Night Owl Cards

Among my favorite kinds of night cards are the ones in which a card company was forced to use a photo from a night game because the game was one of the only chances it had to feature that player in his new uniform. This often happened with late-season acquisitions, and it often happened in the early '90s when it was important to feature a player in his new uniform, avoiding airbrushing at all costs, but also when taking pictures during daylight hours was still ritual. Alejandro Pena was acquired from the Mets in late August of 1991, leaving Donruss just a month of the regular season to get a photo of him in a Braves uniform. Fortunately for Donruss, the Braves reached the World Series that year, so they had the whole postseason, too. And, so, unlike several other 1992 Donruss cards, the picture on the card matches the team listing on the card. A game at night saves the day. This card also serves as a nifty lead-in for the final results of the Biggest Improvement and Bi...

It wasn't easy coming up with five "busts" and five "improvements" for Donruss. Everyone seems to have a different opinion with Donruss, much more so than Topps or Upper Deck. That's cool. More '84 Donruss for me. But on the other hand, I don't want to see how some of you dress your kids. The choices were all over the place for both categories. In fact, there was a four-way tie for biggest improvement. So there will be six choices for the "biggest improvement," instead of five. Unfortunately, the sixth improvement to get in -- 1984 to 1985 -- doesn't have a fancy comparison picture in this post yet because J.T. cast his vote after I had already tallied the votes and scanned the cards. So you'll just half to imagine the '84 card next to the '85 card and giggle over how anyone could say that '84 Donruss could be improved. ( EDIT:  I've updated the post with the 84-85 comparison) OK, here are the candidates b...

Hey! It's Harold Reynolds again! This is not a repeat. This is post number 2,001. I republished this card both as a reminder to enter the contest and as a lead-in to my next judging fiesta, namely, figuring out the biggest improvement and bust in the history of Donruss. I don't think Donruss has as avid a following as the previous two brands we've compared, Topps and Upper Deck. I know I'm not crazy about many of the sets that Donruss produced over the years. My personal Donruss favorites are 1984 and 1985. Plus, 1981 has sentimental value. I kind of like 1995, too. And 1988 and 1989 are actually growing on me. The rest you can put in a big boiling pot of ick. The ones I don't like in the least are 1986, 1991, 1992 and 1996. I think I've mentioned before that 1986 horrified me from the moment I saw it and prevented me from buying any of it. I know I've mentioned before that if Fisher Price were to make card sets, they would look like 1991 Donr...