Night Owl Cards

(Good evening. How's your bracket doing? OK, now TELL IT TO SOMEONE WHO CARES. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 269th in a series): An important anniversary in the trading card world came and went last year without a mention. Last year was the 60th anniversary of Topps first issuing trading cards in what is now the standard 2.5-by-3.5-inch format. Prior to 1957, Topps' main set each year was 2-5/8 by 3-3/4. And there were all kinds of other measurements from other card publishers. Bowman came to match Topps' 2-5/8-by-3-3/4 model by 1953 but prior to that, it was issuing 2-by-just-a-shade-over-3-inch jobbies. And before that, Bowman cards were 2-by-2 1/2. Play Ball made 2-1/2-by-3-1/8 cards. But when Topps downsized its set to 2 1/2-by-3 1/2, the whole hobby fell into line. It leads me to conclude that it's the perfect size. How could I not think that? For 60 years, nothing has changed. The flagship set and just about every other set i...