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.