In my last post, I showed off some cards in a box set from the old Hills department store from 1989. Well, the next year, Hills came back with one of my favorite oddball sets ... Hills Hit Men (not to be confused with the "South Side Hitmen" of the 1977 Chicago White Sox). Like its predecessor, it's a 33-card set featuring some of the top sluggers in baseball at the time.
Here's the back. I have to say this box is in much better shape than the other one. It was still in the shrink wrap too. Remember, this was only a buck from the April card show. Here's the cards as they came out of the box.
Starting off good with Cal Ripken, Kevin Mitchell, Eric Davis, and Eddie Murray. The design on this I think is pretty eye-catching with the Hills logo, a baseball bat featuring the words "Hit Men" and the yellow name-plate at the bottom.
Really the great thing about these sets is that you never know who you'll actually find. Fred Lynn is a good example as 1990 was his last season.
As I mentioned with this sets counterpart, I'm planning on putting this in order and sticking it in my "oddball sets" binder as I think it will just look tremendous when paged up.
More good stuff here, including Dave Parker with the Brewers.
The last batch of nine. It's good to see most teams get representation but the Angels and the Indians didn't have anyone in the set. Yet the Padres had three (Joe Carter, Jack Clark, Fred Lynn). I love the Andres Galarraga Expos card, that blue just pops out.
Somehow I also wound up with and extra of the Kevin Mitchell card so that will be going in the trade bin. I figured I would at least get some use out of it and scan the back.
If I had one complaint about this set, it'd be the back. It's very minimal and only features the career stats and a formula for figuring slugging percentage.
Anyway, that's another set of Hills cards. I think these two were the only retail sets that Hills put out through Topps. Next time I go to a card show, I'm definitely going to be picking up more retail sets like this as these are a blast to go through.
Man, I loved these box sets when i was a kid. Most guys would get about three cards per year, a few more if they were all stars and diamond kings and whatever, so it was nice to see a new picture of the main guys as the year went on.
ReplyDeleteDon't think I've ever seen this particular Hills offering before. Love the rare sighting of Fred Lynn as a Padre.
ReplyDeleteI'll save the extra Kevin Mitchell card I have for you then.
DeleteTopps must have been raking in the dough making these oddball sets. Very cool!!
ReplyDeleteSome great looking cards in there!
ReplyDeleteSolid checklist. Usually there are at least a few guys that are questionable... but not this set.
ReplyDeleteCool cards and plenty of great players.
ReplyDelete