i started 2024 with a 20/25

one of my first pick-ups in the new year came via sportlots, and it's not the kind of card i usually find there. as i do maybe once every six months, i searched the site for steve garvey cards on the off chance that a seller added an uncommon parallel to their inventory, and i was surprised to find that exact scenario had played out!

a seller had a 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia spectrum gold card listed and i scooped it up

there in the middle of the back you can see that it is numbered 20/25. this sort of low number parallel is fairly rare on sportlots, at least for garvey cards. the price wasn't bad either - much less than i would have been asked to pay on ebay.

here's the front

spectrum parallels are shiny.

of course, with sportlots there is always the temptation to add cards to maximize value of shipping, and this seller's rate for 10 cards was the same as for 2-4 and not much more than the rate for a single card. so, i added 9 more dodgers to the order and paid with credit that i had from selling a 2023 update set on the site.

i didn't scan all of the additional cards, but i did scan these two 2019 topps allen & ginter ginter greats cards of clayton kershaw

and sandy koufax

that completed the dodger team set for me. i also added a few cards from 2017 topps allen & ginter x, including jackie robinson

not a bad start to the year for my steve garvey and dodger collections!

the almost daily dodger - kenta maeda

i finally added the kenta maeda short print from 2016 topps archives to my collection last fall

it shows him on the 1991 topps design with a photoshopped uniform. there were three dodgers in the 10-card short print part of the set!

the dodgers traded maeda away after the 2019 season for brusdar graterol, and he had a very strong 2020 season with the twins (he finished second in the american league cy young voting). this year, he will be pitching for the tigers in the first of a two-year deal. i was thinking that the dodgers might reacquire maeda to help with their rotation, but it looks like they've done ok in that regard in the time after he signed with detroit!

wasted on the way

crosby, stills & nash's "daylight again" is a fantastic album - one i didn't hear until 1989 when uncle joe benson played it, in its entirety, on klos 95.5 fm in los angeles on one of his "seventh day" segments. it includes the singles "southern cross" and the title of this post, "wasted on the way". 

i was thinking about the album when i saw this card posted for sale:

that's a 2023 topps chrome black autograph card of canaan smith-njigba, who takes an initial forward approach to his signature. it would be sort of fun to see a version with the ampersand, though.

i wound up buying the card for a couple of bucks - i was already buying other cards from the seller, whose shipping costs for individual cards probably kept buyers away. this seller is based overseas, so it's understandable.

i wound up ordering a few cards, including michael busch's autograph card from the same set

busch also went for a three letter approach to his signature, but with much less clarity. 

anyway, the cards arrived intact. nothing got wasted on the way. and, by the way, i have seen the southern cross, and...i wasn't too impressed if i'm being honest.

that kepshire cat

kurt kepshire appeared in 51 major league games in his career, which spanned from the fourth of july, 1984 until april 23, 1986. he pitched in dodger stadium in three of those games. luckily for my collection, photos of him from those away games against the dodgers made their way on to cardboard. here's his 1985 donruss card:

and his 1985 fleer card:

the shadows on the donruss card provide some drama to the image. both of these photos came from his relief appearance (second big league appearance) on july 8 of '84 and were almost assuredly taken from the camera well adjacent to the dodger dugout.

that camera well is visible on kepshire's teammate tommy herr's 1985 fleer card

and other parts of dodger stadium show up on other cardinal cards, like art howe's

and lonnie smith's

in fact, dodger stadium is fairly prevalent on non-dodger cards in 1985 fleer. a few months ago, i went through my complete sets of fleer and donruss from 1985 (along with some other scattered cards) and found some dodger stadium cards i didn't already have in the mini-collection to track down doubles of for it.

dodger stadium is here, on glenn davis' half of his rookie card

that's the right field pavilion showing up in the backtround. in addition, many mets are featured on the dodger stadium field, including brent gaff

ron gardenhire

jose oquendo

and walt terrell

traditionally with fleer in the early 1980's, it was the braves who seemed to get dodger stadium background on their cards most often. here's old friend terry forster

up along the first base line, and another old friend in jerry royster

closer to home plate.

dodger nemesis chris chambliss is probably pretty close to the batting cage

which is exactly where steve yeager is hanging out

i finally added a dupe of the yeager card to my dodger stadium collection.

back to donruss, they produced some pretty cool cards with dodger stadium backgrounds in 1984, like ryne sandberg's

and ozzie smith's

i think i put the sandberg in my name/number on the back collection though.

kepshire had some company in 1985 donruss as well, including teammate ralph citarella

who must have annoyed someone at the card company for them to choose that photo.

here's dave von ohlen, the pride of flushing, ny

who wound up pitching for the cardinals and a's instead of his hometown mets. he was 0-1 lifetime at shea, by the way. 

speaking of the mets, here's mike fitzgerald

in dodger stadium with the centerfield edge of the right field pavilion showing. these days, that section of lower seats near fitzgerald's right ear is blocked off from spectators.

one of the the centerfield speakers is visible behind atlee hammaker

and bill laskey is shown 

as seen from the visitor dugout camera well.

future dodger john tudor

makes an appearance as does long time nl west rival dave concepcion

i picked up concepcion's leaf card, too.

it was a good time going through these sets that don't show up on the blogs too often. i'll finish the post up with one more kepshire card

looks like kepshire got too much sun or perhaps is blushing because of the dodger stadium usherette in the background. i think he only has six major league cards - topps, donruss, and fleer from both 1985 and 1986 - meaning that half of them feature photos from dodger stadium. i am happy to have them all!

get mattingly!

i refrained from going to the card show today, but i did want to showcase a card i picked up last weekend while digging through dime boxes at the monthly collector's club show. it's a 1994 pinnacle joe carter card

i had not seen this one before, but the ball carter is trying to catch lines up perfectly with the t-shirt image of don mattingly. in fact, it obscures the interlocking ny logo on his cap. or is the ball part of the t-shirt design? no, it's not part of the design - here's the same t-shirt for sale (vintage!) at a very steep price. anyway, it looks like the fan to the mattingly-shirt guy's left is settling in for a basket catch. no way to confirm whether or not any of the fans in the front row are jeffery maier.

i took a look at baseball reference and there was only one game in which yankee players hit home runs to the field carter was playing in a 1993 game at yankee stadium. on august 5, in a getaway game, both paul o'neill and (you guessed it) don mattingly hit home runs to right field where carter was stationed. there's no way to know, but i like to think it was mattingly himself who took aim at his image on the shirt and let it fly.

my retired number collection - 14

this is (appropriately) the 14th post in a series that shares the cards i have in my retired number mini-collection. you can find the links to the previous posts down at the bottom of this post. if you're eager to learn more right now, you can check out the full list of retired numbers along with what this collection will entail over at my want list site.

without further ado, here are the nine people for whom the number 14 has been retired (by ten teams):

gil hodges (retired by the mets in 1973) 1971 topps

gil hodges was the first met to wear number 14. he took his number that he had worn previously as a dodger and wore it as an inaugural member of the national league expansion team in 1962. he later reclaimed the number when he returned to manage the club in 1968. following a losing season that year, he led the amazin' mets to the pennant and world series title in 1969, cementing his place in new york met history and his status as a mets' legend. his 1971 topps card shows off both his number and his striking blue eyes!

hodges had the mets above .500 in each of the next two seasons, but passed away of a heart attack during spring training in 1972. the following year, on june 9, 1973, the team retired his number. the dodgers were in town that day, and it was also old-timers' day in queens, featuring a matchup between former mets and former dodgers, so lots of people with connections to hodges were able to participate. while a couple of mets wore number 14 after hodges retired from his playing career (including a guy who appears later in this post), no met wore it after he took it back in 1968. 

ernie banks (retired by the cubs in 1982) 2018 topps update silver pack 1983 35th anniversary

let's play 2! the cubs retired banks' number on august 22, 1982 making him the first in team history to be so honored. he had retired after the 1971 season and was voted in to the hall of fame on his first ballot in 1977. he was a coach for the cubs for a couple of seasons after he retired and remained affiliated with the club in the years after that, so i am not sure why it took the team so long to recognize banks in this way.

a member of the 500 home run club and a two-time national league mvp, banks is arguably mostly remembered today for never making the postseason during his 19 seasons in the majors. he spent that entire time with the cubs, and eventually became known as "mr. cub". it was more difficult than you might think to find a card showing his number, but i think it turned out ok thanks to 2018 topps update. 

ken boyer (retired by the cardinals in 1984) 1993 action packed

boyer was one of the two players (ron swoboda is the other) who wore number 14 for the mets. boyer wore it for the white sox as well, but when he went to the dodgers at the end of his career he shifted to 45 and let len gabrielson keep the number. for most of his career, however, he wore 14 for the cardinals.

boyer held down the hot corner for the cardinals for 11 years starting in 1955, winning five gold gloves and the 1964 national league mvp award. he was a big part of the cardinals' success that season as they beat the yankees in the world series. boyer became a coach and manager following his playing career, finally taking the helm of the cardinals' major league club in 1978. while many others he led the team until he was replaced by whitey herzog during the 1980 season. 

sadly, boyer passed away in 1982 at the age of 51. at some point after that, the cardinals made the decision to retire his number, making september 1983 callup jim adduci the last cardinal to wear 14. the number was officially retired on may 20, 1984, making boyer the only person in franchise history to have his number retired but not be enshrined in cooperstown.

larry doby (retired by the guardians in 1994) 2005 upper deck mini jersey collection

i really have no idea what this set is or why there is a regular sized card in a set called "mini jersey collection" but it was the only one i could find showing doby in a cleveland uniform with 14 on his back (the number also appears as part of the card design).  doby, of course, was the first black player in the american league (and second in the majors), debuting about two and a half months after robinsion first took the field for the dodgers.

doby joined cleveland from the newark eagles, but struggled in that first season. the next year, he hit over .300 in the regular season and .318 in the fall classic as he helped cleveland win the world series championship. in 1954, he led the american league in home runs and rbi and helped cleveland win the pennant. he left cleveland after the 1955 season, but returned for the 1957 and 1958 campaigns. in his 10 years with the club, he hit 215 home runs and had a 

his number was retired on july 3, 1994 in front of a sellout crowd at jacobs field, and four years later he was enshrine in the hall of fame via the veterans' committee. the retirement of number 14 in cleveland made jesse levis the last player to wear the number.

kent hrbek (retired by the twins in 1995) 1984 topps

twin cities native and fan favorite kent hrbek had his number 14 retired by the club on august 13, 1995. he spent his entire playing career with the twins - a career that ended in august of 1994 with the strike. by the time his number retirement ceremony came about a year later, the twins had started 10 different players at first base.

hrbek, of course, was a big part of the twins' 1987 and 1991 world series championship teams, but he was also the runner up to cal ripken jr in the 1982 american league rookie of the year race, as well as the runner up to guillermo hernandez in the 1984 american league mvp voting. it's just a coincidence that i used his 1984 topps card for this collection, however. during his rookie year, he was a write-in all-star which turned out to be the only way he ever made it to the midsummer classic.

the last twin to wear 14, hrbek was gifted with an assortment of items at the number retirement ceremony. these included golf clubs from the visiting california angels, plus a couple of atvs, a pig, a cow, and a shotgun according to the los angeles times. hrbek is a big outdoors guy who has shown up at several events around the twin cities and greater minnesota. and, while he is not in the hall of fame, he is in the twins' hall of fame, and has a statue outside gate 14 at target field.

jim bunning (retired by the phillies in 2001) 2001 fleer greats of the game

it's appropriate to use this 2001 fleer greats of the game card for bunning, as his number (which had been most recently worn by gary bennett in 2000) was retired by the phillies on april 16, 2001 which was opening day. he was only a phillie for six seasons (over two different stints) but did have some of his best years in philadelphia. his first run with the club lasted from 1964 through 1967. he won 19 games in each of the first three seasons of that run, with a cumulative era of 2.48 during that time. in 1967 he won 17 and (wrongfully) finished second in the cy young voting to mike mccormick. mccormick won 22 games, but trailed bunning in every other pitching category that matters. in fact, bunning led the league in innings pitched, shutouts, and strikeouts, and was second to phil niekro in era.

perhaps the highlight of his phillies tenure was the perfect game he threw on june 21, 1964 (father's day) against the mets in queens, but i would guess overall his biggest accomplishment was being voted in to the hall of fame by the veterans' committee in 1996. his body of work, which included nine seasons with the tigers and two seasons split between the pirates and dodgers, included 2,855 strikeouts. at the time of his retirement, that was the second highest strikeout total of all time! 

jim rice (retired by the red sox in 2009) 1986 fleer

there's no missing rice's number 14 on that 1986 fleer card, and there was no missing rice in the box scores that i perused daily during the 1978 season. he was the american league mvp that season, leading the league in home runs, rbi, and triples! over the course of his 16 season career (all with the red sox), rice piled up 2,452 hits, 382 home runs, and a .298 batting average.

it took rice all 15 years of eligibility on the writers' ballot to make the hall of fame, but he was elected in 2009. as a result, on july 28 of that same year, the red sox (who had kept his number out of circulation since his playing career ended) officially retired his number.

paul konerko (retired by the white sox in 2015) 2008 topps

i think 2008 topps works for some teams better than others, and the white sox are a team that it definitely works for. anyway, former dodger prospect paul konerko found a home on the south side of chicago after short stints as a dodger and a red. he spent 16 seasons playing for the white sox, during which time he hit 432 home runs and drove in 1,383 runs. in 2005, he hit 40 home runs for the second straight season and helped the white sox to the pennant and world series championship. he was the mvp of the alcs and hit a grand slam in game 2 of the world series.

he retired at the end of the 2014 season, and the club retired his number on may 23, 2015 making him the last to wear the number. while he is not a hall of famer (he was one ballot and done), he is a big presence in white sox history. in the entire run of the franchise, only luke appling appeared in more games for the white sox. he is also second (to frank thomas) among all white sox players in home runs, rbi, and total bases.

pete rose (retired by the reds in 2016) 1979 topps

you can smell the action on this 1979 topps card of the all-time hit king with his swing complete, back foot pivoting, mouth open and number 14 showing below his left arm. every time i see a 1979 topps card i am taken back to opening packs with my neighborhood friends. i have memories of opening packs from 1978 as well, but for some reason (maybe the fact that the 1979 set is more colorful?) the '79 memories seem stronger.

anyway, the reds finally retired rose's number in a ceremony on june 26, 2016 that also saw him inducted into the team's hall of fame. that is probably the only baseball hall of fame he has a chance for thanks to his betting on baseball while managing the club in the late 1980's. still, he owns the all-time records for games played and hits and was considered a lock for cooperstown until the betting allegations hit. the only person to wear number 14 for the reds following rose's dismissal as their manager in 1989 was his son, pete rose jr, who had a short stint with the club in 1997.

gil hodges (retired by the dodgers in 2022) 2002 topps tribute

gil hodges bookends this post, thanks to his status of being the first and the most recent person for whom number 14 was retired. the dodgers have a well known policy of not retiring numbers for players or managers who are not in cooperstown (with the only exception at the time of hodges' number retirement being jim gilliam) and so hodges, despite his presence as a key member of the brooklyn era boys of summer did not have his number on display next to teammates gilliam, pee wee reese, duke snider, jackie robinson, sandy koufax, roy campanella, and don drysdale, plus manager walter alston. no, hodges had to wait until june 4, 2022 to be so honored.

the dodgers announced plans to retire his number shortly after he was voted in to the hall of fame as a player by the golden eras committee late in 2021 for enshrinement in 2022. the ceremony took place prior to a game against the visiting mets which is a nice reversal of the mets' retirement ceremony mentioned at the top of this post.

hodges hit 361 home runs and drove in 1,254 runs as a dodger. he was an eight-time all-star as the club's first baseman, and led them to world series titles in brooklyn (1955) and los angeles (1959). in the latter series, he hit .391 and his home run in the bottom of the eighth inning was the difference in the pivotal game 4.

it took a long time for hodges to be voted in to the hall of fame, and the dodgers did not keep his number out of circulation like they did for fernando valenzuela (who, in 2023, became the second non-hall of famer to have his number retired by the dodgers) and so a litany of players wore number 14 over the years. the most notable was mike scioscia, but the last was fan favorite kiké hernandez in 2020. that means the last time a dodger wore number 14, they were celebrating a world series title which is a pretty good way to go out.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 14 posts so far):

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

giants - 3, 4, 11

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11

guardians - 3, 5, 14

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14

phillies - 1, 14

cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14

reds - 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14

braves - 3, 6, 10

astros - 5, 7

mets - 14

orioles - 4, 5, 8

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14

white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 11

cubs - 10, 14

royals - 5, 10

padres - 6

athletics - 9

angels - 11

expos - 8, 10

rangers - 7, 10

major league baseball

rays - 12

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies

mariners - 11

nationals - 11

retired number frequency:

1 - retired by 9 teams

2 - retired by 5 teams

3 - retired by 7 teams

4 - retired by 8 teams

5 - retired by 7 teams

6 - retired by 7 teams

7 - retired by 4 teams

8 - retired by 6 teams (retired by yankees for two players)

9 - retired by 6 teams

10 - retired by 9 teams (retired by expos for two players)

11 - retired by 8 teams

12 - retired by 1 team

13 - retired by 1 team

14 - retired by 10 teams (retired by mets and dodgers for same person)

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 81

running total of non-hall of famers: 20

double nickels

there was a big deal made on social media (and even in some mainstream outlets) after the dodgers signed shohei ohtani and it was revealed that he gifted joe kelly's wife with a new car after she let it be known that ohtani could have number 17 - joe kelly's number. it's something that comes up a lot these days with veterans moving around - the claiming of "their" number for some price - but it doesn't always happen.

case in point, when the dodgers acquired albert pujols in 2021, he did not seek out his number 5 from corey seager. instead, he added another 5 and wore 55. here's his 2021 bowman heritage card showing the double digit number:

before pujols, it was russell martin who wore the number, although it wasn't always visible on his cards. here are a couple of parallels of martin's 2011 topps card - cognac

and walmart black

that don't show 55 but are cool, nonetheless. before he was called up, as in spring training, martin wore number 70 (among at least one other number) as seen on his 2005 topps update & highlights gold parallel

however, when he debuted in the big leagues, he was given 55.

for the dodgers, that number is mostly associated with orel hershiser. this 1986 topps sticker of the bulldog (and mike young)

doesn't show his number, but i am featuring it because it is a former "most wanted" card of mine. it completes the team set for me, which is nice (please be sure to check my current list of most wanted cards and see if you can help me out - you will be rewarded!).

here's number 55

on his 1987 fleer card

according to baseball reference, hershiser only wore number 53 (in honor of don drysdale) when he went to the giants (shawn estes already had 55), but this 1998 pinnacle plus card

shows him wearing 56. must be spring training or something, but it's best not to dwell too long on hershiser pitching for the giants.

anyway, it's 55 days until the dodgers and padres kick off the 2024 mlb season in south korea. that's less than 8 weeks!

in other news, 2023 topps stadium club is out, and i can't wait to receive the boxes i ordered. the thurman munson card is fantastic!!!!!