Night Owl Cards

I normally try to space out Gint-a-Cuffs posts a little more to give the A&G haters a break. But since I have only four packs left, and I don't like posting these things on the weekend, I'll throw this one post in and we can all say "Phew!" together. One thing I want to know with this year's A&G is: where the hell are all the autographs? You used to get at least one per box. I can recall only a handful of people pulling an autographed card out of this year's version. What's with the difficulty? Again, I like A&G for the base cards and the crazy variety, but a declining rate of autos is not a selling point. All right, enough whinery. Time for Packs 21-24, which historically have been the dullest packs of the box. Observe: PACK 21 50 - Carl Crawford, Red Sox (0 points) 28 - John Lindsey, Dodgers (+1 favorite team) It's very cool that Lindsey is in this set after so long in the minors. But I don't get why Topps included him...

They're putting in new curbs on my street. You would not believe the noise outside my windows at before 9 in the morning. So, since I'm up, this post is being produced bright-and-early even though it won't appear until the final hours of daylight. As you read this, keep in mind that I can barely hear myself think as I type (at least I think I'm typing, I can't HEAR anything besides "rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a") out the latest installment of Gint-a-Cuffs. It's time for packs 17-20. When we last left off, I had 144 points, which is since corrected to 146 because numbers ain't my bag. Onward ... PACK 17 297 - Travis Hafner, Indians (0 points) 268 - Dallas Braden, Athletics (0 points) 96 - Daniel Boulud, french chef (0 points) I'm not showing the card of Boulud because he doesn't need any more publicity. The write-up on his card is like twice the size of most of the non-player cards and reads like Boulud wrote it hims...

I've been doing this Gint-a-Cuffs thing for three years now. I have purchased four boxes of A&G during that time. Granted, it's not a lot compared to some people. But out of those four boxes, just once you'd think I would have pulled a rip card, or a numbered Bazooka back, or some crazy relic. I'd even settle for a box that was geared toward my favorite team. Like this one . But there's no chance of that this year. So, I'll just say that next year, "I'm due." Moving on. Presenting packs 13-16: PACK 13 245 - Brian McCann, Braves (0 points, what can I tell ya, Captain) 225 - Jack LaLanne, fitness guru (0 points) 217 - Shaun Marcum, Brewers (0 points) 295 - Chris Carpenter, Cardinals (0 points) BHS-25 Ichiro (+3 Baseball Highlight Sketch). Two years in a row of these sketches and I'm still not liking them. They don't work, they don't belong in A&G, and I trade them every chance I get. 315 - Jayson Werth, Nationa...