Night Owl Cards

(Hello on National Blueberry Day. I grew up in a family that required the children to toil at "u-pick-'em" farms. I wasn't a fan. But to this day, I know the best time to pick/buy certain fruits and vegetables. Strawberries, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, corn, tomatoes, apples, in that order. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 259th in a series): Sometimes Twitter gives me a little nudge when writing posts. I have had this card sitting in my scan folder for more than a year with a plan to write about it. Then, the card was brought up yesterday and that was my cue. To me, this card represents the center of the stolen base era. It is not the most notable stolen base moment. It doesn't show Rickey Henderson or Lou Brock or Tim Raines. Heck, the achievement Topps is celebrating in the 1981 set isn't even a record anymore. But it gives you a snapshot of just how prevalent the stolen base was from the 1960s through the 1980s. Two pl...

This is one of the coolest cards in the 1978 Topps set. Certainly the coolest Seattle Mariners card in the 1978 Topps set. It exudes cool, possibly in a way only a kid from the '70s or '80s can understand. You see, once upon a time, the stolen base was for the hipster kids. While more young fans gravitated toward home runs, considerably few marveled at the artistry of base stealing. I was one of those few. For me, there was no one more ice cool in the '70s and '80s than Davey Lopes, Ron LeFlore, Cesar Cedeno, Lou Brock, Frank Taveras, Willie Wilson, Rickey Henderson, Omar Moreno, Tim Raines and Julio Cruz. But base stealers didn't operate in obscurity then. They stole so many bases that you had to notice them --even if you liked home runs better. Even Don Baylor -- DON BAYLOR -- stole 52 bases one year. That's a list of my heroes right there. Mike Schmidt? Dave Kingman? Reggie Jackson? Sure, I liked a good home run, too. But I spent most of my ti...