Night Owl Cards

Ah, 1998, an epic year in the night owl timeline. But baseball cards didn't have anything to do with it. I was five years into my collecting hiatus. The year is legend because I became a dad. I am sure I watched some of the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race with a baby in my arms.   Somewhere in the summer of 1998, my wife and I were wheeling that baby in her stroller while walking through a mall, I don't remember which one. We walked into a chain book store -- I don't remember which one -- and I spotted Topps cards on one of those islands near the front of the store. They were packs of 1998 Topps. OK, sure, I'll grab a couple of packs and see what cards look like in the year 1998.   I recall thinking they were OK, nothing special. They certainly didn't break my hiatus, which lasted for another eight years, give or take a pack or two. I had no idea how active the hobby was at that time -- the number of sets and companies and "innovation." It was a year...

While I was on vacation, I found out how accessible 1977 Topps really was. People have been practically throwing the cards at me. And while I was away, they were even multiplying in my mailbox. I had a nice, healthy stack of '77 Topps waiting for me from Tom of Oregon. He sent it simply as a fan of the blog, and that's always terribly nice. I aspire one day to have enough cards lying around that I can just send them off to people whose writing I enjoy (well, I do have enough of certain cards. Just not cards anyone would want). As I was leafing happily through the cards, I did what I always do with '77 Topps. I turned them over and looked at the cartoons. Outside of the cartoons on the back of 1956 Topps -- which are on a whole different bionic level than any cartoon that's ever appeared on the reverse side of cardboard -- my favorites are '77 Topps. They're well-done, informative and right up the alley of an 11-year-old boy. Look -- two cartoons...