Night Owl Cards

(Greetings on the last week of relative freedom in the workplace. After this week, it's the steady drumbeat of school sports until the end of June. And to think I thought I was done with this when I graduated from high school. Time for Cardboard Appreciation! This is the 261st in a series): This card is a piece of work. For starters, I'll bet Johnny could peg the shape of this shadow in his sleep. A Tyrannosaurus rex or a beetle maybe (sorry, I'm not very good at it). But there's something even more interesting than that. Steve Johnson is shown pitching for the Texas Rangers. And that is a boldfaced lie. Johnson never pitched for the Texas Rangers. Take a look at the transactions: He was released in spring training a month after he was signed. Three days later, the Mariners signed him. Yet, there he is in Series 2, pitching for the Texas Rangers. Now let's see the rest of Johnson's career transactions: That's a lot of packing and...

In honor of the official announcement Monday that Stephen Strasburg will be called up to the majors and start against the Pirates on June 8, I thought I'd actually go through with my threat of attempting to name some of the Bowman sets of the last 10 years. Strasburg, after all, is the face of 2010 Bowman, which should appear on shelves in my neighborhood by, oh, say Strasburg's fifth major league start. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in the original Define the Design post, those Bowman sets aren't easy to name. Even after opening it to suggestions, there weren't a lot of confident answers. I fully expected that. There is not a lot of design to define. But I will name three of them. I'm not married to any of them, so if something cool springs to mind, don't hesitate to let me know. If you didn't see the original post, go here . Maybe you have an idea on some of the other ones, too. OK, these three have names, and they're on the sidebar: 2003 Bo...

We here at Define the Design do not shy away from the tough questions. After all, anyone can come up with a descriptive set name for 1987 Topps or 1982 Donruss. Finding design answers for a few other sets is a lot more challenging. Score, when we get to it, will be a bear. Some of the Upper Deck sets out there are almost indefinable. And then there's Bowman. The early days of Bowman produced some memorable sets and nobody is going to have much trouble coming up with a name for some of those '50s cards. You plaster a giant wood-panel TV set on each card and you've named the set, too. Done and done. Even when Bowman returned in 1989, it at least made the look of its sets relatively different from year to year (1990 and 1991 excluded). The problem arises at the turn of the century. Here is the 2001 Bowman card. Bowman went with a very cool black-and-red design. You can't argue with black and red. It always looks great, as the Atlanta Falcons have shown for years. ...