Sets in My Collection: 1987 Topps K-Mart Baseball's Stars of the Decades

In this week's edition of Sets in My Collection, I am presenting the 1987 Topps K-Mart set, Baseball's Stars of the Decades.  The ubiquitous 1982 K-Mart set was issued for K-Mart's 20th anniversary, and so in 1987, this set celebrated K-Mart's 25th anniversary.  I guess that means K-Mart is 55 years old this year, even if it may not be with us much longer.

1987 Topps K-Mart set box.

Like the 1982 set, this is of a nostalgic variety, and features stars of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  I love that in addition to the cards, they put a piece of the Topps gum into the box, too.  I'm sure I chewed the gum at the time.

Roberto Clemente.

As always, instead of showing the whole set, I am choosing a handul to highlight.  This time, we start with Roberto Clemente.  Despite him being one fo the very few best Pirates ever, and legendary in a number of ways, and a personal all-time favorite, I only have a handful of cards of him.  It's going to stay that way, too -- the obstacle is that I don't want cards of him which call him "Bob," and most cards from his playing did so.  From what I've read, it's clear that he wanted to be called by his name, Roberto.  My standard is that I'm not looking for cards which say "Bob" on the front; I do have his 1971, 1972, and 1973 Topps cards, and I just acquired a Post card and a Topps Deckle Edge.  The Deckle Edge says "Bob," but it's on the back, at least.

Hank Aaron.

I have a handful of Hank Aaron cards, from the last couple years of his career, and some league leader cards I posted before.  I do have a plan to get more of his cards, from the 50s and 60s.

Roger Maris.

I have no cards of Roger Maris contemporaneous with his career, and I do plan to remedy that.  This will be part of my plan to commemorate the 1960 Pirates championship team in my collection -- rather than aim for a whole Pirates team set (like I'm doing for the 1971 and 1979 Pirates teams), I'm looking to get the 1961 Topps World Series subset, and cards of a few key Pirates and a few key Yankees.  Maris figures as one of the key Yankees.

Steve Carlton.

The three players above, Clemente, Aaron, and Maris, are in the set as Stars of the 60s.  Moving on to the 70s, we have Steve Carlton.  Carlton of course was still a star in the first half of the 80s, but let's not argue with his placement as a representative of the 70s here.  Two of Carlton's Cy Young awards and a number of his All-Star appearances occured in the 70s, but his most impressive feat was probably being responsible for almost half of the wins on the pathetic 1972 Phillies team.  Things turned around for the Phillies, though, after having acquired Carlton and having promoted Mike Schmidt to the majors around the same time.  I have a number of Carlton cards already, but I do have one on my wantlist, for the PSA-graded part of my collection: his 1972 Topps Traded card, representing his joining the Phils.

Reggie Jackson.

Then we have Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, five-time World Series champion in the 70s.  I've posted before about my collection goals for Reggie Jackson -- I plan to get a couple more cards from his original run with the A's, for the PSA-graded part of my collection.

Rickey Henderson.

Rickey Henderson was, naturally, a huge star of the 80s, and beyond.  Since this set was produced in 1987, they didn't know he would go on to be the all-time steals leader and the all-time runs leader, but they might have guessed.

Fernando Valenzuela.

I'll close this post out with this Fernando Valenzuela card.  If you wanted to highlight just one player from the first half of the 80s, Valenzuela would be a good choice.  I was young then, so I only remember the littlest bit of Fernandomania; I've mentioned it before, but I remember a specific game he pitched against the Phillies in which he was just about unhittable.