my retired number collection - these are the unnumbered

this is the second post in a series that shares the cards i have in my retired number mini-collection. here's the first post if you wish to catch up and read a bit about the background for this endeavor. also keep in mind that there's a full list of retired numbers along with what this collection will entail over at my want list site.

if you're ready, let's take a look at the folks honored by a handful of franchises even though there is no specific jersey number associated with them.

"ny" christy mathewson (honored by the giants in 1986) - 2010 topps vintage legends collection

the giants added a placard with "ny" under mathewson's name to their outfield wall on august 17, 1986. mathewson is a first class hall of famer whose 373 wins are still the third most in history.

"ny" john mcgraw (honored by the giants in 1986) - 2004 topps tribute

the giants honored mcgraw in the same way as mathewson on the same day. he was the club's manager for over 30 years, winning 10 pennants and three world series. he was, of course, the reason that there was no world series in 1904 (the year he won his first pennant) but was convinced to play in 1905 and captured his first world series title as a result. he was elected to the hall of fame in 1937.

"sl" rogers hornsby (honored by the cardinals in 1997) - 1999 upper deck century legends

according to baseball reference, rogers hornsby wore numbers 4 and 6 for the cardinals during his career, but the team recognized him sans number in 1997. he was inducted in to the hall of fame in 1942 after a playing career that included six batting titles and two triple crowns. both triple crowns and five of those batting titles came as a cardinal.

"p" grover cleveland alexander (honored by the phillies in 2001) - 1999 upper deck century legends

the phillies used the 1915 style "p" to honor alexander who is tied with mathewson for third place all-time in wins with 373. 190 of those wins came while alexander was a phillie, for whom he led the league in wins 5 times and achieved the pitching triple crown three times. alexander was elected to the hall of fame in1938.

 

"p" chuck klein (honored by the phillies in 2001) - 2002 topps tribute

klein wore a variety of numbers late in his career, but the phillies chose to honor him with an old english style "p" instead of a number in 2001. you can see a number on his back on the above card - it would be either 26 or 29, neither of which he wore in 1933 when he achieved the triple crown with 28 homers, 120 rbi, and a .368 batting average. that marked his sixth and final season as a phillie to start his career, although he returned to the club twice later in his career. klein was the national league mvp in 1932, but finished second to carl hubbell in 1933. he was elected to the hall of fame in 1980.

"cobb" ty cobb (honored by the tigers) - 2009 topps tribute blue

when comerica park opened, ty cobb's last name was displayed on the brick wall beyond left-centerfield next to the retired numbers of hank greenbert, charlie gehringer, hal newhouser, and al kaline. since he played before numbers were used, this makes sense that he would be honored by the franchise in this manner. cobb retired as the all-time leader in hits and stolen bases, won 12 batting titles, a triple crown, and has the highest career batting average in history at .366. he was a first class hall of famer and considered by many to be the greatest hitter of all-time.

"crawford" sam crawford (honored by the tigers) - 2002 topps tribute

crawford's last name showed up on the brick wall beyond right-centerfield at comerica park, along with the players below (and announcer ernie harwell). crawford began his career with three seasons in cincinnati but spent the next 15 years with the tigers. he is the all-time leader in triples with 309, and he led the league in that category six times, four as a tiger. he is the only player in history to have more than 300 triples. he was inducted in the hall of fame in 1957.

"cochrane" mickey cochrane (honored by the tigers) - 2003 fleer flair greats

cochrane played for the tigers the final four years of his career, winning the american league mvp in 1934, his first year with the club. he was also the team's manager during that time, and guided the club to pennants in '34 and 1935, taking home the world series title in '35 for the franchise's first championship. he was the first catcher elected to the hall of fame when he made it in 1947, and he was also the person that mickey mantle was named after even though cochrane himself was not named mickey. he did wear number 3 for the tigers once they adopted numbers, but only his name appears on the comerica park wall.

"heilmann" harry heilmann (honored by the tigers) - 2002 topps tribute

heilmann won four batting titles in the 1920's for the tigers, with his .403 average in 1923 marking a career best. following his retirement, he became a broadcaster for the tigers and stayed in that role for 17 years up until his death in july of 1951. he was voted in to the hall of fame the following year, but ty cobb told him on his deathbed that he had been voted in, so even though cobb was a year early in his prediction, heilmann passed away knowing he was a hall of famer.

 

"jennings" hughie jennings (honored by the tigers) - 1993 conlon tsn

jennings managed the tigers for 14 seasons, from 1907 through 1920. he won pennants in each of his first three seasons with the club, but no more after that. he was elected to the hall of fame as a player in 1945, and although he inserted himself in to the lineup a handful of times while with the tigers as their manager, his hall of fame status as a player is not based on what he did in detroit. i wonder if his managerial record was taken in to account by the veteran's committee when they cast their votes that year.

 

"kell" george kell (honored by the tigers) - 2003 fleer flair greats

kell played in the 1940's and 1950's but wore a couple of different numbers as a tiger, so they chose to honor him by name only - perhaps because his affiliation with the team extended beyond his playing career. he spent just seven of his 15 seasons as a tiger, winning the american league batting title in 1949 with a .343 average that just narrowly surpassed ted williams' average that year. after he retired following the 1957 season, kell went in to broadcasting and announced tiger games until he retired for good in 1997.

"manush" heinie manush (honored by the tigers) - 2003 topps gallery hall of fame edition artist proof

manush began his career with the tigers in 1923. he played for them through the 1927 season, winning a batting title in 1926 by hitting .378 giving the tigers an outfield (manush, cobb, and heilmann) replete with batting titles. he finished his career with a .320 average, over 2,500 hits, and a hall of fame induction in 1964. most of his post-career cards show him with the senators which makes sense as he was a part of their 1933 world series team, so i was glad to have this tiger card in my collection even though it appears to show a number on his back - something that he didn't have as a tiger.

honoring pre-number players is something that i've always thought that the dodgers should have done for zach wheat. i think a "b" medallion would look great with the retired numbers and microphones on the left field club level facade at dodger stadium.

i am going to track a few things as we go, even though the information is already available elsewhere.

retired numbers by team (shown in chronological order of their first number retirement):

yankees - 4

giants - 4

pirates - 4

guardians 

red sox - 4

phillies

cardinals

reds

braves

astros

mets

orioles - 4

dodgers - 4

twins

white sox - 4

brewers - 4

tigers

cubs

royals

padres

athletics

angels

expos

rangers

major league baseball

rays

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies

mariners

retired number frequency:

4 - retired by 8 teams

unnumbered players - honored by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 20

running total of non-hall of famers (including those without numbers):

one in davey lopes years

fifteen years ago today i posted for the first time at my first blog, garveyceyrusselllopes. i have been mostly actively blogging since then, but i am here at a different site now. allow me a moment of reflection...

july 31, 2015 marked my final post at garveyceyrusselllopes, and within that timeframe i also completed three years of posts at oh my o-pee-chee covering all of the variations between topps and their canadian counterpart. i also started timeless teams, but i didn't finish up at that site until 2018.

the reason for the different blogs made sense to me, and stand alone topics like o-pee-chee variations and the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams sets were obvious subjects for their own blogs. i sort of wish i had done the same thing with the 1990 target dodgers set, rather than having that as a weekly post at garveyceyrusselllopes, and so when i had the idea for a frankenset of dodger dupes, i knew that i wanted it to be its own blog rather than a feature on my flagship site. however, i took a bit of a break before starting frankendodger in 2016, and after finishing that endeavor, i immediately broke ground here at cards as i see them.

with cards as a i see them, i really intended for it to be a site with quick posts focused on individual cards that i encountered - whether they were new or already part of my collection didn't matter. posts like the recent one regarding fletch or the one about j.d. martinez' 2023 bowman card were what i had in mind. of course, my collecting habits haven't really changed, and so there have been a lot of dodger-centric (and steve garvey focused) posts on here that are similar to or even continuations of themes that i ran on my old site. so, maybe my decision to abandon the flagship blog was the wrong one, but there's no turning back now.

anyway, in the intended spirit of the blog, here's davey lopes' 1976 topps record breaker card

which was the second lopes card i ever saw. 

it features an image that reminded me of how i saw baseball action as a little leaguer and i liked it immediately. it also made me long for another dodger record breaker card for my collection, and i only had to wait until 1980 to see manny mota sit near the top of the flagship checklist. these days, it sits as the first card in my "name/number on the back" mini collection as it prominently displays lopes' number 15.

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - giants in the ravine edition

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he took the mound against the giants on saturday night in los angeles. he struck out 5 batters to give him 132 strikeouts on the season. those 5 giants that he k'd increased his career total to 2,939.

in honor of his performance, here are 5 cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,935 through 2,939.

2,935 - 2018 topps heritage 1968 deckle edge

2,936 - 2019 topps gallery heritage

2.937 - 2019 topps national baseball card day gallery preview

2,938 - 2020 topps big league orange

2,939 - 2020 topps stadium club red foil

a fitting card for that last strikeout given its dodger stadium location.

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who struck out 5 guardians last wednesday, has a career strikeout total of 2,972. kershaw is now 33 k's behind greinke and 61 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw pitched five innings against the giants in what may have been his final regular season start at chavez ravine. once the postseason is over, it will once again be time to wait and see if he will return to pitch in 2024 and whether he will do so as a dodger. i really hope he sees the 3k milestone as one that must be reached and that he decides to do it as a dodger.

it looks like kershaw's next start will come this weekend in the series against the giants in nocal, and will obviously be his final start of the regular season. know that i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

max scherzer is in my hall of famer collection

now that his 2023 season is done, i figured it was time to officially welcome max scherzer to my hall of famer collection with this card as his entry:

that's a 2020 topps gypsy queen black & white autograph card numbered 15/50. here's the back:

i picked this card up a year or so ago, once i decided to add as many of the 3,000 strikeout club members to my collection as possible. that means that only walter johnson is absent from the collection since there aren't any relic cards of his out there.

as for scherzer, i was hoping to see him pitch this year as the mets were on the twins' schedule for a september visit. of course, before that happened, scherzer was dealt to the rangers. no worries - they were in town in august and i was able to make it to one of the games. unfortunately, scherzer didn't pitch in the game i attended - he took the mound a couple of nights later instead (when i was out of town, of course). he struck out 10 twins that night to add to his impressive career strikeout total that now stands at 3,367. that's good enough for 11th all-time, and he is just 4 k's behind greg maddux. 

i am ok with having a card of scherzer as a national since that's the team he has spent the most time with. he won two of his cy youngs with them, and was a huge part of their 2019 world series win. i am a bit disappointed that he doesn't have more dodger cards to choose from, however. still, he's the only pitcher (so far) to reach the 3,000 strikeout plateau as a dodger, and for that i am grateful.

speaking of dodgers, when sandy koufax retired, he had the best k/9 ratio in history - striking out just under 9.3 batters per 9 innings pitched. the game has certainly changed since 1966, and even though strikeouts are up, scherzer's ratio of 10.69 k/9 is mind blowing. he's 4th all-time, but has maintained that ratio through 16 seasons. i think if i needed a strikeout and could pick any pitcher to get it for me, i would likely pick scherzer. 

scherzer is signed through 2024, so it's a good bet that he will be back with the rangers and will pass maddux to get to the top 10 all-time in strikeouts. walter johnson (9th with 3,509 according to baseball reference) and gaylord perry (8th with 3,534) are within reasonable striking distance based on scherzer's last two seasons. don sutton is in 7th place with 3,574 strikeouts, so scherzer would need over 200 k's to catch him, and that's a feat he has not accomplished since 2021. whatever happens, i am hoping to be able to see him pitch before he's done.

as a reminder, you can see scherzer and the other members of my hall of famer collection here!

my retired number collection - may the 4s be with you

i mentioned awhile back that i was starting a retired number mini-collection after being inspired by the retired numbers display at dodger stadium that featured a variety of topps cards. well, i've been working on amassing the collection since then and am finally ready to start sharing this latest endeavor. note that i've tried to find cards featuring photos with the number visible. major thanks to comc and all who sell cards there as once i exhausted my collection, i used their database to find suitable cards for this effort. you will see that not all cards show the number, so i would be very happy if someone were to suggest an alternative card for my collection.

there are approximately 240 numbers retired across major league baseball, including the league-wide retirement of 42. some teams have retired numbers twice and some teams have retired numbers in honor of executives and fans who didn't wear a number. in addition, there are a number of players, managers, announcers, and executives who are similarly honored but without a number. this collection only includes uniformed staff - so players and managers only.  there's a full list of retired numbers along with what this collection will entail over at my want list site.

several years ago, i thought about starting a retired number mini-collection that featured retired numbers in the background on cards, but ultimately decided that would mean a bunch of giant, cardinal and white sox cards mostly, as they featured or feature retired number references on their outfield walls.  other teams feature their numbers elsewhere in the stadiums (if at all) and rarely appear on cards. there are some exceptions, like the wonderful 2010 topps card shown below.

that card shows the first eight numbers retired by the yankees, in the order in which they were retired. it all started with lou gehrig, so it makes sense to me to start these posts with number 4, a number that is retired by seven teams as of now.

lou gehrig (retired by the yankees in 1939) - 2000 upper deck yankees legends

lou gehrig was the first player in professional sports to have his number retired. the yankees gave him that honor as part of "lou gehrig day" on july 4, 1939 which was also the day of his famous "luckiest man" speech. gehrig was given number 4 when the yankees began wearing numbers as that was his place in the lineup, and so he was the only yankee to ever wear the number. 

the card i've chosen for gehrig also lists out the numbers retired by the yankees at that point in time. they've added to the list in subsequent years. the photo used shows gehrig shaking hands with babe ruth, who is shown on a card of his own - i put the cards together (somewhat haphazardly) in a post a few years ago.

mel ott (retired by the giants in 1948) - 2010 topps history of the world series

the new york giants retired mel ott's number during the 1948 season (july 17 to be exact) following his 23-year tenure as a player, player/manager, and just plain old manager. when he retired, his 511 home runs were third most all-time (behind babe ruth and jimmie foxx) and the highest total for any national leaguer. ott was the second (bill terry was the first) and final giant to wear number 4, and he was elected to the hall of fame in 1951. 

the giants used to have big circular placards on the outfield wall at candlestick for their retired numbers, so i would see "ott 4" quite a bit on tv and on some cards. there is no denying that those placards helped spark my interest in retired numbers in general.

luke appling (retired by the white sox in 1975) - 2002 upper deck sp legendary cuts

here we have the first example of a card that does not show the player's number, unfortunately. appling wore number 4 for the white sox for the entirety of his playing career which spanned from 1930 through 1950. appling led the american league with a .388 average in 1936, and then again with a .328 average in 1943. he retired with 2,749 hits and was voted in to the hall of fame in 1965. 

while appling's number was the first to be retired by the white sox franchise, five players wore number 6 after appling and before it was retired on june 7, 1975. the last of these players was ron hansen in 1969. 

duke snider (retired by the dodgers in 1980) - 2001 fleer greats of the game

the duke of flatbush had his number 4 retired by the dodgers on july 6, 1980 following his election to the hall of fame as is the dodger way (for the most part). snider spent the first 16 seasons of his 18-year career with the dodgers, and was a huge part of their 1955 world series title. his 11 world series home runs is still the record for a national league player, and he hit four homers in a single fall classic twice. he retired with 407 home runs which was good for ninth place all-time at the time, and his 389 home runs as a dodger is still the franchise record. 

three dodgers wore number 4 after snider left the team prior to the 1963 season, the last of which was bill north in 1978.

earl weaver (retired by the orioles in 1982) - 1972 topps

here's the first non-player to be featured, and also the first card from their active years to be shown. weaver was, of course, the orioles' manager for most of the 1970s and much of the 1980s. he took over during the 1968 season and led the team to american league pennants in each of his first three full seasons at the helm. that run included the world series title in 1970 and a 109-win team in 1969. weaver also guided the club to another pennant in 1979 and retired from managing after the 1982 season with 1,354 wins having never had a losing team. 

weaver was the last oriole to wear number 4, as the team retired it number on september 19, 1982 upon his retirement. however, they gave it back to weaver when he was convinced to return to the orioles' managerial post during the 1985 season. weaver retired for good after the 1986 campaign, having suffered the first losing season of his career. he was inducted in to the hall of fame in 1996.

joe cronin (retired by the red sox in 1984) - 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts

here's another "numberless" card. cronin spent 11 seasons with the red sox as a player, a tenure that largely overlapped with his 13 years as their manager. he followed that up with several years as an executive for the team, but it was his playing career that got him elected to cooperstown in 1956. he owns a .301 lifetime batting average with 2,285 hits, 515 doubles, and an obp of .399. as a manager, he was the club's winningest leader until passed by terry francona, and he led them to the world series in 1946, his penultimage season at the helm.

cronin's number was retired in the same ceremony as ted williams' in may of 1984, so numerically he was first, i guess. the last red sox player to wear number 4 for the red sox was carney lansford in 1982.

ralph kiner (retired by the pirates in 1987) - 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics

kiner's number 4 is mostly visible on his back, although the design of the card camouflages it a bit. i think of kiner mostly for his home run hitting prowess which makes sense as he led the national league in homers for each of his first seven seasons. he played only 10 seasons (8 for the pirates) but amassed 369 long balls for his career along with a .946 ops.

for some reason, the pirates waited until september 19, 1987 to retire number 4 for kiner, despite his induction to the hall of fame in 1975 and the fact that the team had retired other numbers prior to that. the team literally took it off of the back of mike lavalierre, who became the last pirate to wear the number. and, since i am not including broadcasters here, i will mention that the mets "retired" kiner's microphone in 2014 in a fashion similar to that of a player whose number was retired, so he is honored by two franchises for his baseball career.

paul molitor (retired by the brewers in 1999) - 1984 donruss

the brewers retired molitor's number 4 on june 11, 1999 less than a year after he retired from the game. he had been away from milwaukee, however, for several seasons after spending time with both the blue jays and the twins. i was really hoping he would have great success as the twins' manager so that they might also retire his number based on that success and the three solid seasons he put up as their dh prior to his retirement. that was not meant to be for the st. paul native. as for the brewers, they gave number 4 to pat listach in 1996, so he became the last (and only) brewer to wear the number after molitor left.

as a brewer, molitor had over 200 doubles, 400 stolen bases, and 2200 hits en route to reaching the 300, 600, and 3000 milestones for each of those categories and becoming a first-ballot hall of famer in 1999. while he was always among my favorite non-dodgers, he moved in to the top spot following steve garvey's retirement and stayed there until the 1995 season when shawn green really hit the scene.

not too long ago i sold off my 1984 donruss duplicates, so i only have a few cards outside of my complete set and dodger team set rattling around in my mini-collections. i am very happy to have this card representing molitor in this collection.

that's it for number 4!

i am going to track a few things as we go, even though the information is already available elsewhere.

retired numbers by team (shown in chronological order of their first number retirement):

yankees - 4

giants - 4

pirates - 4

guardians 

red sox - 4

phillies

cardinals

reds

braves

astros

mets

orioles - 4

dodgers - 4

twins

white sox - 4

brewers - 4

tigers

cubs

royals

padres

athletics

angels

expos

rangers

major league baseball

rays

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies

mariners

retired number frequency:

4 - retired by 8 teams

running total of unique hall of famers: 8

running total of non-hall of famers:

a year late or right on time?

remember when card releases were delayed? yeah, i suppose it is still going on to some degree, but i think now we are experiencing the fanatics influence rather than production and distribution issues. aside from 2021 topps big league, the product i most associate with the covid-era delays was 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary.

that 2021 product didn't reach us until 2022, and it brought the 1952 topps design to us with a score of shiny parallels. here's a mitch white prism refractor

and a mookie betts black & white mini diamonds refractor

to refresh your memory.

now, i was (and still am) of the mind that topps messed up with the heritage brand by debuting it in 2001 with the 1952 design. using the 1951 design would have made more sense if they had planned on inserting buybacks stamped "50th anniversary" all along. i am not sure they thought that far ahead, however.  with the 2022 release of this 2021 product, it truly became a platinum anniversary - 70 years. folks that got married in 1952 and were still around and together in 2022 celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2022. that is what anniversary means. in 2021, they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary. according to some source on the internet, that is known as the chinchilla anniversary. ok i guess.

so, with it being 2023, i figured topps would cut bait and just skip 2022 with this product, and give us the 1953 design in chrome fashion as 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary. it would be right on time!  but no, they did not do that.  

2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary, which uses the 1953 topps design, was released in the late summer of 2023, and it is kind of weird. i joined a dodger team break and received the entire team set:

i find the varied use of logos interesting. the current dodgers have the logo that is most similar to what was on the original 53's. the "b" and two different "la" logos represent different eras of the team, i guess, but the flying baseball has been their primary logo, in one fashion or another, since 1945 according to chris creamer's sports logos site. the skinny "la" on don drysdale's card is just nonsense, and here you can have a closer look at it via his refractor parallel:

i gained a few base refractors from the break in addition to big d, including clayton kershaw

will smith

pee wee reese

jackie robinson

and duke snider

here's a blue prism refractor of the duke of flatbush

and an xfractor of max muncy

the muncy card makes it pretty easy to notice the photoshop filter applied to the player faces to try to give the cards a painted feel like the original 1953 set. i think topps could have just chromed their "living set" for this release and called it a day. some of the images are not good here.

i picked up a blaster of the stuff just to get some variety, and lucked in to a new big daddy vladdy

for my pc and a barry larkin card

for the dodger stadium collection. it's easier to see the old dodger stadium seats when looking at the card in person.

in case you didn't notice, among the 19 dodger subjects in this set is one steven patrick garvey. that gives me more parallels to chase, and i've done a fair amount of chasing.

refractor

black & white mini diamonds

prism refractor

blue prism refractor

xfractor

aqua wave refractor

numbered to 299

blue mini diamond refractor

numbered to 199

speckle refractor

numbered to 150

platinum cream toile/fuchsia atomic refractor

numbered to 100

red atomic refractor

numbered to 100

rose gold refractor

numbered to 75

that last one came to me in the break, so i was pretty pleased with myself. i don't think i picked up any refractors scarcer than 99 last year, and i don't expect to do the same this year unless the price is way right.

a couple of quick comments before we move on - two bullet points for garvey's career seems lazy. also, the toile parallels are only slightly better than the emoji and star parallels that panini and topps have churned out in recent years. still, it's just old-timey ballplayer wallpaper images. please stop.

back to my blaster...

i was happy to find a babe ruth card

but i didn't realize it was a photo variation until after i got rid of it. who knew there were photo variations in this set (mookie and jackie robinson each have variations, i guess)

one of my guaranteed prism refractors was a blue prism of don mattingly

check out those tremendous sideburns.

i found a blue atomic refractor of dansby swanson

and and aqua autograph of whit merrifield

always fun to find an autograph in a blaster.

those last two cards are fine examples of the impact delays have on a set and its subjects. both of those guys have spent all of 2023 with different teams. still, this card that accompanied my garvey aqua wave refractor takes the cake

syndergaard is now three teams removed from the angels.

i really hope that in 2024 we are treated to the 1954 design and the set is called 2024 topps chrome platinum anniversary. it only makes sense.