350 is a magic number - they come in 3s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350.

i've been posting cards from the same year of each decade, and so far i've done the 8s, 7s, and 6s. this time i think i'll mix it up and show the 3s.

1963 topps #350

bob purkey put together his best season in 1962, and i assume topps took his 23 wins and 2.81 era in to consideration when assigning his 1963 card this number. he finished third in the league in both of those categories and so got a floating head on a couple of league leader cards as well as card 350 in the set. his 1963 season was not good as he hurt his shoulder in spring training and never did regain his status as a top starter.

1973 topps #350 

tom seaver was second in wins and strikeouts (to steve carlton) in 1972, but he wound up leading the league in k's and era in 1973 en route to his second cy young award. he also led the mets back to the world series that year, although they weren't amazing enough and lost to the a's. clearly in 1973, 350 was being used as a hero number.

1983 topps #350

robin yount had himself a season in 1982. he won the american league mvp and led the brewers to the pennant and their first world series appearance. pure hero number stuff! topps didn't identify league leaders on the backs of cards in 1983, but his 210 hits and 46 doubles were tops in the al in '82. 

1993 topps #350

joe carter helped the blue jays win their first world series in 1992, and was rewarded with this hero number. of course, he went on to lead them to their second title in 1993 - a title claimed when carter hit the series ending home run in game 6.

2003 topps #350

postseason highlights were good to see in topps sets, even though they were not consistently included in flagship sets over the years. with the expanded playoffs, i enjoyed seeing these cards pop up. this one features the winners of two of the four divisional series - twins over a's and cardinals over diamondbacks. neither the cardinals nor the twins advanced to the world series, however. good to see everyday eddie guardado and a darryl kile tribute on this particular card.

2013 topps #350

albert pujols had just finished his first season with the angels as evidenced by the back of his 2013 card. in hindsight, the beginning of his offensive decline is apparent. still, he was worthy of the hero number. he missed the last two months of the 2013 season which likely has cost him the chance to reach 700 home runs for his career.

i am tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now through two posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 1 (kris bryant)

number of reigning mvps: 1 (robin yount)

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 2 (keith hernandez, joe carter)

number of reigning pennant winners: 6 (steve garvey, robin yount, jack clark, keith hernandez, joe carter, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 7 (mel stottlemyre - complete games; robin yount - hits, doubles; keith hernandez - walks; kenny lofton - sb; chase utley - runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era)

subset types: 2 (all-time all-stars, postseason highlights)

number of repeat players: 0

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (4), mets (3), dodgers (2), astros (2), braves (2), twins (2), white sox, giants, indians, phillies, red sox, yankees, a's, cubs, reds, brewers, blue jays, angels

i will have another post with another run of cards soon - stay tuned!