Night Owl Cards

(Have you ever stood in line in the rain for the opening of a new Olive Garden? Neither have I. Yet, it happened where I live. I was dying to go up to each person and ask them why they were there. Here is to "thinking things through." This is Cardboard Appreciation. It's the 111th in a series): As a major league baseball fan, I am done "wishing." Here is what I mean by that: The Dodgers have this guy in their bullpen named Jonathan Broxton. He's a big guy from Georgia. He's an ox. How can you not like the fact that an ox plays for your team? We've got an ox in our bullpen. He's gigantic and throws close to 100 and can obliterate the hitter. He's ours and not yours. He seems like a likable guy, too. I like him anyway. And because I like him, I really want him to do well. He should do well because I like him. But it doesn't work that way. I've known that for some time now. When I was a kid, I liked players for no reason at ...

Black is beautiful. For a long time, only the Raiders knew this. They were the only sports team that featured black as a primary uniform color. But eventually other teams, like the Pirates, Penguins and Giants, began to display black more prominently. Then expansion teams like the Rockies, Marlins, Jaguars and Panthers, made black part of their color scheme from the very start. Soon, established teams like the Reds, Mets, Blue Jays and Royals adopted black for the first time in their history, and there was no going back. Black was here to stay. So it was with sports cards. 1971 Topps was a breakthrough. 1986 Topps less so, but still very noticeable. But no one dared to use black prominently on the BACK until 1992 Pinnacle. As someone who enjoys night cards, gravitates toward the night hours and night time events, this was one of the coolest happenings in all of cards. This was Pinnacle's debut, and it made an impact right away. I loved the backs. They featured a col...