silver scribble superstar success

los angeles dodgers in the hall of fame are not as plentiful as you might think.  pee wee reese (one season only!), duke snider, sandy koufax, don drysdale, walter alston, don sutton, and tom lasorda.  that's it, obviously discounting the likes of rickey henderson, frank robinson, jim bunning, greg maddux, juan marichal, gary carter, eddie murray, and hoyt wilhelm who did suit up for the dodgers in la, but were not really associated with the club in the grander scheme of things.

my collection includes cards signed by all seven of the dodger hall of famers listed above - some certified, some not - plus half of the other guys.  and then there is mike piazza.

i would put piazza in the first category of dodger hall of famers, but the actual hall of fame doesn't see it that way, and so he is a met for all of eternity.  still, when i was putting together my all-autograph team for the recent blog bat around, i realized that there was a hole in my collection.  i did not own a piazza autographed card.  i set out to find one, and settled on a 2015 topps tier one parallel.

the card had to show piazza as a dodger, and boast an on-card signature.  this one, numbered out of 10, checks both of those boxes.

piazza's number 31 was sort of unofficially retired by the dodgers (steve garvey's 6 was given the same treatment for 21 years, and fernando valenzuela's number 34 still hasn't been worn since he was released by the club in 1991) until brad penny came along in 2005.  it is currently being worn by joc pederson, and the dodgers have shown no inclination to officially retire it in piazza's honor.  it would be a completely different story had he entered the hall as a dodger.  at any rate, i am happy to have a piazza auto in my collection even as scribbly as it is.