is all of two clicks away, but I haven't taken the time to sit down and look just yet. Maybe one day...

Thank you VERY MUCH, Night Owl, for these great Tribe cards!!

Sidenote: There was also a box of cards from Tom (who I am certain has a blog, but his blogger name escapes me just now). I'll post those either later tonight (Tuesday) or Wednesday. Thanks, Tom!!

I'm a Winner, too! (I think)

Some time ago, NightOwlCards posted an entry in which he won various prizes for knowing the year of a bunch of cards that had been thrown into (and subsequently saved from) a dumpster. Are you with me? If not, read about here.

Well, in my infinite wisdom, I mentioned that I could use the "Rip Master" auto'd card in a future contest. I also may have mentioned that the jersey cards would also come in handy. Well, I hit the veritable jackpot! The only thing missing from the package sent to me by NightOwl was the leg lamp and the word "FRAGILE" (it's Italian) on the envelope.

First of all, according to the note included, I am the proud owner of every Tribe card NightOwl had at the time. There are four of them. I feel bad though, it's kinda like taking somone's last piece of gum:

Jorge Velandia, Victor Martinez, and Shin-soo Choo are the first three in the penny sleeve. Velandia played in 7 games last year and netted himself a .375 average. He probably wishes he was still on the Rays as far as 'winning seasons' go, though. I'm not sure what the 'god-light' is trying to say on Vic's Masterpiece card. I think there is a hidden message in there. Choo's got a cool action shot, but if you look closely, his eyes are no where near looking at the ball. I'm a little confused by the whole thing.

The fourth Triber is Sizemore:

This one comes from the Home Run Derby portion of 2008 Topps U&H. He appears very Jordan-esque with his tongue providing the needed lift on the ball he just sent packing. I actually like the little State Farm HR Derby logo on the card. It's unobtrusive and adds a neat feature.

Up next, the Rip Master himself:

Okay, the truth is, I have no idea who this guy is. I don't watch ToppsTV (it is an online thing?). But when I saw a guy decked out in packs of cards, well, I figured I would ask to have it for a contest. I was actually surprised to get it, given the semi-known outcome for it... The back says, "Voted one of sports collectibles industry's most influential people of the last 20 years." Exactly how many people are on that list, anyway? Was Ben Henry, dayf, Mario or Patricia up for that award/nomination? Were sites like SCU, Stale Gum, or Thorzul Will Rule included? How about the dozens of other bloggers with sites (many of which are listed on the right, but a vast majority can be found on the baseball blog list blog) that have given Beckett and other 'top dogs' a run for their money? Was NightOwlCards ever given a fair shake at the ballot? And, just WHO voted? How were voters recruited? Yeah, okay, really, I don't care about the last two questions.

And, finally, the TOTAL surprise:

Two material cards and a printing plate! Add to that the fact they were sent in screw-downs! That is fantastic. Randy Winn jersey A&G card, Baldelli jersey card, and Santos yellow printing plate. You can be sure you will see these again when the next scratch-off tourney rolls around!

A Fastidious Night Owl...

fastidious: (adj) giving and careful attention to detail.


I received a box in the mail the day after Halloween. It was from NightOwl! His gift included a hand-written note in which he hoped I might "need 1 or 2" of the cards he sent... I haven't checked it against my database yet, but I have a feeling the 'hit count' will be much higher than 1 or 2. Just a cursory glance gives me the feeling it will hit a dozen or more easy!!


One of the first things I noticed about the box was that the cards were arranged alphabetically by the players' last names! If anyone else has sent me such an arrangement and I failed to notice, I apologize. That takes some serious work to organize a bunch of random Indians players by name. :-)


There were a lot of familiar faces in the bunch! There were also some familiar faces on not-so-familiar cards. Hopefully that means more to add to the collection, and not just a sign that I'm losing my memory...


There were quite a few vintage cards in the box! I love me some vintage, and some not-quite-vintage! I have to say, the 1969 Dave Nelson is spectacular! The Ted Ford is sharply cut, but the photo is canted slightly to the right. You look at it and wonder if you are really seeing what you think you see... Something out of a horror movie, for sure. :-)


For the first time in a LONG time (and I'm not sure I have ever actually done this before), I scanned in ALL of the cards sent to me. I don't know why I haven't done this in the past, nor what triggered the idea to start doing it now, but from this point forward, I plan to scan in all the cards I receive as part of trades or gifts. I just think it's a cool idea.... Then again, I thought posting a new "All-Time Tribe by Uniform Number" each day would work... We see how THAT has worked out thus far...


Included in the box was a stack of 1989 Bowman cards, too. I have yet to figure out the right box size for over-sized cards. It looks like a 300-count might be the best option, huh?


The box contained cool things like "Opening Day" versions of base cards, SportFlics cards, and the span in years was nearly 40 years! One of my faves happened to be the first card in the box: a 2008 A&G mini Hafner.


A B-I-G thank you goes out to Night Owl for a great box of cards and a great job with the sorting! Certainly, this was a treat!