Night Owl Cards

Yesterday, The Chronicles of Fuji asked readers whether they had a favorite old-time ballplayer who was not named Ruth, Gehrig, Young, Johnson, Cobb or Hornsby (he probably should have thrown Matthewson in there, too). I was temporarily stumped, as I admit I don't think of the players of the early 20th century all that much. Part of me wanted to say, "Zach Wheat" or "Jake Daubert" just because they were Dodgers -- or, actually, "Robins" -- but I don't know a lot about them, so I can't say they are my favorite old-timers. Then the mail arrived today and something in it made me scold myself: "Duh, of course! Bid McPhee!!" Bid McPhee is my favorite old-timer. Some of you may not know who King Bid is, even though he is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The item I received in the mail was another collectible from the present-day connection to TCMA, Andrew Aronstein. It is a commemorative Hall of Fame Induction Day env

A couple of years ago I received an email out of the blue from Michael Aronstein, the hobby pioneer who was the main figure behind all of those TCMA sets of the '70s and '80s that I love so much, the SSPC sets and, it turns out, even more. I sent a couple of emails in return but never received a response. It didn't bother me much. A hobby legend can respond to whomever he wants. I'm just one blog in the sea. It certainly didn't stop me from enjoying TCMA's cards or acquiring more of them. I'd like to acquire all of them. It is a completely unrealistic quest (if only because of that much coveted Rickey Henderson minor league card TCMA made) because of the sheer number of sets TCMA created. But you've got to have goals. Recently, I discovered Aronstein's son, Andrew, on social media. The other day we were chatting a bit on Twitter and I felt reconnected to those old TCMA sets all over again. It's clear that Andrew greatly respects his f

I grew up during the Topps monopoly. I was conditioned to wait for one set -- and one set only -- each year. I didn't mind. I didn't know any better, and I liked Topps' sets a lot. I was obsessed with them. And when other companies came along to challenge Topps, I considered them infiltrators. Topps was the one company truly qualified to produce baseball cards. But it's clear, even back then as a young adolescent, that subconsciously I wanted something more. This card of Mickey Mantle is the other item I received from Scott Crawford On Cards that I mentioned in the last post. Scott is the one who gifted me with the complete 1976 SSPC set that I will treasure forever (and I'm still attempting to catalog). A little while ago, he mentioned that there were some promo cards for this set, which I never knew. He said he had a Mantle that he could send me (the other promo cards are Hank Aaron, Catfish Hunter, Dave Kingman, Willie Mays and Tom Seaver). The pr

I received a care package from Commish Bob at The Five Tool Collector a couple of weeks ago. I think he's giddy about the O's being in the playoffs because with the exception of Andre here and a couple of others, the package was filled with oddballs! Here, take a look at this: It's a Korean night card! Woooooo! Please don't make me tell you more than that the card is from 2010. I have no time for research today. Also included was the 1989 Dodgers Police set, which is one of the team's police sets for which I didn't have a representative. Now I've got the whole thing! This set, of course, is important because it came out the year after the Dodgers won the World Series. So most of your favorite 1988 Dodgers are included. But since it came out in 1989, it tried to reflect the '89 Dodgers as much as possible. That's why there's a Willie Randolph card but not a Steve Sax card, because the '88 L.A. second baseman Sa

At card shows, dealers have different set-ups for their discount bins. They're based on price, or they're limited to just a certain span of years or brand of card, etc. But based on my experience, your general, average, run-of-the-mill discount bin contains an assortment of the following: beat-up cards from the 60s through 80s, 21st century cards of legends, failed Bowman prospects, random inserts and oddballs, and lots and lots and lots of cards of 1990s stars. Unfortunately, there were so many cards made in the '90s that no one could possibly place a premium on most of them. So, they get discounted, just so people can save themselves from the impending card avalanche. Caught in this unfortunate devaluation are cards of 1990s superstars. And probably the '90s star I see most often in discount bins is Mike Piazza. This is a crime. Piazza is too good to be discounted. If he was playing in the '70s or '80s, people would want 5 or 10 bucks for his common