shining that blue light special on the 1982 kmart box set, part 2

continuing with the second half of the set that, in my opinion, kicked off the retail box set craze of the 1980's, here's the checklist

which was printed on the back of the box, and here's the first half of the cards. 

i should note that the set i bought recently did not have the stick of gum in it. 

we are now firmly entrenched in the part of the set that features images of cards for which i now own the actual cards. back in 1982, this set was the first time i owned any version of many of these players' cards.

1972 - rich allen and johnny bench

with allen just missing out on being included in the 1978 topps set, i wasn't too familiar with him. i was just moving towards becoming a team collector around 1982, so i knew he had a dodger card in 1971 and was confused as to why the club would not have kept a guy who turned out to be an mvp right after leaving the dodgers. as for bench, i was well aware of his excellence thanks to his all-star shield on his 1978 topps card as well as the reds being a nl west rival to the dodgers.

1973 - reggie jackson and pete rose

these two players may well have been the first non-dodgers that i was acutely aware of. they were big deals in 1978, 5 years after they were the mvp's of their respective leagues. i bought a 1973 topps reggie jackson card as part of my a's team set building that coincided with billy ball, and i still have that card in my collection today.

1974 - jeff burroughs and steve garvey

whoop whoop! having garvey as part of this set made me extremely happy. his card is the only one in the set that is in landscape format which isn't the best for the set's design, but i am glad that topps stayed true to the design and didn't rotate it, like they did with miguel cabrera's card in 2024 topps heritage. gross. i will also note that i held burroughs in high esteem thanks to his appearance in this set. he was the mvp for sure, but now i know that a bunch of more deserving players from the a's like joe rudi, sal bando, reggie, and catfish hunter split the vote.

1975 - fred lynn and joe morgan

by the time this card was issued, i was a big fan of lynn. he was with the angels now, and big things were expected thanks to his exploits in boston. this card also marks the second instance of a card that didn't really exist, joining the 1962 maury will card. lynn was featured on a 4-in-1 rookie card in the 1975 topps set, so kudos to topps for expanding the image used for lynn's rookie card and creating an individual card for this set. i wish they would have remembered that they did this when they were working on 2024 heritage.

morgan was also a favorite of mine, thanks to his being a second baseman and having had that all-star shield on his 1978 topps card. by the end of the 1982 season, however, i was less enthralled with little joe as his three-run homer in the last game of the season knocked the dodgers out of playoff contention.

1976 - thurman munson and joe morgan

for the second year in a row, the mvp's represent the respective pennant winners, and for the second year in a row, joe morgan is featured. munson is certainly a tragic figure and seeing the "home" text replaced with the date of his death was a stark reminder of the plane crash that took his life. 

1977 - rod carew and george foster

a .388 average and 52 home runs were certainly mvp-worthy stats in 1977, and i was more than familiar with these achievements from carew and foster, respectively, thanks to the 1978 topps set. three straight years of reds' players winning the mvp, and five out of six, shows how strong the big red machine was back then.

1978 - jim rice and dave parker

now we're talkin'! 1978 was the first full season that i followed, and i followed both of these players in the box scores daily. i've added both of these cards to my 1978 topps "master" set, and i was reminded in doing so that topps basically used this card design for the turn back the clock cards that were in the flagship sets from 1986 through 1990. i think i may have just decided on another subset series to complete (even though i have all of these cards in my complete set run). 

1979 - don baylor and keith hernandez and willie stargell

kudos to topps for not combining hernandez and stargell on one card. they did add the "co-winner" text to the card fronts so that folks wouldn't be confused. stargell had more first place votes than hernandez, and stargell's teammate parker arguably had a stronger season, but voters gonna vote. the guy who probably should have won the award was dave winfield, who had as many first place votes as hernandez. as for baylor, 1979 was a magical season for him and the angels, and i was drawn in for sure.

1980 - george brett and mike schmidt

two of the greatest third basemen in history, playing at the same time, winning the mvp awards in the same year, and facing off in the world series to boot seems like a story that is too cheesy to be true. it happened in 1980 with brett and schmidt. i was a fan of both players, but with my first baseball glove having been a mike schmidt rawlings model, i was happy that the phillies prevailed in the fall classic.

1981 - rollie fingers and mike schmidt

thank goodness for the traded set in 1981, although i have confidence that topps would have come up with a brewers card for fingers for this set even had that update set not been issued. if this were to happen today, however, i would not have that same level of confidence. i remember much hand wringing about a relief pitcher winning the award (over strong seasons from rickey henderson and dwight evans), but fingers clearly was a big part of the brewers' success in 1981 - success that they would not have had without him. as for schmidt, he was a no-doubter in terms of mvp, although i remember hoping that fernando valenzuela would win (he got 1 first place vote).

so that's the mvp rundown, which wound up being 41 cards. i am guessing that card sheets held 44 cards, so topps added three "highlight" cards to round out the set.

1968 highlight - don drysdale

drysdale is the only player in the set to not have won the mvp award. he had two top-5 finishes in 1962 and 1965 but didn't place at all in 1968. someone at topps must have been a dodger fan to include this card as opposed to, say, bob gibson and his era to represent the "year of the pitcher". i am not complaining, mind you, as i was thrilled to find another dodger card in the set. and let me take this time to note that the card correctly identifies drysdale's scoreless streak as 58-2/3 innings, not 58 innings. i think it was in the late 1980's when elias sports bureau did away with partial innings for scoreless streaks, and drysdale objected. i saw a stat box earlier this season showing that cristopher sanchez's streak hit 50-2/3 innings according to elias, and so i was confused. it turns out that they don't give partial credit for an inning in which a run is scored, and sanchez was removed with two outs in what turned out to be a scoreless inning so he got the credit. i suppose that makes sense.

1974 highlight - hank aaron

715 was clearly one of the biggest, if not the biggest, baseball highlight of the 20 years covered in this set. i was glad to see al downing name-checked on the back but was disappointed that no dodgers were found on the front of the card.

1981 highlight - pete rose

rose was my favorite non-dodger when this set was released, so i was happy to find this card. today, league based records or milestones have less meaning thanks to player movement and interleague play. musial is still fourth all-time in career hits, so it's very unlikely that anyone passes him as a national leaguer, let alone catch rose at 4,256.

that's the set! i would be lying if i said i wasn't hoping to see another like it released in 2002. kmart was still around but the box set heyday of the 1980's and 1990's was over. i thought about making my own custom set but never took the time. maybe someday.

dean of the dodgers

it wasn't too long after justin dean was involved in a memorable play in the 2025 world series that he was waived by the dodgers and picked up by the giants. i recall thinking that there was no chance we would see dean in a dodger uniform on 2026 topps cardboard as a result.

a couple months after that, he was picked up by the cubs. so, i was surprised that 2026 topps heritage came out with dean featured as a dodger on one of the four-in-one rookie cards. then topps series 2 was released, and dean was featured as a cub. i was hopeful that his golden mirror card would be a dodger card with an image from his "hands up" play against the blue jays in game 6 of the world series, similar to how the nationals' darren baker's golden mirror card last year was a giants card from his bat boy experience during the 2002 world series. however, dean's golden mirror card identifites him as a cub.

i still bought the card, however, since he is pictured walking through the lower levels of dodger stadium, past the gold gloves that dodgers have won in the past. it's a unique look at a part of dodger stadium that fits into my dodger stadium background mini collection. i am 99% sure that the glove on the top shelf at the far right of the card is davey lopes', and the one that would be immediately to the right of that (cropped out from the original photo) is steve garvey's

the back is the same as his regular card, except for the gold coloring

later, topps chrome was released, and i was again surprised - but then again, not, given the time that is needed to print and have cards signed - to see dean as a dodger in the autograph insert set

i made adding this card a high priority and eventually found one for a very low price. here's the back

which has all the same information as his flagship card, except for the team affiliation and transaction information around his arrival in chicago.

of course, the title "dean of the dodgers" makes me think of bill russell, thanks to the 1986 topps card 

that applied that moniker to him on the back.

i picked up a new to me russell card a few months back - a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback of his 1985 topps card

it's a silver foil version, which sort of conflicts with all of the gold that preceded it in this post, but oh well.

french for "the febvre"

one of my favorite cards in my collection is jim lefebvre's 1966 topps card. it has some sentimental value for reasons that i mentioned here (almost 18 years ago!). good golly.

given my fondness for it, i was actually surprised that i didn't already have an opc version of lefebvre's 1966 card. i decided to remedy that back in august.

you know it's o-pee-chee because it's "ptd. in canada"

i also bought his 1966 topps venezuelan card to complete the international release trifecta

with these, you know it's a venezuelan version due to the darker card stock and ink on the back

even though they are "printed in the u.s.a."

oddly enough, after the card arrived, i realized that i had goofed when i looked at my have lists and missed that i already had one of these cards. the good news is that this version is an upgrade from the first one i purchased 

in related news, i added another jim's 1966 o-pee-chee

and venezuelan cards to my collection

i would not have given jimmie hall an "f" for holding the american league rookie homer record - it stood until mark mcgwire surpassed him in 1987.

i think from here on out, i will pick up any version of lefebvre's 1966 topps card when i see it in the wild, assuming the price is reasonable. it will likely become a permanent feature on my nefarious 9 next time i make a pick up. stay tuned!

1956 topps sampler

as a reminder, i have reinstated my sampler sets for the vintage topps flagship sets that i have not completed. more details were provided in these posts featuring my 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1955 topps samplers. i am maintaining my topps flagship through the years mini-collection, so the 1956 topps wally moon card remains there and not in this updated sampler.

in 1956, there were 16 teams represented, and it's an (almost) all-landscape oriented set. as with 1954 and 1955, there are two images of each card subject and the facsimile autographs remain on the front. the main card design features a close up image in the foreground, with an action image in the background. for the first time, team logos were left off of the cards. also gone are the solid color backgrounds we saw in the two previous years, but there are a variety of colors for the separate name and position/team boxes at the top corner of the card, resulting in what i counted to be 16 different color combinations. 

• red/orange, red/yellow, red/green, red/blue
• orange/red, orange/yellow, orange/blue
• green/red, green/orange, green/yellow
• blue/red, blue/orange, blue/yellow, blue/green
• black/orange, black/yellow

there were different types of card stock used, resulting in some cards having what is considered a "white back" and others a "gray back". the comics on the back are back to being three panels, and are once again specific to the player featured on the front of the card.

the 1956 topps set includes what i consider to be the first real subsets - league presidents (the lone portrait oriented cards in the set) and team cards.  in other team related news, the reds are still identified as redlegs, and the senators are once again referred to as their proper team name, the "nationals", or the "nats" in a couple of cases. 

enough now. let's see what the 1956 sampler set looks like, starting with an ai generated needlepoint sampler for the set. 

i had to load a few 1956 card images to get this even remotely close, and the machines were adamant about the portrait orientation. it's actually not a bad design, giving 1976 topps-esque vibes. i do appreciate the machines adding a completely different background image on jackie robinson's card, showing his iconic number 42.

here's the sampler:

baltimore orioles - gus triandos

card #80

starting with the orange/red combo, triandos' card is also a "white back". he repeated as the orioles' leader in homers and rbi in 1956, splitting his time between first base and catcher. in future seasons, he would play almost exclusively behind the plate.

boston red sox - tom brewer

card #34

brewer's card features the red/blue color combo, and this version is a "gray back". he's representing the red sox in my sampler for the second straight year, and the portrait image is the same one topps used in 1955. number 2 on the red sox in 1955 was milt bolling, so that's probably him in the background of brewer's card. in 1956, brewer won 19 games and made the all-star team. in the midsummer classic, he pitched two innings, allowing three runs including a solo home run to stan musial. number 12 on the red sox in 1955 was milt bolling, so that's probably him in the background of brewer's card.

chicago white sox - jim rivera

card #70

rivera is featured on one of the "extra" cards in my 1954 sampler, and i could have referenced the back of this card when writing about his nickname. his card features the blue/yellow color combo and features the first spectator scene to appear on a topps card. the third panel of the comic on the back matches up with the action on the front! in 1956, rivera stole 20 bases, but the only category he led the league in was times caught stealing (9).

cleveland indians - don mossi

card #39

mossi's card uses the red/green color combo. he is also a repeat player from my 1955 sampler, but that is by design as he is one of the players i chose to chase all the way through. his card does also feature a few fans in the stands, but they are just milling about as opposed to the people engaged in the play featured on rivera's card. in 1956, he was 6-5 in 48 appearances including two starts.

detroit tigers - babe birrer

card #84

here we have the red/orange color combo, along with the first player whose nickname warrants quotation marks. at least on the front. baseball reference holds that birrer's middle name is joseph, but perhaps that was not known to topps in 1956. if i were to go by his facsimile signature, i would guess that is name was "derner". in 1956, birrer actually pitched for the orioles, appearing in just four games. i know birrer as a future dodger, even though he is featured as a tiger on his lone dodger card

new york yankees - tommy carroll

card #139

carroll's card displays the green/red color combo and also features a double play turn. i have another one of these cards in that mini-collection, and it has puzzled me since the first time i saw the card why carroll's jersey clearly displays the yankees' "new york" away lettering, but the middle infielder is without any hat or jersey logo or text. carroll pinch ran against the indians a couple of times in 1955, and was erased on a game ending 4-6-3 double play in one of those games, but the shortstop was george strickland. i am left to guess that the artist took some liberties with the image that was used. only 19 years old, carroll hit .353 in 1956 in limited big league action. he was not on the yankees' postseason roster a year after playing in the fall classic just after turning 19.

kansas city a's - bill renna

card #82

this card features the red/yellow color combo. it also refers to the franchise as the "a's" rather than the "athletics" which was the case on about half of the cards in the set featuring the kansas city club. renna appeared in only 33 games for the a's in 1956, playing as a backup outfielder. he hit two homers, including a pinch-hit job off of the white sox' billy pierce.

washington senators - roy sievers

card #75

here's an example of the orange/blue color combo, along with the full team name. as i mentioned in the 1953 sampler post, sievers came into his own with the senators, excuse me - the nationals in the mid-50's. in 1956, he hit 29 homers with 95 rbi and made the all-star team for the first time in his career. in the game, he pinch hit for early wynn and popped out against the giants' johnny antonelli. 

milwaukee braves - chuck tanner

card #69

the blue/yellow color combo is our first repeat so far, but i wanted tanner in the sampler because he was in the 1978 topps set that got me into collecting as a primary hobby. in 1956, he played for the braves primarily as a pinch-hitter, appearing in 60 games and hitting .238.

chicago cubs - bob speake

card #66

here's the orange/yellow color combo on speake's card. i had to look up the "kom" league - it stands for "kansas-oklahoma-missouri". speake did have a great start to his big league career, but he spent all of 1956 in the minors with the los angeles angels. he led them to the pcl pennant with 25 homers, 111 rbi, and a .300 batting average.

cincinnati reds - smoky burgess

card #192

i like that burgess put the quotation marks around "smoky" in his signature as well. he was on his second stint with the reds franchise in 1956, although he was only with them originally during the 1951 offseason. his card features the blue/red color combo. he hit 12 homers in 1956, with one coming off of sandy koufax and another that walked-off the pirates on july 20.

brooklyn dodgers - duke snider

card #150

this is a duplicate card as i have another one in my dodger collection. once i committed to all of the color combos, i had to pick up this card as it is the only example of the black/orange combination in the set. the earl of flatbush had a monster 1955 season, and he helped the world champion dodgers return to the fall classic in 1956 as he led the league with 43 home runs - a mark that stood as a franchise high for over forty years.

philadelphia phillies - frank baumholtz

card #274

baumholtz represented the cubs in my 1955 sampler set, and here he is in 1956 as a phillie. his card also represents the blue/orange color combo. i am happy to have this card in my sampler, as it was sent to me by matt at diamond jesters a while back. baumholtz appeared in 76 games for the phillies in 1956, mainly as a pinch-hitter.

pittsburgh pirates - gene freese

card #46

freese has a lot going on on his card. there's the green/orange color combo as well as the night game imagery. his uniform even looks a bit shiny which reminds me of the dodgers' satin uniforms that were designed to look better at night. freese hit only three homers in 1956, none of which were grand slams, as he split the season between pittsburgh and hollywood of the pcl. apparently, he is no relation to david freese.

st. louis cardinals - walker cooper

card #273

i was happy to learn that cooper was in his early 40's in 1956, so the portrait isn't necessarily an example of how much older people looked back then. i mean, it's no 1976 topps gaylord perry card. his card features the green/yellow color combo. i appreciate the comic on the back recognizing him as a "double dipper" or boomerang player for the cardinals, although topps didn't use either of those phrases. he was mostly a pinch-hitter appearing in 40 games in 1956.

new york giants - gail harris

card #91

harris' card features the blue/green color combo, and i think it is the only one in the set with this particular combination. he played in only 12 games for the giants in 1956, hitting one homer which may or may not prove that he was a "good long ball hitter".

that's the end of the teams portion of the sampler, with 15 of the 16 color combos represented. we will get to the last one in a bit.

now that the full color backgrounds are paused, there is an opportunity for me to once again have a card showing the yankee stadium facade. in 1956, it's tom brewer's card

and, as i mentioned up top, there were a couple of true subsets in the 1956 topps set. the first one was the league presidents. 

i suppose topps saw the umpires in 1955 bowman and decided to do something of their own in 1956 (after purchasing the bowman name that year). the first two cards of the set feature the respective league presidents, and i went after the head of the national league.

warren giles

card #2

the card uses the 1952 topps presidents design for the most part, at least on the front. these two cards in the set are the only portrait cards in the set, and i like that each team's logo is on the back.

team cards are the other subset

cincinnati red(leg)s

card #90

it's fitting that the first team card i have in a sampler is of the original franchise. it's fun to see batboys be recognized by name on the front and to see crosley field on the back as that field was long gone by the time i became aware of the national pastime. 

there were some other cards that fit what i would consider to be future subsets. so, i decided to be sure to include them in the sampler as well

manager:

mayo smith

card #60

it's quite a pose that smith is striking on his card. i was surprised to see that mayo is smith's actual middle name and not a nickname. he led the phillies to a fifth place finish in the national league in 1956.

coach:

harry breechen

card #229

breechen was obviously the orioles' pitching coach based on the image on the front and the comic on the back. he and bill renna up above shared a birthday, although breechen was twelve years older. during breechen's tenure as the franchise's pitching coach, he helped develop starters such as dave mcnally and hall of famer jim palmer. 

another theme i look for are what i call "o-pee-chee" type cards. these are cards that feature a player in a uniform different from the team that is designated on the card. these cards are quite prevalent in the mid-60's when updated photos were scarce but are not necessarily as plentiful or obvious in other sets. in 1956, i am sorry to say that i could not find a card that fit the bill, thanks to the illustrated nature of the set.

there was one more color combo that i needed to pick up, and it's only found on one card in the set

dick brodowski

card #157

yes, this is the only black/yellow combo card in the set. not sure why topps had only two cards with black in either text box, but they did. brodowski's first season in washington was largely forgettable as he was 0-3 in seven appearances. 

adding those cards to the team-based cards leaves just three spaces on the third sheet. i've filled those spaces with these cards:

ed fitzgerald

card #198

this card is the most recent 1956 topps card i've purchased, and i targeted it because it contracts the team name to "nats" which seems wholly unnecessary given that topps made "nationals" fit on both sievers' and brodowski's cards up above. the card is also interesting because of the image in the background. if that's fitzgerald at bat, the image is poorly cropped. if fitzgerald is the catcher, it's a poor image choice as he is almost fully obscured by the umpire. finally, had fitzgerald played in the espn era, i am sure chris berman would have referred to him as "the wreck of the" edward fitzgerald.

hank thompson

card #199

i have thompson's card in the sampler for a couple of reasons. first, it looks like he is wearing a mets' cap even though 1956 was his eighth season with the giants, so it's not like topps had to modify a cubs or dodger hat in the image. second, i like the action play in the background of his card. third, the back of the card features a comic panel that references a double play of the 5-4-3 variety. and finally, thompson was the first black player that appeared in the major leagues for the st. louis browns/baltimore orioles franchise, debuting just about three months after jackie robinson broke the color barrier. like robinson, 1956 was his last year in the majors.

johnny podres

card #173

including a card of the 1955 world series mvp was a no-brainer for me, even though i had other dodger duplicates to choose from. this is just a fantastic card for dodger fans. podres did not repeat his star turn performance from 1955 in '56 as he missed the entire season due to military service.

so, that's my 1956 topps sampler set, all 24 cards of it. since i've completed the 1957 topps set, 1958 is next - stay tuned!