The Night Owl Mixtape

Better late than never??  Let's hope so.

The one-and-only Night Owl recently sent me a bubble-mailer (thank you!).  Does October count as "recently?"  I'm going to say yes and show you the goodies in it regardless of my belated response.

This was during the Playoffs, so Free Agency hadn't even begun, but Night Owl kicked off the package with this note:

Lorenzo Cain was expected to be on his way out the door.  Same with Moustakas, Vargas, Minor, Escobar, and Hosmer.  The Royals went hard after Hosmer, but the Padres went harder.  Somehow, we re-signed Moustakas!  Escobar too (for some reason?).  But of course, that note reminded me of this song:

So I figured, let's make this whole post a music post!  Every card I'm showing will get a music video.

I am still slowly working on this subset from 2013 Ginter.  The addition of Mercury is like the addition of Freddie Mercury!

 X-fractor-y David DeJesus just collided with...somebody. Was it Howie Day?

 A "sepia parallel" is just another name for Brown.  Like Zac Brown.

 

Night Owl threw in a good little stack of 1973 Topps Royals, including Mr. "Monty" Montgomery.  That's his real name.  Perhaps he should have been named "John Michael Montgomery" instead?  

Steve Busby threw not just one but two no-hitters for the Royals between 1973-1974.  That's why he was immortalized in lyrics by Wham!

"Wake me up before you go-go,

Busby just threw another no-no." 

Really.  Those are the lyrics. Trust me.

This card of Sluggerr features him wearing the Johnny Cueto dreadlocks from 2015.  Speaking of unexpected dreadlocks, here's P.O.D.!

This is a mini "black" parallel of Alex Gordon from Ginter, but these black parallels have so much white in them, I can't tell if they are black or white.

  What can I say about Salvy?  This Salvy is BLUE.

There we go - a song for every card.  Which card/song is your favorite?  Which songs would you have used for any of these cards?

Night Owl Confuses Me

Well, it's more like Topps confuses me.

All of these cards came from the one, the only, Mr. Night Owl in two packages -- one last summer, and one recent one.  He included the above monstrosity.  This flips the traditional traded-player display of "new logo/old uniform" on its head, by showing James Shields in his new uniform (KC), but with his old logo (TB).  Chalk this one up to a mistake -- whoever was maintaining the player database at Topps never updated it with the correct logo.

Night Owl sent a bunch of other good stuff, too.

And he finished it out with a #/99 double-jersey card of Raul (Adalberto) Mondesi.  This will definitely be Mondesi's year to show what he can do in the big leagues.  He's got to start hitting better if he is going to stick around.

Thank you, Night Owl -- all of these were needed and are very much appreciated!

-Josh D.

What I Like About Blue

I could have titled this one, "What I Like About Night Owl," but that doesn't sound like a song-title.  At least not one that I have heard, anyway.  Maybe it's a dubstep song, but I don't know anything about that.

Night Owl sent me a PWE back in March and it was blue, through-and-through.

He sent these blue Royals:

He sent these blue Dodgers:

He even used the BLUE TAPE. 

 I can not stress enough how much better it is to get the packages with the painter's tape versus the ones with clear scotch tape 3-layers-deep over everything (that's right, Listia, I'm talking to you).  Bloggers, if you aren't using this stuff for shipping, do everyone a favor and go buy some.

So I told you this package was blue through-and-through.  That was a lie.  He included one more color.......

YELLOW!!!

1991 Fleer...can't beat it.  :-)  Thanks, Night Owl!

History of the World, Part II

Look out, Christopher Columbus!  Martin Luther is burning indulgences and John Hancock is going quill-pen CRAY-ZAY!

These all came to me from Blogger-of-the-Year, Night Owl.  I had been begging him for the "Reformation" card, and he finally relented and sent it my way.  :-)  Gotta get my fill of Reformation History.  As they say, "I've got 95 Theses, but a Pope ain't one."  Go ahead and watch that video.  I'll wait.  (Shout-out to Johann Guttenberg)

In his abundant generosity, NO sent me two more of the Historical Turning Points cards seen below.

That is not the mental image I have of the Berlin Wall coming down.  My mental snapshot is all the people on top of it during that first wave of history.  By the time the cranes came around, the "turning point" was over and industrious businessmen were selling the wall chunks to Americans for 20 bucks a pop. 

He tossed in one Royal (this blog isn't just called "Randoms", after all), and Iowan pitcher Joel Hanrahan doing his best Bo Jackson impression.

Yep.  I see the resemblance.  :-)

Thanks, Night Owl!!!

I Don't Give a Hoot

...but Night Owl does.  I sent a pile of '77s his way, and he hooked me up with some offbeat recent stuff and a few oldies.  Here were my faves.

Jeff Francoeur with a mouthful of shiny dirt in the slide. 

2011 Topps Update Diamond Anniversary - Jeff Francoeur

Sean O'Sullivan with the liquorfractor...More like Sean O'Douls.

2011 Topps Update Cognac Refractor - Sean O'Sullivan

 I posted this Brayan Pena that I got awhile back...but here's the Wal-Mart version.  I don't have a Wal-Mart close enough to me to go there, so I like getting these parallels in trade.

2012 Topps Wal-Mart Blue Parallel - Brayan Pena

Cheslor Cuthbert was a big Latin American signing for the Royals two years ago.  He's still only 19 and is playing in High-A ball. 

Bret Saberhagen looks like he is making some Communist Vietnamese propaganda. Willie Wilson is just golden, baby.  Like Barry White's voice.

Thanks, Night Owl for another great trade.  But next time let's get Saberhagen saying U-S-A! U-S-A!

Drew Brees and the Eyes of the Owl

(I am WAY behind on trade package postings and purchases...this one is two months old.  Apologies to everyone who has been sending me good stuff.  I'm working on the backlog now.)

2010 Allen and Ginter # 287 - Drew Brees

Sometimes you get something good, and then it keeps getting better.

I have had a good relationship with Night Owl.  I love his blog, and had already made a trade with him earlier.  Awhile back I posted my Dodgers Trade Bait, and he responded that he wanted the Chad Billingsley relic that I had received in Spankee's group break.  I sent that out to him along with a bunch of other stuff off his wantlist.  He fired a package back at me containing some great cards, including the Drew Brees above!  That was #1 on my Most-Wanted List!  Now I've got it -- lovin' it.

Here's a sampling of the stuff he sent me:

A Sweeney, a UL, and LOOK at that soup-strainer on Dennis Leonard.  That is STRONG.  He reminds me of my old engineering professor... 

Erik Antonsson - Not a Baseball Player

Orel Hershiser

Some cool Orel Hershisers found their way in.  The Fleer has a good texture to it.  I remember buying some packs of Topps Kids in my youth.  They were cheap and fun.  Just like Donruss Triple Play.

The sizing was all over the place here.  I was so confused.  Wilson Betemit was normal-sized, but very COGNAC-y.  Nelson Briles was a 1975 mini.  George Brett was WAY too big for his britches.  Seriously...his britches were a really odd size.

All that stuff was great.  It was a good trade -- some Dodgers were sent and some Royals received -- what more could I ask for?

A week later, I got another envelope from him...a little "something extra" to say thanks.  Oh yeah, his little extras are #'d to 50... :-)

2002 Fleer Hot Materials - Mike Sweeney relic - HM-MS - #27/50

What a guy.  Night Owl, that is.  Although Sweeney is cool, too.

Month in Review - November 2011

(First of all...signups for the "Big Pile Contest" close Sunday night, so post your comment on this page if you want to enter:  http://royalsandrandoms.blogspot.com/2011/11/big-pile-contest.html)

November is done!  Hope you enjoyed it.  I sure did, even though it FLEW past.  With the end of another month it is time for another Month in Review.  Here are my personal favorite posts from what I saw out in the blogs this past month (as always, if you don't see your amazing post here, I probably just didn't see it.  I'm always on the lookout for good reads, but have limited time.).

Top Blog Posts:

• The San Diego Podrace -- I love me some Sebulba!  Nicely done, PRP.

• Another Dayf Gift -- First Moustachas...now George Will!

• The All-Fish Team -- Can you construct a lineup made up of fish-named players?  Night Owl can (and did).
• The Spokesman Jersey Relic -- Do you really want to know where your relic came from?  GSNHOF will tell you.

The last one is not from a card blog, but it still totally fits.  Grantland (Bill Simmons / ESPN) posted their Halloween costume contest winner, and it was Billy Ripken.  Not just any Billy Ripken....but 1988 Fleer Billy Ripken!!! That's quite the costume.  I wonder how many people at his party understood it.  Maybe that guy should just wear that costume around The National....I bet he would get some card-groupies.  Are there card-groupies?  If so....he would get some.

Peace, love, and craziness.

Trading with a Superstar

Every subculture has its stars.  Lifestyle Design has Tim Ferriss.  Trivia has Ken Jennings.  And Card Blogging has Night Owl.  His frequency and quality of posts is unsurpassed, in my opinion.  Needless to say that I was taken aback when one day I saw a note from the king himself.  He had seen my post on the Classic garage sale cards and wanted those purple Dodgers.  I was more than happy to oblige, so I shipped him that Purple Haze along with a bunch of other miscellany.

He told me that he would send me "Random Royals and Orel Hershisers," which sounded great to me.  Last week I opened up my mailbox and saw that little yellow envelope we all love to see.  Without further ado, here are the highlights of the goodies from Night Owl.

Some Young Guys:

 

 2011 Bowman TP15 - Mike Montgomery, and 2007 Topps TP16 - Brian Bannister

Some Old Guys:
(Does he have these things just lying around??  AWESOME)

1982 Topps Stickers (#193 Frank White, #191 Dennis Leonard, #196 Willie Aikens)

One Hunched-Over Guy:

1972 Topps #178 Paul Schaal

And two more guys that I can't help but like -- the Mexicutioner and the Mustache I want:

 2011 Allen and Ginter #174 Joakim Soria and 1982 Topps #495 Dennis Leonard

Not only did he have a bunch of Royals for me, but The Bulldog came through, too.

1990 Collect-A-Books #6 Orel Hershiser

It's not every day you get another "Lanceur" for your collection:

1985 Leaf #38 and 1991 O-Pee-Chee #64 Orel Hershiser

And I saved my personal favorites for last...I never had many Sportflics.  I started collecting in 1987, when a pack of 15 Topps cards cost 40 cents and a pack of 3 Sportflics was a buck.  You can guess what 7-year-old me bought more of.  Even though they were super-cool, my pocket-change-budget could not get the Flics very often.  So when I saw these, I giggled like a little kid:

1987 Sportflics #43 and 1986 Sportflics #9 Orel Hershiser

Thank you, Night Owl.  This package was a blast.  You made this blogger very happy.