my retired number collection - 53

this is the 49th 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.

no team has retired number 52, although i wonder if the yankees might do so for cc sabathia once he is enshrined in cooperstown (they have kept the number out of circulation since he retired). that could happen as soon as next season.

and now, without further ado, here is the one person for whom number 53 has been retired:

don drysdale (retired by the dodgers in 1984) 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts

i know the 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts card that i chose shows drysdale as a brooklyn dodger, and that is is the los angeles dodgers who retired his number, but the card shows his 53 so well that i decided to use it anyway. it took drysdale a while to make it to the hall of fame - he was elected on his 10th ballot which came in 1984 - but the dodgers took quick action to formally retire the number once he was voted in, holding a ceremony on july 1, 1984 for both him and fellow inductee pee wee reese.

big d spent his entire career with the dodgers, winning 209 games and striking out 2,486 batters between 1956 and 1969. he was the national league's cy young award winner in 1962, and in 1968 he threw six consecutive shutouts and set a then record of 58.2 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. given his longevity with the dodgers, drysdale remains high on the franchise's all-time leader board in many categories. he is third all-time in wins and strikeouts, and first (no surprise) in hit batsmen.

according to baseball reference, drysdale's number was issued to tom paciorek in 1970, but he switched to 17 for the 1971 season. if not for paciorek wearing the number for his "cup of coffee" experience in the 1970 season, drysdale would have been the only dodger to ever wear number 53.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 49 posts so far):

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 37, 42, 44, 46, 49, 51

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

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 33, 40, 42, 44

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

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 26, 27, 34, 42, 45

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 32, 34, 36, 42

cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17, 20, 23, 24, 42, 45, 85

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

braves - 3, 6, 10, 21, 25, 31, 35, 41, 42, 44, 47

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 40, 42, 49

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, 53

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, 44

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 16, 23, 42, 47

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

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 35, 42, 51

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 34, 42. 43

angels - 11, 26, 30, 42, 50

expos - 8, 10, 30, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 34, 42

major league baseball - 42

rays - 12, 42, 66

diamondbacks - 20, 42, 51

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 10 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)

43 - retired by 1 team

44 - retired by 4 teams (retired by brewers and braves for same person)

45 - retired by 2 teams

46 - retired by 1 team

47 - retired by 2 teams

49 - retired by 2 teams

50 - retired by 1 team

51 - retired by 3 teams

53 - retired by 1 team

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): 161

running total of non-hall of famers: 58

report to general washington

today is the 73rd anniversary of "the shot heard around the world". back on this day in 1951, bobby thomson hit a game ending home run to deliver the national league pennant to the new york giants at the expense of ralph branca and the brooklyn dodgers.

i have a couple of cards in my lurkers collection that capture the event - this first one is from 1991 bowman

and this second one was produced ten years later and included in 2001 topps

i sent one of those cards to thomson to sign many years ago. now, i have it in my collection due to the number of brooklyn dodgers showing up on these cards. you've got branca on the mound and rube walker behind the plate. at third base is billy cox, and pee wee reese is the shortstop.

i don't recall exactly when i first learned about this tragic event in the history of the dodger franchise, but i am sure i was confused because of the schoolhouse rock song that initially addressed the "shot heard around the world" in my memory. i don't remember all of the lyrics, but i do remember that "it was the start of the revolution" and that the minutemen were supposed to "take your powder, take your gun" and "report to general washington". that is a better earworm than "the giants win the pennant!" 

1955 bowman complete through 72!

so here we are with the next completed page in my 1955 bowman set build. it's the first page to feature the darker color tv sets, and it starts with a couple of dodgers!

here is sheet number 9, cards 65-72

here are the backs:

the back of lou burdette's card is especially fragile, but for the most part these eight cards are in decent condition.

the don zimmer rookie card kicks things off, but we also have elston howard's rookie card plus mr. perfecto don larsen on the page. there are three yankees and three braves in addition to the two dodgers (george shuba is the other brooklynite) so the teammate pairings were ignored to some degree.

i found it interesting that only one card out of these eight has a non-biographical back. chet nichols' card there in the last slot has him marveling at his teammate warren spahn as the best pitcher nichols has ever seen. nichols' ends his statement by saying that he hopes spahn has six more seasons in him like his past campaigns in which he won more than 20 games. in fact, spahn would have seven more seasons in which he won 20 games or more after nichols made his assessment.

a moment for pete rose

i did a double take about 24 hours ago when i saw a headline on the espn app that pete rose had passed away. it took awhile for the mlb app to catch up, but by that time i had seen the news on a few different platforms.

i am not a pete rose apologist, but i am a fan of pete rose as a baseball player. can we separate the player and the on field accomplishments from the person? i would like to think so.

during the formative years of my baseball fandom, pete rose was a force. he became my favorite non-dodger player as my knowledge of the game expanded beyond the southern california market and i recognized rose's skill as a hitter and passion as a competitor. it took me a long time, but i finally picked up a (verified authentic) 1963 topps card that i often refer to as ken mcmullen's rookie card

but there is no doubt that the card belongs to the hit king. 

two of my favorite players from my youth collided on september 11, 1985 when rose collected hit number 4,192 against the padres. the iconic photo of rose after reaching first base included steve garvey in the background and has made its way onto cardboard a few times, including this 1994 upper deck the american epic card

in fact, this was the photo espn used for the "above the fold" story on rose's passing.

i boxed up my player collections after i chose to primarily focus on team collecting in 2003, but i still have most of the cards from my rose collection. he is represented in my hall of famer collection (with an asterisk) and i have several of his modern day cards in one collection or another, including a few auto and relic cards which he shared with garvey.

his 1978 topps card remains a favorite of mine, and i was happy to have him sign it for a fee

even as he had previously signed a 1987 topps card 

for my collection for free.

rose's passing had me thinking back to seeing him up close and in person at my hometown's annual hot stove dinner in the late 1970's. my dad took some photos at the 1980 version of the event which was renamed the "don sutton celebrity golf tournament". rose got all dressed up for the dinner following the golf

which was a different look than the other attendees i remember. a year or two earlier, i had followed rose into the bar area of the local elks lodge and i realized in retrospect that he was probably looking for a respite from the crowds. still, he signed my autograph book

and i never forgot that he did so.

rest in peace charlie hustle.