Night Owl Cards

  It's time for my annual Define the Design post, in which I look to name the newest Topps flagship set and take a go at some past sets, too.   Last year I named the 2024 Topps set quickly then tried to attach labels to some past Donruss sets. Some worked, some didn't and some I'm still trying to name.   The two that escaped naming the last time was 1981 Donruss and 1992 Donruss. Still don't have a name that fits for '81 Donruss, it may be just get "the Donruss debut set" to be done with it. But for 1992 Donruss I think I'm going with a suggestion by Bo on the last post.   Not my favorite set at all, as you know, but the blue streaks come in handy because, as Bo said, they are a reminder of the toothpaste that was popular in the late '70s/early '80s. Specifically for me, that means Aquafresh, which we were all about as youngsters.     Aquafresh was unique at the time because it contained streaks of green-blue, and for us kids it tasted better...

  I returned to where I grew up yesterday, mostly to say hi to my folks in their final resting place, as well as reconnect with old people and places.   I don't get back there much anymore, not for the last five years, which is weird to me as it's where I spent 15 formative years of my life. And it's probably just as well because whenever I go back, I definitely get that "you can't go home again" feeling.   For example, this:   That yellow house is where I spent ages 6 through 13. I couldn't get any better photo than that because the whole damn neighborhood is getting roads redone and it's hell trying to drive there -- in fact there are those signs all over stating "local traffic only." Dammit, I used to be "local traffic" ... well, if riding my bike everywhere was "local traffic." I hope whoever lives there now is enjoying the second-floor extension built on the back (I can sort of see it in the picture). That was built...

I've been in a bit of a 1990 state of mind lately, which isn't the greatest place to reside if you're talking cards. It's possibly the pit of all baseball card years. But I recently completed the 1990 Topps set and that's allowed me to see that set and the year in cards in a somewhat new light. I certainly won't claim it was one of the greatest years to collect, but I do have enough strength, finally, to determine the best set issued those 12 months. In 1990, a new decade mind you, the number of card sets grew at an even greater rate than the pace of the late 1980s. We were now up to seven major sets, and a host of other minor sets, such as Classic and Sportflics. For the sake of brevity -- and my sanity -- I'm keeping this post to just the seven major sets. It's still two more than I've covered in any previous edition of this series. And it will keep me in good practice for the 1990s insanity yet to come. Because the number of sets to cov...

During my teenage years, there were a lot of movies about the devastation of nuclear war. I saw "China Syndrome" in a movie theater. It kind of freaked me out. I saw "Special Bulletin" on TV. It kind of freaked me out. I saw "The Day After" on TV. It absolutely freaked me out. That's a lot to put on a kid who is just trying to become an adult and wondering if he'll ever make it there. But I made it there, and the only collateral damage is I watch a lot more sitcoms and funny movies than I did back then. I can take my seriousness only in small quantities, and I probably have nuclear disaster movies to blame. Also, in my continuing effort to spin something negative into something positive, I've come up with yet another blasted series on this blog (let's see how quickly I forget this one). It's called "The Card After." This is a series that celebrates the forgotten cards in our collection. There are a lot of cards th...

Back before the playoffs started, when every moment was filled with possibility and baseball occupied my daily planner, I entered a World Series contest. It was called the " 3rd Annual Almost Easiest World Series Contest On The Web ," and it's a good thing it was because I don't really enter anything willingly anymore unless some derivation of the word "easy" is in the title somewhere. Even a contest, where I can win free CARDS, isn't incentive enough for me. I've actually read about contests to win free cards in which all I have to do is enter my name, and I click off the post and do not enter. I don't know why I do that. Sometimes I just can't be bothered with someone saying they're going to give me free cards. The nerve of that person. So, Collector's Crack put up his Almost All-Time Easiest Postseason contest and I made the most feeble entry attempt in recorded contest history. Entrants were supposed to guess which two te...