Night Owl Cards

  I posted this card on my 1993 Upper Deck blog yesterday . If you're in the habit of reading that blog maybe you missed it as blogger just got around to getting it on the reader list nearly a day after I uploaded it.   When I wrote it, I noted that the shot of Navarro yelling was a precursor to the cards of today, in which it seems there's a guy shouting in every pack. And just to be sure, I checked the 1993 UD cards I've already posted and at card No. 237, it's the first yelling shot in the set.   I didn't check the rest of the set but I'd be surprised if there are more than five cards of guys shouting in the set. It's definitely a more modern thing.   As someone who grew up in the '70s and also someone who recoils at the thought of drawing attention to myself, the performative yelling that pro athletes do is still foreign and unnecessary to me. I'm a quiet guy, mostly, who doesn't mind sitting by myself in the quiet -- in fact, I prefer it. I ...

   Here's part 2 of my ranking of the Topps flagship sets. In this post I am including the sets issued in the last 10 years' time, 11 sets in all.   The more recent sets don't fare very well as you could probably guess. But one gets close to the top 20, and if you know me, you could guess that one, too.   When I ranked the sets the last time there were 64 to rank. Now there are 75. I'm not going through all the rankings again with all the commentary this time. Instead I'll show the recent sets and list where they placed.   Here we go:   75. 2021   There's a new bottom. 1996 is no longer bringing up the rear. 2021 Topps is awful. I know this is the pandemic set and Topps was doing what it could to work with photos with no fans and weird camera angles, but it wasn't the right call. The razor slashes infringe on the photo, like they're poking the player. Worst of all, the names are impossible to read, maybe the smallest in history -- I'd have to compare...