Night Owl Cards

I'm sure you've heard the old cliche that professional baseball players are men playing a boy's game. They're getting good money for it, too. The older I get, the more I wonder why I'm still paying attention to these guys, running around the field, swatting at a tiny horsehide ball, looking ridiculous in their lettered pajamas. Isn't this stuff for kids? Yet here I am, still captivated by both the game and another "kids' pursuit" -- baseball card collecting. All three of those aspects -- baseball, card collecting and kids -- have come together every few years in a Topps card set devoted to current ballplayers' childhood photos. They've arrived with different titles -- "Boyhood Photos of the Stars" or "When They Were Young" -- but each are the same: a large photo of the player as a kid, a small inset of the current player as he is now, and a write-up on the back about his childhood of playing baseball. However,...