Night Owl Cards

(Today is the start of the 35th World Series that I have watched since I became a baseball fan. For awhile there, it was the high point of my year. But ever since I started working in the sports department, at night, it's been just another obstacle toward deadline. Which is why I'm looking forward to Game 3 and 4 this weekend. I'll get to see all of each game and appreciate the Series for what it is. The best spectacle in sports. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 122nd in a series): Max didn't just send me the 1973 Topps Ron Cey card (a.k.a. the Mike Schmidt Rookie Card). He sent me the complete 1981 Topps Traded set, what I consider to be the first traded set (don't give me that '72, '74, '76 mumbo jumbo). I've coveted this set since I was a teenager. I've already mentioned that I was a year late to the party, ordering up the '82 Traded set (a.k.a. The Ripken Rookie Set) instead. The '81 Traded set has been one of my man...

Alright, I've been threatening to do this for months, so I finally had an hour to kill and went through my cards to find 20 bespectacled candidates for "The Best Glasses in the History of Baseball Cards, the Sequel." The last countdown was Topps only. That didn't seem very fair to me. So I'm doing another countdown of non- Topps cards to see if the claim still holds up: does Kent Tekulve have the best glasses in the history of baseball cards?" He easily won last time, against what was probably much tougher competition. My non- Topps cards only go back to 1981, so there are none of the wacky frames from the '60s and '70s to challenge Tekulve . Also, I limited it to 20 players, instead of the 25 I went with the first time. I realize that no glasses countdown is complete without this card . But I don't have it, so as far as this countdown is concerned it doesn't exist. On with the countdown. Hope you enjoy it as much as the first: 20. Jeff ...

Well, the best glasses in the history of MY baseball cards, anyway. Often I receive a comment on a previous post that inspires yet another post. That's a pretty standard blogger phenomenon, I think. And that's what happened when Patricia of Dinged Corners left the following comment on my post about the 1981 Topps Kent Tekulve card: "KT wore the best glasses in the history of baseball cards." Wait, is that a challenge? Game on! I'm a sucker for "the best" and "the worst." I love lists and all of that ranking nonsense. Did KT really wear the best glasses in the history of baseball cards? I went right to my collection to find out. What I came up with was the best 25 glasses cards. Unfortunately, I'm lacking a ton of cards from the '60s, so there are no horned-rim beauties on this list. One day, after I win the lottery, I'll buy up every set from the '60s and assemble every card of horned-rim wearers as if they are in the stands a...