The Night Owl Delivers

I'm finally posting trade packages I received in December. This one came via New York courtesy of the Night Owl. You might have heard of him. He bleeds Dodger Blue. He has over 100 followers...and oh yea, a second blog. I don't imagine I have any followers that he doesn't, but if you're not following both blogs go do it. Right now. I'll wait.

I'm not saying that in a bossy way, more like a "I would hate for you to miss out on a good thing" way.

The package the Owl sent me contained a plastic box that was nicely sealed with what I've learned is blogger/trader friendly blue painter's tape. It had plenty of Ranger goodness from the 90's and 00's with a few 80's and even a nearly complete team set from the 70's. Let's get to the pics.

This package had a box topper! This is a 1994 Fleer Juan Gonzalez Extra Bases card. It is standard width and about 1 1/4" longer than normal. It is one of a set of 30. This is nice, but storage is an issue.

This gorgeous bit of shininess is a 2009 Bowman Chrome Nelson Cruz refractor. I haven't busted a single pack of this so to get any Ranger is nice, a refractor is just a bonus!

This Oddibe McDowell tattoo is the third one the Night Owl has sent to me. The other two, Larry Parrish and Toby Harrah can be seen here. Maybe I'll eventually have a team set and can put them on my back complete with a baseball diamond.



This 1982 Topps John Henry Johnson isn't getting blog time because of Johnson's three years with the Rangers when he pitched in 74 games going 7-9. It's not because he didn't pitch in the majors in 1983 or that it's his last card in a Rangers uniform. It's the HAIR! He must have worn a size 14 hat not to mess that 'do up.

These two 1983 Topps cards were right in the wheelhouse of my prime collecting years. Unfortunately these went the way of the great yard sale and are new to me again. Welcome home boys.

I posted a Nolan Ryan version of one of these recently. This is a 1990 Baseball Cards Magazine Will Clark. Will looks very concerned in this pic. He also looks to be sporting a wicked unibrow which I've never noticed before.

You simply can't go wrong including Will Clark cards in a package for me. It helps if I don't have some of them and I really need to get a list up. Add that to my extensive hobby related "to-do" list. I know without looking that 4 of these are new to my collection. Leave it to the Night Owl to fill a need I didn't know existed.

I have a very vague recollection of these 2001 Pacific Ornament cards, but never had a Ranger to hang on the tree. Now I have the great Ivan Rodriguez ornament card and my tree will never be the same!

Included in the package was an incredible 15 1978 Topps Rangers cards. I don't know exactly how many are in the set, but that's a bunch right there.

It looks like the photographer took Juan's picture after calling his name. Surprise!

I don't think I've ever seen that Len Barker before. Doesn't he look happy to be a Ranger? It might be because he only had one more year with the Rangers and then it would be on to Cleveland. Does that make anyone happy? Ken Henderson looks pretty happy too! I wonder how happy he was to play in only 7 games with the Mets in 1978.

Here we have a couple of nice 1978 Topps Rookies cards. Pat Putnam would play 6 seasons in Texas, having his best season in 1979. He hit 18 homers and drove in 64 while hitting .277. Keith Smith only played 23 games for Texas in 1977. He did his 2 homers...I'll bet those were big moments for him. He played in 30 games over the next two seasons for St. Louis and that was it for his career.

Last, but certainly not least, is this nice Sandy Alomar. This just happens to be my first and only Sandy Alomar. Sandy finished up his career in Texas playing in 69 games in 1977 and 24 games in 1978. I need to check to see if there is a 1979 Topps card of Alomar in Rangers attire.

Night Owl, thanks for the trade! Any Rangers are appreciated and pre-1981's are all the better!