Night Owl Cards

  The topic of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading And Bubble Gum Book came up again on the socials today.   It seems to be a repeated topic around this time of year. Maybe people received that book for Christmas as kids, or want it for Christmas. I got it for Christmas about 12 years ago.   So, I thought I'd trot out the book again and update a post from two years ago, when I went through the book to find how many cards in my collection are showcased in the book.   Two years ago I determined there are 243 card images in the book that I have. (I also added the five cards on the front to make 248 but those cards are repeated inside, so that was an error on my part). And I determined I had 48 of the cards shown. I went through the book again today and totaled 50 cards in the book that I have, so I've added two since. However, I'm pretty sure that I didn't own these three since I did the count the last time. So either I over-counted the last time or I'm...

( Programming note: My printer/scanner is officially fighting with my computer. They're not speaking at all, and I don't see a peaceful resolution. This means that without an ability to scan, blog posts are going to dry up soon. I have maybe two or three thoughts worth posting here and then it will be a desperate attempt to pull something out of the draft folder, which isn't very deep. Then, when I am so guilt-ridden over the crap I'm producing out of there, it will go silent here at NOC for a little while. That also means anyone who has sent or will send me stuff, will wait awhile before you see it here. As for the two set blogs -- '71 and '85 -- I am instantly regretting that I didn't scan cards in advance as I did with the '75 blog. You'll have to wait for those to restart again. On the good side, this will allow me to make a more concerted effort to send out cards. I'm way behind again. And ... oh, yeah .. there's that thing called l...

Here is another set that I believe has one of the more memorable card backs in the countdown, despite it's rather primitive makeup. It may not be fancy or packed with information, but it stands out regardless. When I think of the card backs of the old Bowman cards, the 1955 card back is what my mind processes first. I'm not sure why, but those card backs appeal to me, almost as much as Bowman's television fronts. The backs feature the usual information. Vital stats. Career stats and stats from the last year. I like the color scheme as it seems to continue the theme of the front of the cards -- something that didn't become common in card collecting until the 1990s. But for me, the best part of the backs are the personal stories featured on many of the '55 Bowman cards. This particular card has a recounting of the best pitcher Stan Lopata ever saw. This card reveals the best hitter that Fred Baczewski ever saw. That must have been awesome as a kid collect...