Night Owl Cards

It's All-Star Game time again. I'm pretty sure I've watched just about every one since 1976. Several, around the mid-to-late '90s and early 2000s are lost in the recesses of my aging mind. But I know I watched them because the All-Star Game has always been an occasion in this house. It is an excuse to celebrate baseball and the summer and the easy life. If you're baseball fan, I don't know why you'd actively shun that. I know the kid in me would never forgive myself if I skipped it. So I try to remember that kid even while they have needlessly tinkered with the All-Star Game for decades now. Part of my ASG ritual the last few years -- along with buying special food and drink that I particularly like --  has been writing a post that focuses on the ASG ritual. The ideas are getting short these days, but this year I thought I'd focus on one ASG tradition from back when I was collecting as a kid: Topps' All-Star Game logo. For me, that logo ...

I've never been a star-chaser. I don't stand in lines for autographs or thrust balls at famous people to sign. I don't go to Broadway shows, tour Hollywood homes, or even watch many movies. As for cards, I think I established the kind of collector I am way back when. I don't need a map to the stars. Star cards are only slightly more interesting than "common" cards, and I'd rather have a card of that forgotten long reliever than a second card of an all-star. But we don't live in that collecting world anymore and haven't for some time. I'm going to go ahead and blame Fleer's SuperStar Specials. OK, that's a little unfair. Fleer didn't activate the star-worshipping that we now know all by itself. It had partners in crime in Donruss, Upper Deck, Topps, Sportflics, Score, etc. And before I get too high on the horse, I'll remind everyone that my beloved Kellogg's 3-D Super Stars was almost nothing but star players. Bu...