Night Owl Cards

By 1993, even dumb ol' me was waking up to the idea that the old collecting model wasn't going to work anymore. I couldn't possibly collect everything that was on store shelves at this rate. The objective every year since I started in 1975 -- find wax packs at stores, buy them -- was a solid purchasing model for years and years. But by the late 1980s, I couldn't keep up with all the sets out there and a lot of times I didn't care, and even in the years when I did try to buy them all, say 1991 and 1992, I was reaching the realization that this was stupid. So, in '93, I went into the collecting season with my eyes wide open. I would collect only what I knew or what appealed to me. And this is how the year went: Find Topps, buy Topps. Find Fleer, buy a little bit but I didn't really like it. Find Donruss, buy a little bit but I didn't really like that either. Find Score -- but it wasn't easy -- and buy it. Find Upper Deck and ... Holy smoke...

I'm getting to that age where I start losing memories of entire years. That sounds like something is terribly wrong with me, but I think it's just me getting old. For example, 1993. I remember where I was living, where my job was, and some people I knew at the time. I remember that I became immersed in alternative rock music of the time -- Smashing Pumpkins, Cracker, the Breeders, Belly, etc. I remember Mitch Williams' gopher ball to Joe Carter. And I remember it was the year I changed my card habits in a major way and shunned all other brands for Upper Deck. As for the rest of the year, I'd have to do some research and look through some pictures. But I fear the small moments and nuances from the year, which I have down to sight, taste and smell for, say, 1977, are probably lost forever. That means I have to guess on some stuff that I actually lived through, llike why is Dave Fleming the cover boy on 1993 Pinnacle? Isn't that the same high-hat Mariner tha...