my retired number collection - 32

this is the 32nd 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 five people for whom number 32 has been retired:

jim umbricht (retired by the astros in 1965) 1964 topps

umbricht was the first non-hall of fame player to have his number retired by a franchise, as the astros (then colt .45s) retired 32 for him posthumously on april 12, 1965. umbricht had been selected by the team in the 1961 expansion draft, and he pitched well in his two seasons with the club. in 1962, he was 4-0 with a 2.01 era, and he followed that up in 1963 with a 4-3 record and 2.61 era despite battling melanoma and receiving treatment during the season. 

umbricht had been diagnosed with melanoma during spring training prior to the 1963 season, but he managed to stay with the team for the entire campaign. the club released him in december of 1963 so that he could focus on his treatment, but he passed away on april 8, 1964. even though it does not show his number, i thought that his 1964 card would be the appropriate one to use for this collection. unlike ken hubbs' card in the set, umbricht's does not reflect his passing as it occurred after the cards were printed. umbricht is the first and only member of the franchise to ever wear number 32.

sandy koufax (retired by the dodgers in 1972) 2018 topps museum collection

i love the fact that the dodgers' jersey numbers on the front are in red, and cards like koufax's 2018 topps museum collection show why. the number just pops. as for koufax's number, the dodgers retired it along with jackie robinson's 42 and roy campanella's 39 on june 4, 1972 during an old-timer's day celebration. this occurred a couple of months before koufax was inducted into the national baseball hall of fame, and i am thinking it is likely that his election by the writers on his first ballot was the impetus for the dodgers to retire numbers for the first time in their history.

koufax was a 3-time cy young award winner, 4-time world series champion, 2-time world series mvp, and he won the 1963 national league mvp award during the regular season as well. simply one of the all-time greats, and he is the last dodger, and only los angeles dodger, to ever wear number 32.

elston howard (retired by the yankees in 1984) 1964 topps

the yankees retired number 32 for howard, who had passed away in 1980, on july 21, 1984. he had spent 12-plus seasons with the franchise from 1955 through the middle of the 1967 season, serving primarily as their catcher during most of the 1960's. his 1964 card shows most of his number on the home pinstripes beneath the yankee stadium facade that appears on so many cards from those early topps sets. 

howard won the mvp award in 1963, and finished third in the voting the following year. he was a part of four yankee world championship teams during his playing days, and when he returned to the club as a coach in the 1970's, he won two more rings when they beat the dodgers in 1977 and 1978. the yankees had not recirculated his number they dealt him to the red sox in 1967, so he would have been the last yankee to wear the number even if he hadn't returned to coach first base for the club.

steve carlton (retired by the phillies in 1989) 1983 fleer

steve carlton retired in may of 1988, and on july 29, 1989 the phillies recognized him by retiring his number as they added him to their wall of fame. a few years later, in 1994, carlton was voted into the national baseball hall of fame. carlton pitched for a few different franchises in his career, but had his greatest success as a phillie.

he was a four-time cy young award winner in philly, and had two other seasons where he finished in the top 4 in the voting. he won the pitching triple crown in 1972, and was 2-0 in the 1980 world series, helping the phillies to their first world series title. 3,031 of his 4,136 career strikeouts came while wearing number 32 for the phillies, and he recorded many of those while wearing the baby blue zip up jersey shown on his 1983 fleer card. 

he remains the all-time franchise leader in starts, wins, and strikeouts, and even though the phillies released carlton during the 1986 season, they did not reissue his number, ensuring that no other phillie would ever take the field with 32 on their back.

roy halladay (retired by the blue jays in 2018) 2009 topps tribute

like umbricht and howard, roy halladay's number retirement by the blue jays was made posthumously. halladay passed away in a plane accident in november of 2017, and the blue jays retired his number on march 29, 2018. canadian scott diamond then became the last blue jay to wear the number, having done so in his lone appearance as a blue jay that occurred during the 2016 season. halladay's 2009 topps tribute card is a great one for this collection, showing his number 32 prominently. with the blue jays rescinding roberto alomar's number from retirement, halladay is currently the only blue jay player to be so honored.

halladay won 148 games for the blue jays in what was really 11 seasons (plus a start in a 12th season). he was a modern day workhorse, leading the league in complete games six times with the blue jays, including in 2003 when he won the american league cy young award. halladay, who had a different number retired by the phillies (more on that in a couple of weeks) was elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot in 2019.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 32 posts so far):

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 42

giants - 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 42

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 42

guardians - 3, 5, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 42, 455

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 26, 27, 42

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 32, 42

cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17, 20, 23, 24, 42, 85

reds - 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 24, 42

braves - 3, 6, 10, 21, 25, 31, 42

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 32, 42

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 31, 42

orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22, 42

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24, 32, 42

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 28, 42

white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, 42, 72

brewers - 1, 4, 19, 42

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 16, 23, 42

cubs - 10, 14, 23, 26, 31, 42

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 42

angels - 11, 26, 30, 42

expos - 8, 10, 30, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 42

major league baseball - 42

rays - 12, 42, 66

diamondbacks - 20, 42

blue jays - 32, 42

rockies - 17, 42

mariners - 11, 24, 42

nationals - 11, 42

marlins - 42

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)

15 - retired by 2 teams

16 - retired by 4 teams

17 - retired by 3 teams

18 - retired by 3 teams (includes mets who will formally retire the number in 2024) 

19 - retired by 5 teams

20 - retired by 11 teams (retired by orioles, reds, and guardians for same person)

21 - retired by 4 teams

22 - retired by 2 teams

23 - retired by 4 teams

24 - retired by 8 teams (retired by giants and mets for same person)

25 - retired by 4 teams

26 - retired by 4 teams

27 - retired by 3 teams

28 - retired by 1 team

29 - retired by 4 teams (retired by twins and angels for same person)

30 - retired by 3 teams

31 - retired by 4 teams (retired by cubs and braves for same person; retired by cubs for two players)

32 - retired by 5 teams

42 - retired by 30 teams (retired by cardinals and yankees for individuals in addition to jackie robinson)

66 - retired by 1 team

72 - retired by 1 team

85 - retired by 1 team

455 - retired by 1 team

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 132

running total of non-hall of famers: 46

no value in precedent

i know it's old news at this point, but i feel the need to express my frustration and disappointment with topps in terms of one of the most integral subsets of their 1975 baseball set and how they bungled it in this year's heritage release.

i am, of course, referring to the mvp subsets. once i found out that topps did in fact include mvp cards in 2024 heritage, i assumed and hoped that it would include all of the mvps from 1975 through 2023, bit they didn't do that - instead providing cards for a smattering of years between then and now. i suppose this has something to do with barry bonds and not putting him on new cards, but in an even more headscratching move, they reprinted some of the cards that were included in the original 1975 topps set.

i don't know why i am surprised. topps reprinted cards from the 1962 subset babe ruth story in 2011 topps heritage, but then again they updated some of the award cards in 2021 topps heritage as well as some of the all-time leader cards in 2022 heritage. 

at any rate, i decided to complete the subset, and i've finally tracked down all the cards. before i get to the set, i just have to point out how bad this card is

i know night owl already pointed out just how lazy and maybe even ignorant this card is. the person who laid it out should have to take the stage at the national and suffer the slings and arrows of disappointed collectors. maybe this was meant to be a placeholder - that could explain why it is crooked - but there is really no excuse. topps has, in the past, created two solo versions of fred lynn's 1975 rookie card. once for the 1982 kmart set and then again in 2001 for the inaugural archives set. either one would have worked here instead of the nonsense that topps sent to the printer.

and then there is this swing and a miss

topps apparently forgot how to handle a card that featured a landscape and portrait card in this design, even though the 1974 mvp card in the 1975 set had the same issue. did they even bother to review the 1975 set before developing this year's heritage set?

and then there is the heritage logo. one would think that they could have moved the logo so as not to interfere with the american league mvps, but they didn't bother. kind of like how they no longer both to rotate the 50th anniversary stamp on the buybacks between the horizontal and vertical cards.

ok, let's just see the full mvp subset from this year's heritage with minimal comment:

five reprints, including the 1951 mvps which includes a "card that should have been" roy campanella 1951 card. it would have been interesting to see if topps would have corrected their error on the 1955 mvp card had they chosen to reprint it.

this is a good set for mike schmidt player collectors

it's worth pointing out that neither the 2006 ryan howard card nor the 2009 albert pujols card that were used here are their actual base cards. howard's card is recognizing his rookie of the year campaign in 2005 and pujol's is doing the same for his 2008 mvp award.

you can see here that topps also failed with the color layout on the 2013 mvp card. the american league mvp gets the narrow band of color on every other card.

i suppose that the high numbers set could fill in some of the gaps missed here - i would be especially interested in seeing the 1988 mvps on a card - but i am not holding my breath.

i hope topps gets its act together because i am looking forward to a refresh of the all-time all-stars subset that should show up next year.

taking time for hockey

the conference finals of the stanley cup playoffs are well underway, with game 4 between the stars and oilers happening tonight. the oilers are the last of the canadian teams in the tournament, and so i am firmly on their bandwagon.

i collected hockey cards for several years in the 1990's and have retained my wayne gretzky and luc robitaille pc's as well as a few other cards here and there. i recently added a few cards to put into my memorials mini-collection as well.

2017-18 ud trilogy henrik zetterberg

this card is the companion to the tomas tatar card i showed in this post six years ago. both feature the patches that the red wings wore for mike ilitch (mr. i) and gordie howe (9), but this one features the white on red versions instead of the red on white that the tatar card features.

i also added a 2017-18 ud opc retro variation of zetterberg

because it shows the gordie howe patch all on its own.

2020-21 upper deck lukas vejdemo

vejdemo is sporting the 16 patch for henri richard, the younger brother of rocket richard. henri was an 11-time stanley cup champion for the habs. eleven!

2022-23 ud trilogy nick suzuki generations

suzuki is sporting the 10 patch for guy lafluer. lafluer was another all-time great who won "only" five stanley cups with the canadiens.

all four of these cards came from sportlots, and i added another to the order:

2014-15 upper deck o-pee-chee stickers luc robitaille

this is giving off 1975 topps baseball vibes for sure. 

maybe someday i will get my gretzky and robitaille collections entered into tcdb. until then, i am hoping to see the cup return to edmonton!

birthday buddies

happy belated (by one day) 56th birthday to these guys

seeing a card with both frank thomas and jeff bagwell on it is pretty neat - they were both born on may 27, 1968. 

i don't know of any other cards like it, and it makes me sad that there wasn't a card that featured birthday buddies don sutton and reggie smith (both born on april 2, 1945) from their time as dodger teammates.

lest we forget

happy memorial day! hopefully there has been a moment for you to reflect on the reason for the holiday - a reason that is represented by the poppy on mookie betts' jersey as shown on this 2021 topps gallery card

i am fortunate to not have any family members lose their lives in military service, although my grandfather was a pow during world war ii. too many families, however, have experienced the sort of loss that memorial day is designed to honor, and i made sure to take some time earlier today to acknowledge that reality. i hope you did, too. 

oddballs and ends

here are some dodger oddballs i picked up not too long ago from a few different sportlot sellers. filling out orders to maximize shipping benefit is a lot easier for team collectors with the site's database revisions - you can sort seller inventory by team!

this is a 1983 post super sugar crisp dodger team card

and the back contains a summary of the franchise's history

it is weird to think of a time when pee wee reese and don drysdale weren't in the hall of fame, but it was "just" 40 years ago that they were so honored, and this cereal insert predates that! when will there be cards in cereal boxes again? 

this is a 1993 metz - not mets - baking card of darryl strawberry

it is clearly a dodger card and not a met card.  metz baking company was founded in the 1920's in iowa and grew to be the largest baking company in the midwest. from what i can tell it's been bought out and resold since these cards were produced.

i completed my dodgers 1981 permagraphics team sets with the addition of fernando valenzuela's all-star card 

and a steve garvey credit card beyond the one that is in my garvey pc

apparently there are variations of these cards in terms of how they are numbered on the back

but i think the garveys i have are the same. i also have one of these that garvey actually signed in the autograph spot on the back.

finally, i picked up this 1981 fleer dodger sticker

it has the 1980 all-star game on the back, which features the game played at dodger stadium. i have one of those backs in my dodger stadium mini-collection, and i am pretty sure i have this sticker as part of the 1981 fleer set i put together in real time 43 years ago.

i still need a couple of stickers to complete the team set, so i will be oddball hunting again in the future i am sure.

smaller fish from the rivercentre card show

growing up in the 1970's and 80's, video games were a huge part of my youth. we didn't have pong, which got its own card from 2021 topps heritage

but we did have a single console game centered around tanks that worked through a sort of maze firing at each other. we later skipped the atari 2600 and went for the atari 800 computer and then spent an ungodly amount of time playing centipede and frogger in our family room. when i wasn't sorting my baseball cards, of course.

the heritage card was one of many i picked up at the semi-annual card show in st. paul last month, in addition to the dollar box cards i shared previously in this post.

i began that show by picking out sixty cards from a dime box plus eight from a quarter box for 8 bucks. these boxes were sorted by team which was great. i found a number of dodgers for my collection, including 2022 panini capstone summit inserts of mookie betts and freddie freeman

and a pair of 2023 topps chrome sapphire edition cards of walker buehler and tony gonsolin

along with a 2023 bowman insert of andy pages

i learned recently that his last name is not pronounced as "pages" like a book.

there were a number of numbered cards that i grabbed, including a couple of dodgers

and some others that i can use in trades.

i grabbed a couple of insert cards that would fit in rex ryan's collection from 2022 topps

including a rare dime box appearance by mike trout.

the higher priced cards included parallels such as these

all former dodgers at this point, but still dodgers in my collection.

this seller and i bonded over the simple joy of sorting cards. he got a wistful look on his face while talking about it, in fact.

i also took 20 cards from a 50 cent box that i got for seven bucks. these included run of the mill parallels like a 2021 topps gypsy queen mookie betts green

and the chrome version of the 2021 topps update 1992 redux clayton kershaw card

i also found a fair amount of heritage in this box, including a 2024 emmet sheehan card

for the team set. in all, i didn't see a whole lot of 2024 heritage at the show which was somewhat surprising as it was the newest release at the time.

other heritage sets were represented, including the atari card above and 2021 high numbers with roberto clemente

and 1972 world series

inserts. i am sort of annoyed that these sorts of cards didn't happen with last year's heritage, because joe ferguson deserved a card for his throw from the outfield in game 1 of the 1974 world series to nail sal bando at the plate.

i also grabbed a couple of (very) base relic cards from 2021 panini donruss

the pache goes into my trade pile with sluggo, and i have a soft spot for keston hiura and hope he turns his career around. zot!

this seller told me that he spent thursday (i was there on friday) going through the bargain boxes of other dealers to populate his box, so i am guessing that these were all dime or quarter cards at the time he bought them.

speaking of dimes, i had two quarters in my pocket and so picked five cards from a true dime box that another seller had off to the side of their setup. this was a classic dime box with stuff that had probably been in there for 20 years or more. here's what i took:

1995 topps stadium club clearcut greg vaughn

1995 topps stadium club ring leaders will clark

1999 upper deck century legends memorable shots carlton fisk

and kirk gibson

and 2017 topps gallery canvas sean newcomb

the two century legends cards go in the name/number on the back mini-collection. the others include an acetate card and the most pacific looking insert topps has ever produced, and a card for sluggo. after i put down my fifty cents, the seller somewhat jokingly told me to "take some more" cards. i wasn't sure if they were serious, so i didn't follow through.

i found a fifty cent box from another seller that netted a couple of dodger needs, including a 2020 topps gallery jackie robinson short print

and a 2020 topps update mike piazza turkey red chrome parallel

along with a couple of other hall of famer cards:

 2020 topps gallery rickey henderson hall of fame gallery

and 2022 topps heritage hank aaron 1973 comics

which includes an eddie mathews appearance. i paid the full price of $2 for these! 

last, but not least, i took 3 cards from the 3 for $10 box that another seller had laid out. with this box, i limited myself to three cards and didn't pick any dodger cards. or any cards that i think will ultimately stay in my collection to be honest. they were more cards that intrigued me. like....

2012 leaf history of baseball jim colborn cut autograph

here's the back

this card amused me because colborn added the notation of "major league pitcher". i would love to know the background behind the source for this autograph. was he at a mixer? a celebrity golf tournament after party? did this come from a nametag? so many questions. as for colborn himself, he is a former dodger pitching coach with whom i've had a short interaction so the card spoke to me beyond just the interesting inscription.

2018 topps gold label lucas sims gold framed autograph red #/25

another one that will likely be added to the sluggo pile. wish i could find a similar card of a dodger in these boxes!

last but not least, here's a 2016 leaf perfect game yellow printing plate auto 1/1 of jo adell

and the back

adell is still only 25 years old, and is set as the angels' primary right fielder this year. he's on pace for just about 30 home runs, and i am rooting for him and prospectors everywhere that he breaks out! at any rate, a signed printing plate for $3.33 is not a bad deal as far as i am concerned.

i have some cards from one more seller at this show to share and then i'll move on to my visit to a houston card show and what came out of that. stay tuned!