Night Owl Cards

  Like many folks, I've enjoyed the good fortune of a few extra funds lately. I've been a good owlie and dedicated almost all of it toward real life requirements and needs. I finally got that new roof so I can end years worth of hand-wringing over squirrels and rain clouds.   But I've also used some to gain some long-sought cards, which you've seen here over the last couple of months. And you'll see some more. I also decided to grab a smattering of cards for trade bait. These are cards that I care nothing about but I know others value quite a bit. They are from that late '80s/early '90s period, and I'm not going to show them because I want to use them for when I think it's the right moment. But probably the most coveted one that I grabbed -- no, it's not the '89 Upper Deck Junior -- is this one: For those of you who ignore cards from this period, that's the 1990 Leaf Frank Thomas card. I have no connection to 1990 Leaf and very little int...

The last time I wrote a post, I led off with a Nolan Ryan card. The last time I wrote an Awesome Night Card post, the topic was no-hitters . And I'm showing a card I received from Johnny's Trading Spot for the second post in a row. I can repeat myself with the best of them. I'm showing this card basically because I've never seen it before and I am fascinated with it, mostly because it's taken me so long to find this particular night card. It contains a lot of things that I love in a card. It captures a moment in time -- Nolan Ryan's sixth no-hitter on June 11, 1990 against the A's. It shows a salute to the fans, a tip of the cap. It comes from that time when satin jackets were the height of cool. You can also see a scoreboard in the distance and that's awesome. And, of course, it all happened at night. The only dorky part is the lettering on the photo that says "No Hit KING". I don't know why "king" is all in caps and...

Since the Dodgers lost the World Series, I've received a handful of "pity packages" from thoughtful individuals. OK, I guess "care packages" sounds better. That's why they're called "care packages." Nobody wants your pity. But cards? Yeah, I'll take the cards. Recently I received one of my favorite kinds of card packages. Not only was it sent to help me get over "the Dodger blues," but also as thanks for writing the blog. This always warms my feathers, because even though I must write regardless of whether anyone's reading, it's still nice to know it's not just me yammering into the electric void. Jeff from Ohio sent a whole mess of Dodgers, many of which I had already because you have to stay up pretty late in the evening to sneak a Dodger card past me. But the best part of packages like this is the cards I unearth amid the 2008 Upper Deck and 1989 Score that slide right into my collection and make me so ha...

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...

I keep forgetting to report the results from the most recent "Define the Design" post. I know everyone has been waiting by the keyboard in anticipation, so I'll get this done so you can move on with your lives. Not a lot of time (again), so I'll go through it quick. In the previous "define" post I brought up card sets from 1989 and 1990 Classic, 1990 and 1993 Leaf, 1992 and 1993 Pinnacle, 1995 Pacific and 2000 Pacific Revolution. I named '93 Leaf, '93 Pinnacle and '95 Pacific already. I also named 1990 Classic. Several folks want me to name it after those ghastly pants from the early 1990s, Zubaz. Because of the colorful stripes. I agree there are similarities, but I refuse to recognize that affront to fashion. So I'm sticking with the "Saved By the Bell set." It's a much happier name from the same time period. Football players' and weightlifters' inability to dress themselves is maddening. But you...