Hit Me

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.

The Hills Have Eyes

I picked up some of these box sets for a buck each at the most recent card show I went to back in April. Since then, they've been sitting around waiting to get explored. I thought now would be a good time to do so.

This is a Hills Team MVPs set from 1989. It's a 33-card set of some of the top names in baseball at the time. I love these old retail oddball sets from defunct retailers like Hills, Kaybee Toys, Toys R Us,  K-Mart, Revco, etc. There's just something about them that speaks to me. 

Here's the back of the box. I love the fact it's still got the original price on it ($1.97) and the checklist.

Now, as far as Hills goes, I grew up with a Hills store that my grandparents would go to occasionally. My grandma mostly went there because of it being a department store and she was able to get sewing supplies like pins, needles, fabric, etc. I remember going there a few times looking at video games and toys. Ames took over Hills, which was having financial trouble, at the end of 1998 and lasted until 2002 when they met their demise due to money troubles of their own.

This is what the local Hills store looks like now. Over the years, since Ames closed, it's housed numerous discount outlets. I'm not sure if the store itself is still open as I haven't been by there in a long time. 

Anyway, enough reminiscing, here's what the box of cards contained. I'm showing these in the order that they came out of the box.

Some pretty good names here with Orel Hershiser and Dennis Eckersley ... Johnny Ray seems out of place but judging by the stats from the 1988 Angels club, he lead the team in batting average so I can see why he was included.

Oooh! Fred McGriff in the all blue Blue Jays uniform! Yes please!

In regards to the cards themselves, I like the design a lot. The banner at the bottom, the giant Hills logo at the top left of the card. The pictures are pretty good as well. This batch features Andres Galarraga with the Expos and Joe Carter with the Indians, which are always a pleasant find.

Next to last batch here. I love the photo on Mike Greenwell's card with the Green Monster looming in the background.

Final batch here. Only one Reds player in the whole set, that being Danny Jackson, who probably would've won the Cy Young in 1988 had it not been for Orel Hershiser's scoreless inning streak. Jackson won 23 games in 1988, with 15 complete games.

If you're interested, here's the back of the card. Not very impressive if you ask me as it only has the player's 1988 stats with vitals and a brief blurb about their 1988 season.

This was a really cool pickup for a buck and I've got another Hills set to go through, this time from 1990. I think every team had at least one player in the set as well, which is another plus. It'll look even better once I put them in order and page them up in my "oddball sets" binder.