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...

  Look at that card. Isn't that fantastic? That's what a football card should look like. Why shouldn't I have that card? No one can tell me I can't have that card. So I have it. Because I'm weak.   I've told myself over and over not to think about tackling another vintage football set, not until I finish the 1979 Topps set. Certainly I shouldn't try the '76 Topps set with a known expensive card that will surely be at the end of my completion rainbow.   But '70s cards are a weakness. They speak to me like no other cards. This is why I will never get to collecting old tobacco card Dodgers or Goudey Dodgers or whatever 100-year-old card because they do not have the magic that '70s cards do. Also, I'm weak.    More football sets I shouldn't be chasing. 1983? I shouldn't be even thinking about this until '70s stuff is out of the way. THERE MUST BE ORDER. But I can't resist. All of these were available at the baseballcardstore.ca an...

Here we are. Welcome to another blogger counting down every Topps flagship set from worst to best, according to his own biases and prejudices. As someone who strives for objectivity in his job, you won't see much of that here. I considered being as objective as I could, taking a step back and evaluating the sets as they exist outside of my own influences. Perhaps the countdown would be more legitimate that way. But, frankly, that's boring and only the kind of thing that you would find in a publication in which the writers are getting paid. This countdown will not produce any coin in my pocket, so it's going to be filled with my kind of fun. There will be 16 countdown "episodes". Each episode will feature four sets. This way, I can write as much as I want about them without boring the entire card collecting public and, most importantly, me. (Well, maybe I will be the only one not bored, but I don't care). Also, each episode will have a theme, in this...

(Today is Newspaper Columnists Day. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists created the day. I've written a few newspaper columns in my time. I've also written what could be considered columns on this blog. I like the ones I do here better. You can't line the bird cage with those. ... Well, you can, if you print out the blog post and then throw it in the cage. But who wants to do all that work? Anyway, it's Cardboard Appreciation time. This is the 180th in a series): I have seen enough baseball cards in my 35-plus years of collecting them that I know the identifying features of a baseball card photo. First you have your baseball player, wearing a baseball uniform, in most cases. You often have a baseball player's tools. A bat, or a ball, or a glove. In the background is the usual baseball card photo scenery. Green grass. Basepaths dirt. The pitcher's mound. Three bases and home plate. Perhaps an outfield wall, a batting cage, fans in the stands, a ...