the astros are retiring billy wagner's number 13 tonight. the brand new hall of famer spent eight seasons plus 1 appearance with houston, so it makes sense. i have gone ahead and added this 1998 upper deck card
to my retired numbers mini-collection in wagner's honor.
wagner is the second player to have the number 13 retired in their honor, joining the reds' dave concepcion.
in other number retirement news, the mariners retired ichiro's 51 last weekend. i had already shared my plans to include this 2012 topps chrome orange refractor
in the mini-collection in anticipation of the number retirement, but now it's official so i'll show the card again. ichiro is the fourth player for whom 51 has been retired, joining trevor hoffman (padres), randy johnson (diamondbacks), and bernie williams (yankees). in related news, the mariners announced that they will add randy johnson to the retirement of 51 in 2026. in my post from last year i had assumed that they would retire the number for both players together, so i already have my card for the big unit picked out.
no word yet on whether or not the yankees will retire cc sabathia's number, and the same with the pirates and dave parker's number. i assumed that both would happen shortly after the hall of fame ceremony but goes to show what i know. i hope it happens for both at some point in the near future.
Both of these are really nice looking action shots. I struggled to find a base card I liked of Wagner for my latest post. I know I have some sitting in sets, but didn't have the time to dig through my closet or storage.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if CC did enough to get his number retired, especially amongst all those Yankees. Cobra should get his though.
ReplyDeleteGreat honor and not a lot of players probably performed well enough to warrant it across one team let alone all of them, but it just seems like there will eventually be an issue with not enough numbers to go around if too many numbers are retired. Maybe future generations will view baseball players with football type numbers on their jerseys.
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