Night Owl Cards

As I continue to gather stamped buybacks of 1975 Topps cards, my enthusiasm for the quest ebbs and flows. Oh, I'm always enjoying it, without a doubt. I am thrilled that I've found an interesting way to continue to collect the first set I ever bought in packs as a 9-year-old, and long after I've completed the actual 1975 Topps set and the mini version. But sometimes I still wonder why I'm doing this, mostly when I see the outrageous prices some demand for these buyback cards, when the same unstamped version -- you know, the actual card not marred by a foil stamp -- goes for much cheaper. How in the world does that make sense? But other times, my zeal is through the roof. That's when the '75 buybacks are arriving rapidly and the players depicted are more than your average commons. Recently, I received some 1975 buybacks from Sportlots. Their assortment isn't as vast as COMC (that goes for most everything actually), but I usually can find stuff on S...

I'm taking a break from the big box of cards from Jonathan to conduct a little thinking exercise inspired by Fuji's post from yesterday. Fuji, as he often does, asked a question at the end of the post related to the team he was featuring, the Angels. He asked, "When you think of the Angels, who are the first players that come to mind?" I actually read it as "first player -- no 's' -- to come to mind." And the first player that flashed into my mind was none other than bad-ass-'70s-hurler Frank Tanana. From the comments on Fuji's post, I was the only one who picked Tanana. I get that. I'm older than a lot of bloggers. But I wear it as a badge of pride. I'd much rather think of Tanana first than someone like Tim Salmon. Tim Salmon? When I think of Tim Salmon my brain goes blank. What else is there? With Tanana you have flaming strikeouts and cool mustaches and epic carousing and Foghat playing in the background when you look at...

Every day is a good day for baseball cards, but there are some that are better than others. This is one of them. I don't know if it's the sudden arrival of summer here in the Northeast or just that July has always been the most spectacular month out of the year, but I can't help but notice how many players with cool baseball cards were born this very day. Let's take Moises Alou, for instance. This 1992 Stadium Club card of his has always been a favorite, one of my go-to cards from the entire set. Alou is a '90s player so you can always find something notable on a card for him, but this one is clearly the best: Montreal Expos uniform. Red Montreal Expos uniform. Montreal Expos helmet. The bluest sky ever. The chain link fence. Get me to a baseball game, stat! How about another '90s guy? Greg Vaughn was also born today. Again, we're' fishing in the 1992 pond, a terrible year in many ways, but for baseball cards the hobby was starting to dig o...

My guess is that everyone who came of age near the end of a decade has experienced this. But this is my story, and it revolves around Frank Tanana. As a child of 10, 11, 12, I thought many of my cards were cool. Those cards featured players in action. Ralph Garr in 1975, Mike Schmidt in 1976, Bob Tolan in 1977. They also featured players with mustaches. Ron Cey in '75, Bob Grich in '76, Al Oliver in '78. I would sit in my bedroom, or in the back patio, or on my friend's porch and shuffle, stack and stare at the cards from the mid-to-late '70s. My greatest concern, other than schoolwork, the jerky neighbor kid, or making too much noise in the house, was where I could find my next pack. With nothing to clog my brain, I could evaluate which cards were the height of cool. And this 1977 Topps Frank Tanana card was the pinnacle. This blog is not complete without a detailed dissection of everything that is great about this card. First, let's consider Tanan...

I am convinced that when I am a night owl of advanced years, living at the friendly, neighborhood old folks home, losing bits of my memory every day, my knowledge of baseball card minutiae will be the last to go. I probably won't retain much in those days. My daughter's married name? Gone. My favorite foods? Gone. But I will still remember Phil Garner's reverse negative 1982 Donruss card and Glenn Hubbard's '84 Fleer snake photo. Another example of that steel trap collector's memory exhibited itself as I was sorting the 1981 Topps Traded set (yes, I'm still writing about this thing). As I mentioned before, the vast majority of the cards in this set are all new to me. I've never seen the cards before. But then I came across this card of Bill Fahey, a career-long backup catcher for a variety of teams. "Wait a minute," I thought. "I've seen this card before. I've seen this photo before. Did Topps repeat Fahey's card?" ...