the brooks robinson memorial patch showed up on cardboard

the orioles only wore a patch in honor of the late brooks robinson for the last series of the 2023 season and during the 2023 postseason, and so i wasn't sure if any photos from those seven games would show up on cardboard. spoiler alert - they did.

the 86 year old robinson passed away on september 26, 2023, and the next night for their final game of a series with the nationals, the orioles wore their black jerseys and had an orange number 5 on their sleeves in tribute. this memorial is visible on adley rutschman's jersey in the getty images photo below

starting on the 28th of september, the black circular patch with an orange number 5 was affixed to the jersey sleeves, and i have rutschman's 2024 bowman card in my memorials collection representing it.

the patch is also visible on gunnar henderson's 2024 topps series 2 1989 35th anniversary insert

and on heston kjerstad's 2024 topps series 2 base card

i considered using henderson's card since he played a fair amount of third base in 2023 and was playing third during the game in which the photo used on the card was taken, but i settled on the rutschman card because of the orange jersey and the prominent oriole logo - both of which remind me of robinson. 

i am still hopeful that the tribute the o's wore on september 27 will show up at some point (that rutschman photo shared above would look great on a stadium club card) but for now i am glad that i have a cardboard record of the shortlived memorial for one of the greatest third basemen of all time.

[edit - the initial "5" patch worn by the orioles made an appearance on gunnar henderson's 2024 topps pristine oh snap! insert

i would still love to see that stadium club card, though!]

the almost daily dodger - babe herman

i suppose this is actually the almost daily robin, given that the subject is babe herman, who played for brooklyn (then known as the robins) from 1926 to 1931. he did, however, return to brooklyn in 1945 which aligned with their dodger nickname, so i think the title is fine. and besides, the card i am featuring, because it is from panini, doesn't specify the team nickname anyway.

this is a 2023 panini prizm ruby wave prizm parallel card

it's odd to see an oldtimer like herman on a shiny card such as this. he's so much an oldtimer that you can see the ox cart that was used to wheel equipment around behind him. i don't really know that it's an ox cart, but it could be. or it could be some farm equipment that herman brought in from his avocado farm.

the dodgers have had a few players with avocado farms, and i think herman was the first. he inspired cliff dapper who had a cup of coffee with the dodgers but was herman's teammate on the hollywood stars during herman's major league hiatus in the late 1930's and early 1940's. later on, i believe that dapper connected with duke snider who also went on to manage an avocado farm in california.

think about that next time you order the guac. it's extra, as you know.

vladimir guerrero jr is in my collection

late last year i decided to pick up a vladimir guerrero jr autograph for my collection. i landed on this 2023 topps tribute purple parallel, numbered to 50

here's the back:

his father is one of my favorite all-time players, and so i've kept an eye on his career since it began in 2019. since then, vladdy jr has put up some big numbers, especially in 2021 when he finished second in the american league mvp voting with an ops of 1.002.

he is currently closing in on 150 career home runs, and i would expect him to reach at least 400 in his career. he is only 25, so he should have a lot of baseball ahead of him. will that mean an eventual father/son hall of fame celebration? only time will tell, but my collection will be ready.

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues!

for the first time in 2024, we have an update on clayton kershaw's career strikeout total.

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continued as he took the mound against the giants on thursday in los angeles. he struck out 6 batters to give him 6 strikeouts for the 2024 season. those 6 giants that he k'd increased his career total to 2,950.

in honor of his performance, here are 6 not seen on this blog before cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,945 through 2,950.

2,945 - 2011 topps gypsy queen framed green parallel

2,946 - 2013 topps triple threads emerald parallel

2,947 - 2014 topps turkey red

2,948 - 2019 topps chrome xfractor parallel

2,949 - 2020 topps stadium club chrome beam team

2,950 - 2022 topps finest refractor parallel

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who hasn't formally retired but hasn't joined a team so far in 2024, has a career strikeout total of 2,979. kershaw is now 29 k's behind greinke and 50 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw pitched just four innings in his season debut and recorded his first strikeout in the top of the first inning. he ran into trouble in the top of the third, allowing two runs on four consecutive hits to begin the frame, but then struck out the next three batters to end the giants' threat. for good measure, kershaw k'd the leadoff batter in the fourth for four consecutive strikeouts.

so now we wait and see how he recovers from the first start. if all is well, he should be back on the bump to either close the series in san diego or begin the series in oakland. regardless, when kershaw makes his next regular season appearance, know that i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

that's a clown card, bro(der)

it's time to celebrate the latest envelope from madding at cards on cards, and i am going to jump right to the good stuff.

i don't know what this card is

but it's gold and shiny and not at all licensed.  here's the back:

i am all about adding clayton kershaw cards to my collection, but i typically like to know what i have. kerry sent two others - walker buehler

and tony gonsolin

there are no borders, but gonsolin got his hand chopped off, anyway.  each of the cards has a different background, and in addition to the team name, mlb logo, and team logo up top, the cards include the words "team mate" and "america" with the american flag.

i could find no information about this set anywhere, so i emailed kerry and asked. he said he was alerted to the set's existence by another blogger (matt from the old summer of '74 blog and other spots) and was given an amazon link to the cards.

now, while i am thankful to have received the cards that i did, once i checked out the link, i was a bit disappointed that i didn't get this tony gonsolin card

that is supposed to be julio urias, i guess. it still has the american flag, so it would appear that the flag has nothing to do with the players' nationality.

you've probably clicked on that link already, but here are a couple of the card images i lifted from amazon for posterity's sake

the urias/gonsolin card is bested only by the corey seager/jose ramirez offering in the center of that bunch, complete with a pie tin background design. the second image below has more goodies, like a left-handed matt chapman, manny machado masquerading as matt chapman (or is it the other way around), luis arraez getting mixed up with luis castillo, and corey seager showing up on josh donaldson's card

my favorite, however, is yasiel puig being identified as brad harris. i have no idea who brad harris is, and am wondering if the creator of these cards meant harrison bader who was on the reds for a short time in 2023. puig, of course, only played for the reds in 2019, but baseball reference has no information on any brad harris or similarly named person who might have been associated with the reds.

i can't really tell what year this set is supposed to represent, but i'm calling it 2023. that's only based on luis castillo being shown with the mariners which didn't happen until the latter part of the 2022 season, and my assumption that yasiel puig is, in fact, supposed to be harrison bader. still, blake treinen and matt chapman wouldn't be athletics if the set truly were a 2023 release so who knows. the whole thing is bonkers, and i can't thank kerry enough for sending me the three cards that he did.

there were other cards sent, including a couple of fully licensed cards from 2024 topps series 2. here is shohei ohtani's 1989 35th anniversary card

and a similar card of bobby miller, except this one is autographed!

thanks once again kerry! let's keep on tradin'!

my retired number collection - 41

this is the 40th 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.

so, without further ado, here are the two people for whom number 41 has been retired:

eddie mathews (retired by the braves in 1969) 2000 fleer greats of the game

the braves retired number 41 for eddie mathews on july 26, 1969, less than a year after he retired from the game as a player. he had last played for the braves in 1966, and in 1967 the club issued the number to pitcher jim britton. it looks like britton wore it just once as baseball reference notes he also wore 42 in the 1967 season, and he only appeared in two games for atlanta that season. that mistake was somewhat remedied when mathews returned to the field as the braves' manager in 1972 and wore his number 41, making him the last brave to wear the number on the field.

mathews played for the braves from 1952 through 1966, across three cities - boston, milwaukee, and atlanta. his 2000 fleer greats card has him representing milwaukee, which is where he played for the bulk of his career. in fact, he helped the franchise win the world series in 1957 and had two second place mvp finishes to his credit while in wisconsin. his 493 home runs hit as a brave rank second only to hank aaron's 733. in most other offensive categories, mathews ranks third in franchise history behind aaron and chipper jones. like those two, mathews is a hall of famer, voted in on his fifth ballot in 1978.

tom seaver (retired by the mets in 1988) 1976 topps

tom seaver was an all-time great with the mets, and their first superstar. arguably the greatest right handed pitcher since walter johnson, he hit the league as a 22 year old in 1967 and promptly won the rookie of the year award while compiling 16 wins. two years later, he won the first of three cy young awards that he would claim as a met and led the team to an improbable, no, check that, an amazin' world series championship.

he won 198 games and struck out 2,541 batters as a met in two separate stints. his first tenure ended with a trade to the reds in 1977, and he later returned for the 1983 season. choosing a card for this collection came down to his 1976 or 1984 topps issues, because they were the only ones that clearly showed his number. i went for his base card from 1976 (his record breaker card would have worked, too) since it is from his first run with the team when he was most dominant. and, that dominance continues to be evident to this day, as he is still the mets' all-time leader in starts, wins, and strikeouts, and is second in era to jacob degrom by 0.05 runs per 9 innings. 

seaver was the last met to wear number 41, doing so in his return in 1983 although nobody had worn it since he was dealt to the reds. the franchise retired it on june 24, 1988 and seaver was elected to the hall of fame four years later on his first ballot with the highest percentage of votes (98.8%) at that time in history.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 40 posts so far):

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 37, 42

giants - 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 36, 42

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 33, 40, 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, 36, 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, 41, 42

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 40, 42

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 31, 36, 37, 41, 42

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

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24, 32, 34, 39, 42

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 28, 34, 36, 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

36 - retired by 4 teams

37 - retired by 2 teams (retired by mets and yankees for same person)

39 - retired by 1 team

40 - retired by 2 teams

41 - retired by 2 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): 149

running total of non-hall of famers: 53

some pretty good cards from work

i've traded cards at work a couple of times in the last 30+ years. the first time was in the early 1990's, and i obtained my first 1989 upper deck ken griffey jr card that way. most recently, i swapped a lunch for a couple of cards, including a si for kids eric karros card, from a coworker last year.

this post features cards i received from my employer, although indirectly. i was given one of those "choose your own retailer" gift cards for a years of employment milestone, and i quickly turned that into a target gift card that i decided to redeem for cards. i placed an online order and soon received the boxes i had requested.

first up was a 2024 topps series 2 mega box. these have 16 packs, and i am going to show just the inserts by pack.

pack 1

yes, the lone insert was randy arozarena's stars of mlb card. not a great start

pack 2

better. a freddie freeman "around the horn" insert, jose ramirez' "city to city" insert (more on that insert set in a future pots), hank aaron's 1989 35th anniversary card given the mega box foil treatment, and spencer strider's stars of mlb insert.

pack 3

another 1989 mega box foil - this time it's the say hey kid and an all-star card at that. sonny gray, who has been getting some insert love from topps the last couple of years, is the obligatory stars of mlb subject

pack 4

now we're cookin'! obviously the orange mega box foil parallel of adley rutschman's 1989 all-star card is the star here, but i will also acknowledge the royal blue parallel of jon berti, corey seager's 1989 all-star card, and trea turner's stars of mlb insert. a couple of former dodgers there.

the rutschman card is special, as it it numbered to just 25

which is pretty sweet.

pack 5

the box has already peaked at this point, but i was pleased to see a byron buxton home run challenge card as well as shohei ohtani's stars of mlb card. i almost redeemed buxton's card for the july 4th game i attended but decided not to. he didn't homer so i had no regrets.

pack 6

there's a good variety of inserts, from the significant statistics card for jhoan duran to the women in baseball card of alyssa nakken and ichiro's mega box foil parallel of his 1989 all-star card. plus we get topps stretching the definition of "stars of mlb" with a zack gelof card.

pack 7

a gold parallel of taijuan walker reminds me of how high the print runs must be today. the gold parallels seem a lot harder to come by even though they are printed in about the same numbers from year to year. that means there are a lot more packs out there. the other inserts feature nolan jones, who is currently being victimized by the sophomore slump, and luis arraez, who is trying to win a third consecutive batting title, each for a different team. 

pack 8

nothing but a joey votto stars of mlb insert for this pack

pack 9

finally a national all-star card with matt olson, and a rainbow foil parallel of giancarlo stanton. what i said above for the gold parallels goes for the rainbow foil as well. and, i was very happy to find the yoshinobu yamamoto stars of mlb card in this pack!

pack 10

not a bad pair of inserts of cal ripken jr (around the horn) and derek jeter (1989 all-star mega box foil parallel) and a sal frelick stars of mlb insert. i should note that the around the horn inserts are similar to the stadium club triumvirate inserts in that they connect to show the entire infield across three cards. ripken is shown as a shortstop on his card, and he would have cards of brooks robinson and eddie murray on either side of him. for the dodgers, it's max muncy, mookie betts, and freddie freeman. i would have loved to see ron cey, davey lopes (or bill russell), and steve garvey featured.

pack 11

big dodger turnout with the clayton kershaw chrome parallel and base stars of mlb cards. and then there's the 1989 mega box foil card of a yankee rookie.

pack 12

not a good pack for inserts when all there is is a manny machado stars of mlb card

pack 13

a lot of blue here - royal blue bo bichette parallel, blue around the horn alex bregman parallel, and a freddie freeman fantasy favorites insert. bucking the trend is the ceddanne rafaela stars of mlb insert. i am an alex bregman magnet, i swear.

pack 14

and to prove that fact stated above, here's bregman's 1989 all-star card in mega box foil fashion, along with a josh jung home run challenge card and jose ramirez's stars of mlb insert

pack 15

evan carter's 1989 card gets the mega box foil, and carlos correa is the stars of mlb subject in this penultimate pack

pack 16

very cool to see a satchel paige 1989 all-star card, and the final insert of the box is jasson dominguez's stars of mlb card.

next up was a 2024 bowman blaster. i was really hoping to score a pete rose card. i didn't, but in the end i did ok.

i got a mookie betts base

an elly de la cruz chrome insert

and a jackson chourio prospects chrome insert parallel

but not much else.

except for this

a dylan crews blue autograph parallel!

i will admit that i wasn't entirely sure about it - the name sounded familiar - and then i turned it over and was reminded that he was the 2nd overall pick behind paul skenes in last year's draft.

speaking of skenes, he showed up in the bowman mega box i also picked up.

both chrome and mega box chrome prospect parallels!

there were some other decent cards, but nothing to top the crews or skenes cards. between those and the rutschman card, i think i did ok with my gift card purchase. i am already (sort of) looking forward to the next work anniversary milestone payout!

bet your bottom dollar

i am really looking forward to tomorrow. one day closer to the weekend, sure, but it's also going to be the season debut of clayton kershaw.

the future hall of famer is back from his offseason shoulder surgery and subsequent rehab and will be on the bump against the giants. my expectations are tempered, but i am hoping that he doesn't suffer any setbacks and is able to pitch for the remainder of the season on a regular basis.

kershaw is just 56 strikeouts away from 3,000 and if he stays healthy over the next 10 weeks, he has a real shot at achieving the milestone this season. of course, that depends on his stuff. anyway, here are 17 kershaw cards to share in honor of his 17th season kicking off tomorrow.

2024 topps grand gamers

2024 topps superstar blueprints

2020 topps choice black parallel /299

2016 topps chrome sepia refractor

2017 topps triple threads

2019 bowman's best

2019 topps allen & ginter x

2020 bowman platinum

2013 panini hometown heroes zip code parallel

2015 topps tribute

2017 bowman chrome

2019 panini prizm blue prizm parallel

2020 panini prizm stargazing white wave prizm parallel

2021 panini donruss photo variation holo pink parallel

2022 panini capstone summit

2023 topps favorite sons black parallel /299

2024 topps silver pack chrome 1989 35th anniversary

once he gets on the mound, the "k is for kershaw kountdown" will continue! stay tuned!