Night Owl Cards

  I don't know why I get so obsessed with time appropriateness when it comes to baseball cards. I guess I do it with music, too. I can't stand it when Alexa or some other programmed entity responds to orders to play '70s music and then six songs in you hear "Jessie's Girl".   I've pointed it out in passing on several blog posts and it's been the subject of a few others. Usually it's related to retro sets. Upper Deck was a big violator when it was putting out baseball cards. One of my favorite UD sets is the UD Decade '70s set from 2001, but it contains a bunch of time-inappropriate photos.   That is 1960s Tom Seaver, not 1970s Seaver.   But Topps isn't immune either and again it shows up in one of my favorite retro sets, All-Time Fan Favorites. Just one example:   Rollie Fingers was not in full mustachio mode at this point when the 1973 design made its appearance.   These missed connections continue to this day and I came across another one...

My favorite thing to do right now is discover music that is new to me. Last night, I came across the Steely Dan song "Showbiz Kids" for the first time in my life. This is a bit embarrassing to admit because I grew up listening to Steely Dan on the radio. I know all of their hits. I know some of their less-familiar songs. I have the track list of "Aja" memorized. But I'm not a Steely Dan super-fan, which means I don't own many of their albums and also that allows me to make cool discoveries like " Showbiz Kids " nearly 50 years after it came out. Discoveries among the old and familiar are the best. That goes for cards, too. Sometimes. I have known that there are "variations" for 1991 Donruss cards for quite awhile, probably even before I started reading card blogs and getting involved in the online hobby community. I was always able to ignore these "differences." It seemed a bit ridiculous to be chasing differ...