Night Owl Cards

(Hi folks. I'm two work days away from vacation! It's all I'm thinking about. So let's get on with this so I can think about it some more! Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 353rd in a series):    I don't remember how I discovered this Hideo Nomo card -- probably wandering on ebay at some point -- but when I did, I could feel myself jump in my chair from astonishment.   What? Hideo Nomo is back in Topps products?? When did this happen?   Nomo is one of my favorite players to collect -- ever. There are lots of past posts about that. But he hasn't shown up in cards pretty much since he retired. Outside of some faceless Leaf relic cards a few years ago -- and those really aren't cards -- there's been nothing. Lots of Ichiro and, lordy, too much Hideki Matsui, but no Nomo.   Obviously I had to have this card and I jumped on it. And I was giddy when it arrived. I showed it off so proudly (and I've been doing less of that lately). But something a...

    This is my 5,000th post on Night Owl Cards. I've been aware that this moment was coming for months, yet I'm not prepared at all. I've kind of run out of things to say on milestone posts. I'll always know when a milestone is near, I'm not one to forget stuff like that. But the risk of acknowledging them all is they start to lose some meaning.   Still, 5,000 is a lot, and like Nolan Ryan's 5,000-plus strikeouts, I don't know many others who have reached such a total when it comes to writing about sports cards on a blog. This is the only blog that I know that wrote as many (way more in fact). Perhaps there are others.   I've reached 5,000 because, as I've said many times before, I enjoy writing and I enjoy baseball cards. There is almost nothing to me that is more interesting or worthwhile than this. If that wasn't the case, I would've wrapped up the blog by now. In fact, I'd think you'd be a fool to throw something like this away. ...

OK, here we are, 1990 Topps. I've delayed this long enough. In this series, where I find the best card for each team for sets that I have completed, I have tried to go in order from the most recent set I've completed to the oldest sets I've completed. While this series is ongoing, I've completed other sets, so I go back and pick up those sets before moving on to the next oldest one. But I completed 1990 Topps awhile ago, and I haven't gone back. I've been avoiding it. It's not really because I don't like it. I'm kind of over that now. As the years have gone on, I've looked closer at the set and appreciate it more, specifically the attempt to make the cards look like panels in a comic book. But I don't think many people see the set like I do. I agree some of the cards don't look good at all, too many weird colors clashing, I've thought that since I first saw the cards in 1990. And viewing the cards together, in a binder fo...

I've heard a little bit of preseason speculation that the Reds could be the team to beat in the NL Central this year. Given the Reds' perpetual fifth-place finishes the last several years, that seems like very optimistic speculating. But I can see it a little. The Reds have been active in the offseason and nobody knows exactly how good the Cardinals and Brewers will be. The Cubs seem to be declining and the Pirates determined to fight the Marlins, Tigers and Orioles for the worst, smelliest team of 2020. It would be the perfect time for the Reds to compete. If you haven't noticed, the Reds seem to do particularly well when a year ends in zero. This year is the 30th anniversary of the Reds' World Series championship against the A's in 1990. It's also the 50th anniversary of the first Big Red Machine trip to the World Series when the Reds fell to the Orioles in 1970. And it is the 80th anniversary of the Reds' World Series title in 1940. The Reds al...

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...

Not too long ago I received yet another stack of cards from my Twitter friend Chris. It was in response to my announcement that I'm trying to complete the 1984 Fleer set. Then, maybe a week or so after that, I received another group of cards from him. It was in response to my announcement that I was nine cards short of completing the 1990 Topps set. I sure do wish people in my everyday life were as responsive to what I say. So, let's get the 1990 Topps cards out of the way first. There you go. 1990 Topps is officially complete. You never have to see a 1990 Topps card on my blog again. Although you probably will. Ever since I mentioned that I was about to complete Topps baseball sets from 1974-91 (and have now done it), I've gotten offers from people to help me get jump-started on 1992 Topps or some other early '90s thing. Yech. I have no intention of trying to complete those sets. (Maybe 1992. Maybe). If you want to help me extend the timeline send me ...