You Knew They Were Stars -- The Card Said So!

PLUS -- All roads *still* lead to the first box set.

Obvious Star Power - Card of the Day

Back in the dark ages of the hobby and the sport (baseball, that is), there was no internet, no streaming services, no 24-hours-a-day sports information at your fingertips.

Back then — the 1980s, in my case — cable TV was no sure thing, either, and at least in my circles, “TV” consisted of about five channels. That afforded us something like 10 minutes a day, total, of sports news.

Not griping, just setting the stage. A stage that probably looked at least somewhat similar to yours.

So how did a young fan go about learning the ins and outs of the game, the who’s-who and the what’s-what?

Well, there was always the newspaper. If your parents liked to stay plugged in (as it were) to the world, you might get daily box scores and the occasional weekday story. The Sunday sports section was the major boon, of course, with full standings and leaderboards and feature stories.

That was pretty standard fare, though not everyone had access to newspapers, either.

But no matter what your lot in life, if you were a collector, you had a secret weapon in your quest to learn all you could about the men who played daily on the fields of your dreams.

Specifically, your baseball cards held all the secrets to who was a star and who was not. And sometimes, they made no secret about it at all. Sometimes, a card told you by its very existence that a guy was a star.

Case in point, 1984 Topps (#137):

Boom!

You knew right away that Atlee Hammaker and Rick Honeycutt were stars. Superstars, even. I mean, who else could lead their leagues in ERA other than superstars?

And when you flipped the card over, you found out that Hammaker (2.25) and Honeycutt (2.42) sort of blew away the competition.

Heck, Hammaker bested 1983 National League Cy Young winner John Denny by 12 points, and A.L. winner LaMarr Hoyt wasn’t even on the list.

And just like that, you had two guys who would forevermore be at least candidates for your “star” box or binder.

Probably because he was first on the card, had a much lower ERA, and had a name I had never heard or seen before, Hammaker made an even bigger impact on me than Honeycutt did when I first pulled this pasteboard.

So even today, Hammaker feels like a star when I see one of his cards.

Maybe especially today, seeing as how it’s his 66th birthday.

1982 Kmart Freda Lynn (#27)

The 1982 Kmart set was a confusing, terrible, beautiful, spectacular monstrosity that still causes collectors to scratch their heads today. I’ve written about it plenty of times in the past (here are some of those), but suffice it to say, this one was another learning opportunity.

Any guy in this set was an MVP at one time (or multiple times). Superstar.

And something I’ve learned about this set is that you can connect just about any baseball situation or conversation to it in some way or another.

Want an example?

Atlee Hammaker gave up a grand slam to Fred Lynn in the 1983 All-Star Game, the only salami in the history of the Midsummer Classic.

And to extend it further, Lynn won the American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in 1975, the first man to nab both in one season.

Twenty-six years later, Ichiro Suzuki pulled off the feat as a member of the Seattle Mariners…Honeycutt’s original team.

Bulk Baseball Textbooks

There were so many 1982 Kmart box sets made that you can still buy them today for a relative song…and in bulk.

Check out this eBay list for proof. It’s not mine, but Kmart sets have looked like this for 42 years and counting.

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How did you learn about the MLB landscape back in the dark ages? I’d love to hear about your favorite information sources back then. Maybe I can still learn a thing or two from them.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam