my retired number collection - 35

this is the 35th 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 three people for whom number 35 has been retired:

phil niekro (retired by the braves in 1984) 1978 topps

it took five ballots for niekro to be elected to the hall of fame which blew my mind as the guy had over 300 wins and 3000 strikeouts which to me were automatics for induction. at any rate, he made it in 1997 which was 13 years after the braves had retired his number.

niekro pitched for the braves from 1964 through 1983, but when he refused to retire, he was released by the club in october of '83. he signed with the yankees and the braves decided to honor him by retiring his number on august 6, 1984. he was the last brave to wear the number, doing so when he returned to the club for his final big league appearance in 1987. 

during his primary stint with the braves, niekro led the league in era in 1967 and in wins in 1974 and 1979. of course, he also led the league in losses four straight seasons from 1977 through 1980. still, his knuckleball is legendary, and he remains the franchise's all-time leader in games pitched (as well as losses, walks, and wild pitches) and if it weren't for about 100 john smoltz strikeouts, he would be the top in that category, too. i think this is the only jacket number in this collection, but it's niekro's 1978 topps card and so it makes the grade! 

randy jones (retired by the padres in 1997) 2004 topps all-time fan favorites

it's fitting that i am using a fan favorites card to represent jones in this collection, because his presence here is, i think, partly due to his status as a padre fan favorite. he was the first padre to win the cy young award, doing so in 1976 (after finishing second in the voting in 1975), and he was the first padre pitcher to lead the league in era and/or wins. he twice won 20 or more games for the padres (the only pitcher in franchise history to do so), and no other pitcher in team history has made more starts or pitched more innings.

after retirement, jones became a fixture at the ballpark with a bbq stand and worked as part of the padres' gameday announcing crew. because of his place in franchise history and his continuing ties to the team, the padres retired his number on may 9, 1997 (making al osuna the last padre to wear the number) and made him one of the first inductees into their hall of fame two years later. 

frank thomas (retired by the white sox in 2010) 1991 topps

thomas was the last person to wear number 35 for the white sox as the team kept it out of circulation from 2006 until they retired it on august 29, 2010, just a few months after he formally announced his retirement as a player. his 1991 topps card shows his number nicely with the pinstripe uniforms that i most closely associate with "his" era of southside baseball.

thomas spent the first 16 years of his career with the white sox, racking up 448 home runs and posting an ops of 0.995. he won back-to-back mvp awards in 1993 and 1994, and had a total of five top-five finishes in the mvp voting during his time in chicago. it was unfortunate that he missed the team's 2005 postseason run due to injury because he was such a force up until that point. he remains the franchise's all-time leader in homers, rbi, obp, slugging, ops, runs scored, walks, and extra base hits. he was a no doubt hall of famer, and got the call to cooperstown on his first ballot in 2014.

it's worth noting that the phillies are honoring cole hamels, who wore number 35 for them, tonight with a retirement ceremony. the ceremony is for hamels who only recently formally announced his retirement, and not for his number. david dahl, who had been wearing 35, is going to switch to a different number, so i guess for the time being the phillies are keeping the number out of circulation.

as for future 35 retirements, i think justin verlander is a lock - likely by the astros and tigers. in fact, the tigers haven't given anyone else number 35 since he left in 2017. i also thought that the orioles might retire it for mike mussina after he made the hall of fame, but they didn't. adley rutschman is currently wearing the number, so maybe in 15 years or so it will be up for discussion.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 35 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, 33, 42

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

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 26, 27, 34, 42

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 32, 34, 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, 35, 42

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 42

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

orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22, 33, 42

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24, 32, 34, 42

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 28, 34, 42

white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, 35, 42, 72

brewers - 1, 4, 19, 34, 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, 35, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 34, 42

angels - 11, 26, 30, 42

expos - 8, 10, 30, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 34, 42

major league baseball - 42

rays - 12, 42, 66

diamondbacks - 20, 42

blue jays - 32, 42

rockies - 17, 33, 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

33 - retired by 4 teams

34 - retired by 8 teams (retired by astros and rangers for same person; retired by brewers and a's for same person; retired by a's for two players)

35 - retired by 3 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): 142

running total of non-hall of famers: 50

and here are some more cards from 2024 topps series 2

i mentioned in my post on tuesday that i bought a blaster of 2024 topps series 2 on that same target run in which i picked up the hanger box. i found the blaster to be more interesting.

in the first pack, i found one of the holiday parallels

there is something very compelling about having the statue of liberty parallel for a player named france!

the other holiday parallels were the fireworks variety

i believe the kids might say that marte is an example of "gyat"

to me, this design looks less like fireworks and more like a paper towel pattern

the shading works nicely with the uniform colors on cedric mullins' card though.

i found a lone rainbow foil parallel - drew millas

and a singular royal blue parallel - elvis andrus

i wasn't aware at the time of the "women in baseball" insert set, so finding a card of jessica mendoza

was a surprise. it's nice that these subjects are not relegated to allen & ginter sets. or worse. in fact, mendoza's card is sort of a dodger adjacent card given her role with the team as an announcer. i don't consider it a dodger card, however.

this one is most certainly that, however,

and it's the latest iteration of the "significant statistics" genre

i've seen this next card shared as a "fan favorites"

but it's actually "fantasy favorites". i think on some cards the "tasy" part is more obscured than on corbin carroll's example. it works either way. it gives sort of a "beautiful mind" vibe. or 1995 fleer if you prefer.

i am a magnet for astros inserts, and so i should have expected that my 1989 35th anniversary card would look like this one

the fact that it is kyle tucker and not alex bregman is the real surprise.  my 1989 35th anniversary all-star card wasn't an astro

but rather a young derek jeter.

my favorite insert set is the "city to city" cards. i got a jose ramirez card

the "cle" works as an abbreviation for cleveland, but it is really in reference to the city's airport code, and i have actually flown into that airport. i thought about collecting the set, or maybe just the ones whose airports i have flown into (which would be most of the set), but i think i will just pick up a few of the more meaningful ones. we will see, however.

in the last post, i did not scan any of the stars of mlb inserts, so i figured i would do that this time. i got these six in my blaster

there's alex bregman.

i also got the base and chrome parallel version of kyle harrison's card

it would be cool if someone would explain why topps removed the advertising patch on the base version but left it on for the chrome version.  i'll wait.

while i am waiting, i will say that i bought even more series 2 with a gift card from my employer. i'll share that bounty - and there was a big bounty - in another post.

say hey

for some reason, a couple of months ago, i suddenly decided to pick up another certified willie mays autograph. i have one in my hall of famer collection, but wound up adding this one

that's a 2001 topps team topps legends autograph card that uses his classic 1952 topps card to great effect. here's the back:

fast forward a couple of days ago when i read the announcement that mays would not travel to his home state of alabama for the game at rickwood field, home of the birmingham black barons that he once took the field for. i figured things must be serious for mays if he was missing that trip. the next day, we learned that he had passed away.

is he the greatest all-around ballplayer of all-time? he just may be.

over the last year, i added a couple of his cards to my name/number on the back collection, including this 1993 upper deck baseball heroes insert

and this 2004 topps heritage flashback insert

i will always associate mays with my dad, who is, almost to the day, five years younger than the say hey kid. he was and is a dodger fan, and would talk about seeing koufax and drysdale at dodger stadium in the early to mid-1960's, but he also told us that he would often make sure the dodgers were playing the giants when he headed to chavez ravine so that he could see willie mays. and, he would, on occasion, drive north to candlestick to see mays play there, too. 

at some point in my early fandom, i became enamored of "the catch" and to this day i will add any card showing that play to my collection. i once compared a catch i made at little league practice to mays' catch, and me and my friends all messed around with his basket catch, too. i am thankful, by the way, for derrel thomas, who helped bring it to our attention in the early 1980's.

i never saw mays play in person, and if i had i wouldn't remember it anyway - i was only two when he played in his final game. however, i have read enough and seen enough during my lifetime to know that he was a blessing to the sport. 

hey.

here are some cards from 2024 topps series 2

i bought some series 2 at target the other day, including a hanger box. here are some of the cards

first card was mark canha

and the next card was blake sabol

he's displaying the gaylord perry and vida blue memorial patches side by side which happened after the club took on a sponsor and began wearing an advertisement on the other sleeve where the perry and blue patches used to be. the mets are rocking a similarly crowded sleeve this year with bud harrelson's memorial patch which i don't think showed up on any series 2 cards.

i realized that i failed to include zack greinke's card

in my saturday post, even though i had updated the text with the intention to show the card  (i've added it now). i was quite surprised to find a card for greinke in series 2 to say the least. here's the back:

i hope that those aren't his final career stats but they may well be.

i was also quite surprised to find a jd martinez dodger card in series 2!

since he has long since moved on to the mets, and i am always pleased to find a random double play turn

that one features the twins' max kepler sliding in at target field during a twins/brewers game that is sometimes referred to here in the twin cities as a "border battle", and this one features the twins' carlos correa

jumping over former twin aaron hicks.

i was pleased to find some cards of japanese players, including shota imanaga

whose card i initially thought showcased one of the issues with the new fanatics jerseys - the greys show sweat a little bit - however i am thinking that this is a photoshop job from a photo (very similar to this one) from the wbc which would have had him in a non-fanatics jersey (i think). another japanese pitcher that i was hoping to find pitches for the dodgers, and i was successful in finding a yoshinobu yamamoto rookie card

and i was also happy to find more dodgers in the pack, including dustin may

and clayton kershaw

series 2 gives us a first look at the new jerseys, and on yamamoto's card you can really tell that the front number is smaller when you compare that image to the photo used on may's card.

there was a run of checklists towards the end of the stack, including a freddie freeman card

a card featuring correa and prison mike royce

and a mookie betts card

so i did pretty well with dodgers all around.

when i got to the end where the inserts lie, this was looking back at me

not a dodger, but a nice golden mirror ssp of charlie blackmon. the photo used on the variation isn't the most exciting

but these things are pretty rare at 1:80 hanger boxes so that's nice.

i also beat the odds (1:3) by getting a royal blue vaughn grissom parallel

and a 1989 35th anniversary parallel

which is also listed at 1:3. seems like these were more prevalent in past years.

next was this "covering the field" insert of ronald acuna jr

which is all about offense, not defense. the card is probably meant to be viewed this way

yellow parallels are guaranteed in these boxes, and i got two

it took me a minute to figure out what was going on with peguero's left foot, but i got there eventually.

also included were four of the overproduced stars of mlb inserts (not shown). before buying this hanger box, i joined a group break for the dodgers so i'll have more series 2 cards to show in the near future. i also bought a blaster at the same time as this hanger, and i'll show some of those cards next time. stay tuned!

proud to be a dodger fan

i thought maybe i noticed something when i added emmet sheehan's 2024 topps 1989 35th anniversary insert to my collection.

the photo is the same one topps used on his 2023 topps now card commemorating his big league debut

but for some reason it's darker. 

here's the getty images file photo topps used

and here are the cards side by side

i'm not sure why topps modified the image, especially after using it in 2023 in a different way.

it's worth noting that sheehan happened to make his big league debut on 2023's pride night at dodger stadium which was a year ago yesterday, and even though topps has darkened the image for the 2024 card, you can still make out the colors of the logo if you look closely enough. the size of the logo doesn't allow for as much clarity as you see on trevor rogers' 2023 topps heritage high numbers card (featuring a photo taken during the same game in which sheehan debuted), but you can tell that it's there.

topps used a different photo from a different game for sheehan's base card

which also looks to have been darkened from the original seen here. i would love to know about topps' process for filtering images for their cards.

anyway, to their credit, the dodgers held pride night on friday night even as other teams shy away from the event. they wore the hats again, but i didn't see any patches on the royals' uniforms like the giants wore in last year's game. time will tell if any images from the game make it to cardboard - filtered or not.

a day for dads

happy father's day to everyone! it's the perfect day to showcase this card

which features jim bunning after his perfect game thrown on father's day sixty years ago. sixty. wow. 

i am assuming that he is being congratulated by one of his (at that time) seven children (there is another photo of his wife kissing him postgame, but her plaid shirt is sleeveless). it only makes sense for the card to show him as a father (he and his wife had two more kids in the years after the perfecto) as it ties everything together.

whether you are a father or were able to celebrate your dad in person, from afar, or in memory, i hope your day was perfect.

stick a toothpick in him, he's done (but hopefully not really done)

it was a surprise to learn that dusty baker was given a card, especially a solo card, in 2024 topps heritage, but i right away decided to track one down for my post-dodger baker pc. 

toothpick and oversized sweatbands and all.

baker was, of course, included in the original 1975 set, although he was a player and a brave back then. here's a comparison of the backs - heritage on the left, original '75 card on the right

the '75 card back is easier to read, but i certainly appreciate the full manager career stats on the back given that dusty retired from the field at the end of last year. as such, i believe that this is the first manager final tribute i've added to my collection, and now i am realizing that gil hodges' 1972 card should be there as well. joe torre's 1978 topps card showing him as a manager is in that collection, but it's because it shows his full playing days stats on the back, something that hodges' 1964 topps manager card does not.

of course, i already have playing days dusty covered in the final tribute collection thanks to his 1987 cards. at any rate, i tracked down an extra card for the final tribute collection, along with the mini parallel for the pc

here are those backs, compared

the mini is slightly easier to read thanks to the lighter tint of the stock. by the way topps, baker doens't live in riverside anymore.

the mini and this white border parallel

only show up in the pc. i don't plan to chase any of the other parallels, which i think may be limited to black borders.

it's fitting that i'm showing baker on the '75 design, as today is his 75th birthday! he could be enjoying a well deserved retirement, but instead he has signed on to be a special advisor for the giants as they are close to his bay area home. there's probably not going to be a card for him in that capacity, however.

speaking of final tributes, i also added miguel cabrera's 2024 topps big league card

to that particular collection. unlike the flagship card, big league only gives five years of stats

but the total line is still there so i'll allow it.

we have also been blessed with a zack greinke card in topps' series 2 release. 

i wasn't sure it was going to happen since he hasn't signed anywhere for this season, although i suppose there is still a chance based on a couple of reports a month or so ago. for now, i'll treat this as his final tribute card even as i hope he pops up and makes a run to 3,000 strikeouts.

happy birthday johnnie b!