The summer of 1986 was one of the first where I can tie childhood memories to a specific year. I remember experiences before that, but outside of some that were tied to a specific teacher, I can’t remember if they were in 1983, 1984, etc.
The reason the memories in ‘86 are so much stronger is because of one reason: baseball cards. This was the year I got my first pack of cards, and through the rest of the year I was buying any cards I could find. This included standard Topps cards, Topps Quaker Granola Bars cards, as well as the subject of this post, Big League Chew Home Run Legends.
I was playing little league, and several times a week I’d scrounge up enough change to buy a pouch of big league chew gum to munch on during the game. An added bonus was the inclusion of one of these Home Run Legends cards inside each pouch!
1986 Big League Chew Ernie Banks
This was a 12 card set which provided my first opportunity to obtain cards of some of the all time legends. As a nine year old, I wasn’t going to be buying and vintage Mantle, Mays, Aaron, and Banks cards, but they were available to me in the Big League Chew set. The checklist was made up of Hall of Famers who hit 500 homers in their career along with a checklist card showing a painting of the 11 players. The front of the card contains a brightly colored two tone border with a Home Run Legends banner on top. The bottom of the card has a flag which identifies the year the player hit his 500th home run, their position, and name.
Unlike many food and promotional sets in the 80s, this set appears to have been fully licensed as the photos contain logos! The back of the cards contained biographical info, a career stat line, and a paragraph of info about the player. This was a dream come true for a kid trying to learn the history of the game.
Today, this set seems to have a moderate level of scarcity. It’s not hard to find, but at the same time, online sites aren’t flooded with sets or singles. You can find them on Sportlots or COMC in addition to eBay. Sets have recently in a fairly wide range between about $6 - $30, and singles run about $2-3 each.
Checklist
Hank Aaron
Babe Ruth
Willie Mays
Frank Robinson
Harmon Killebrew
Jimmie Foxx
Ted Williams
Eddie Matthews
Mel Ott
Hall of Famers Checklist
