Card numbers for commons: 53

 

This is the 5,300th post for Night Owl Cards. It's amazing to me that I've churned out that many posts. I'm fully aware how long I've been doing this, but when I see a number like that, I think "isn't that enough?"

But I'm not a quitter ... at least not yet. The brain is always thinking about future posts, in fact the rest of this week, maybe early next week is sort of mapped out, although I never write posts in advance.

For today I thought I'd return to my Card Numbers for Commons series. I don't have a lot of time and this should be fairly quick. There is no card No. 5300, unless you're Upper Deck's Yankee Stadium Legacy, so I'm reviewing card No. 53.

For those new to the series, this is where I work off the old template that only star players received card numbers ending in "0" or "5" and the rest of the numbers were handed to mere commons. What gold could I find in those common numbers?

That's not much the case anymore. You can find any great card you want at any number you want, which makes this series irrelevant I guess, but that's never stopped me!

So here are five cards at No. 53 that I own and then five cards at No. 53 that I'd like to own. The cards that I own used to be 10 cards long but, again, no time.

 

OK, first the five No. 53 cards I have:

1987 Topps - Ruppert Jones

I've always liked this card. I thought the photo was unique back in the late '80s but I've been reminded by 2023 Heritage that it's not unique at all. The 1974 Topps set features this image on a few cards and they're all great.

1975 Topps mini - Dave Giusti

Is there a more in-your-face display that a card photo is out of date than this card? (Yeah, I know, 1982 Donruss Carl Yastrzemski). The Pirates wore a rectangular black strip in memory of Roberto Clemente in spring training 1973, one full year before most photos for the '75 Topps were taken.

1993 Upper Deck - Lethal Lefties, Teammates subset

I probably shouldn't say much about this as it will appear on my 1993 Upper Deck blog in the next couple of months. But it's too good, a great take on UD's multi-exposure photos except using three different pitchers, Mark Langston, Jim Abbott and Chuck Finley.

1986 Topps - Len Dykstra

I love cards of players that clearly were inserted into the set with absolutely no expectations, therefore the common-card number. But the year Dykstra's rookie card appeared, he became a household name thanks to the Mets winning the World Series.

1978 Topps - Phil Garner

Here is another card of a player that appeared the year before he played in the World Series. This card is one of the many double-prints in the '78 set, which means it was very easy to find (trust me, I experienced it). But unlike many of those other double-prints (looking at you Jose Baez), I didn't mind getting more than one Garner. It's a cool card.

OK, now here are five cards numbered 53 that should be in my collection.

2017 Stadium Club - Anthony Rizzo

Aside from Rizzo's athletic feat (great picture), the second-best part of this photo is the importance of wearing the right T-shirt to the ballpark. The one dude's Batman shirt puts everyone else's T-shirt to shame, especially that dude in the orange.

1987 Fleer - Jose Cruz

Second straight Wrigley Field photo (it won't be the last). The '87 Fleer set is one of the few '80s sets where I haven't seen every image. This one is very Fleer. Why so much empty space on the left? Why is the bat cut off (yes, I know '87 Fleer did that)? It's odd and it's also interesting. Don't change a thing.

1953 Bowman Color - Del Rice

The way I search for cards that I don't have is merely by firing up COMC and entering whatever number I'm featuring. As you can imagine, card numbers less than 100 can be a pain because, for example, "53" will produce every single "1953," too.

I don't want to filter out the 1953s because great stuff like this was produced at that number. What I would like to filter out is all the Bowman cards that are not '50s Bowman that pop up. Good gracious, so many people trying to get rid of their meaningless Bowmans.

 

1996 Stadium Club - Jim Bullinger

There's our other Wrigley Field shot. It's a beauty. I highly recommend that card companies do this with every stadium every year.

1953 Topps - Sherman Lollar

I've shown this card before, it keeps popping up on my "Sometimes I'm a Numbers Guy ..." posts. It's one of the best examples of a card that shares a number -- or part of a number -- with the year in which it came out.

So, that's all I have for you for post No. 5300. By the way, the Paul Blair card at the top of the post is also No. 53. I have that one.