Night Owl Cards

The Awesome Night Card series has slipped from a once-a-week staple to once-a-month to "has it really been five months since I've done one of these?" The future doesn't look good for the ANC series. It will always be a part of the rotation, because I'm still collecting night cards and you never know when one will suddenly strike my fancy so forcefully that I will be required to post it. But the days of seeing an ANC post even once a month are gone. And, you know, I think that's OK. I just don't have a lot to say anymore on today's ballplayers -- the primary topic of most night cards -- and could use a break in stressing my mind trying to "stay relevant" in the baseball world. I'll bet Josh Hamilton could say the same thing. He hasn't played since 2015. I just read a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that said Hamilton was supposed to show up for some Hall of Fame festivities down in Arlington this weekend, but he called

With all of the Topps tributes to itself over the last 15 years, I have no idea which original Topps design has reappeared the most. But if this were the 1980s, my guess would be the 1975 design. During the early '80s, as a budding collector becoming more and more aware of what was available in the hobby, I would see various '75 Topps style mockups in advertisements when companies were illustrating that they had cards for sale. And there were also actual sets that mimicked what Topps did in 1975. Plus, I distinctly remember one of those tiny ads that used to appear in Baseball Digest, saying "Your FACE on a baseball card!" and showing some unknown boy on the 1975 Topps design. In short,  the '75 Topps design was instantly memorable and iconic the moment it hit packs. And folks recognized it by paying homage. That has continued to this day, helped along by Topps' undying love for itself. But I won't complain, because the 1975 Topps set is my all-ti

One thing that Archives has over its second-tier set peers, like Gypsy Queen and Opening Day, is staying power. Although I've never liked the way Topps has approached or produced Archives, you can't help but analyze it if you are a veteran collector or a fan of history. And this is how Topps gets the word out. Collectors are going to talk about the set whether they enjoy it or not, because the set is tied to history and card collectors' histories. We think we know the way the cards should be because we hold those collecting memories close ... very close. More than most sets, Archives brings out not our love for baseball or a certain team or individual players, but our love for cards. That explains why we want to see this set succeed or -- if it can't match our appreciation for card history -- wither and die. And it explains why we get upset when Topps returns to the 1980 design, two years after it included the 1980 design in the first edition of Archives. B

This Wednesday, I will have been on Twitter for a year. It's gone a little better than the first time I was there. I think I've adjusted to the weirdness that is, and I've learned not to expect too much out of it. For me, the benefits outweigh the annoyances. But I'll be clear, if there is one thing that Twitter outlines over and over again, possibly even more than regular life does, it is this: "I don't get people." Twitter is filled with strange stuff: people saying harmful and shocking things just for the sake of doing so, people getting their panties bunched over the most pointless happenings. Twitter is life without a filter and that is still odd to me, but I have adjusted. But what I don't think I will ever get used to is the endless, endless, endless criticism tweets that come from certain very prominent fan sites. I try to follow the Twitter accounts of some team blogs because other fans do, they're popular, and I like to stay info

I'm considered a rational, level-headed sort both here and in everyday life. That's good to know, because there are many times when I don't feel rational or level-headed. In fact, I've been known to "go off" periodically. If I see something I don't like or something gets me frustrated, I won't hold back. While that's probably healthy, it can cause trouble, and it did a couple of days ago. I was reading a post late at night from Cardboard Junkie in which he spelled out his mission statement on collecting Heritage. I enjoyed the posts and could relate to them because I have a love-hate thing going on with Heritage. But when I read the first post, I began to feel aggravation with Heritage and Topps and what they had done to this poor set-collector who loved the brand so much but couldn't collect it in the traditional way because of the stupid tinkering that Topps does with the set. Although his post wasn't bashing Heritage for this, it