Night Owl Cards

I've run this card blog longer than most, and the longer it goes, the more difficult it is coming up with original topics. I am all too well aware of when I'm repeating myself, and also too well aware that sometimes I don't know when I'm repeating myself. There are just some topics that I should never discuss again. And I'm going to do something about it by occasionally writing a series of posts called "I will never write about this again". One of those topics is my four-year foray into fantasy baseball in the mid-1990s. I don't need to write about this again. I was terrible. It was a long time ago and the rules have changed vastly. It's time to let it go. The reason I haven't let it go until now is that I'm forever trying to remember what players were on my fantasy team during those years (1993-96). I finally did a little research and figured out most of them. I am going to list them here now so I will have this for posterity an...

I don't know who first called the decade of my youth "Super," but it seems to be the default alliterative term for the 10 years from 1970-79 for a host of music compilations, retro websites and Twitter feeds, nostalgic books and news special retrospectives. The Super '70s don't seem all that super when you compare it with decades that followed. The 1980s, in particular, seemed to be all about Bigger and More. But there is no alliteration to "Super Eighties". And also, Topps didn't issue a set called "Topps Super" in the 1980s. To kick off the "Me Decade" (no alliteration in that one either), Topps issued special sets in 1970 and 1971 called "Topps Super". The cards lived up to the name. They were almost twice the height of a typical card and they were thicker than almost anything issued before and most things since. The thickness was a selling point to Topps as it pointed out the trait on the box -- extra thi...

If you're one of the many suckers (of which I am one) wasting their time on Twitter, then you know that I've answered the 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge on that particular social media forum. I completed the entire list just yesterday and missed only one day, I think. Not bad, considering I was out of town on vacation for five of the days. But now that the task is done, I think recapping the entire thing would make for a decent blog post. Twitter is not for posterity. This blog is. Also,  Tony L.'s challenge covered some well-worn territory on this blog, but there are a few days that could use more explaining than is possible on Twitter. So if you're not on Twitter, here is the full list. If you are, well, ignore it like it's a trade post. Night Owl's 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 1: A card from the current year that you like The older I get, the more I want baseball cards to amuse me, like they did when I was a kid. There is precious l...

I received enough of a push recently -- from three different directions -- to officially drop the green flag on starting my completion quest for the 1973 Topps set. The first push came when I completed the 1972 Topps set. No other set to get in my way now. The second push came when I lost my want lists. The rehaul now includes the 1973 Topps set and, man, I may have made a wrong call including names with all of the numbers! If that angry mass of text intimidates you and keeps you from sending me anything ever again, I completely understand. The final push came when I received a package in the mail from the mystery sender again. Last year I received a couple cards from him and then now this package that mostly included some 1973s. He apparently completed the '73 set already and was nice enough to send a few extras my way, but I don't know if I believe any of this because there's no name with the note he sent and no return address. Really, I don't mind if you ...