hit it cc

well, i am not sure why it didn't happen last year following his induction into the hall of fame, but tonight the yankees are retiring cc sabathia's number 52. 

there aren't a lot of yankee cards that show his number, largely due to the fact that the yankees only have the number on the backs of their jerseys, so i was happy to find this 2017 topps card

for my retired numbers collection.

sabathia's is the 22nd number retired by the yankees. those 22 numbers recognize 24 individuals, with number 8 being retired for both yogi berra and bill dickey, and 42 being retired for mariano rivera and jackie robinson. sabathia is the first player for whom any team has retired number 52.

in sort of related news, i've added a couple more cards to my retired numbers collection in the "header" category. these are cards that show retired numbers in the background or celebrate number retirement ceremonies. the cards i've added are 

one of the cards from the 2001 upper deck pinstripe exclusives joe dimaggio insert set

a 1993 fleer ultra pat mahomes card (featuring the angels' retired number for gene autry)

1993 mother's cookies california angels john orton (showing nolan ryan's retired number over his right shoulder)

a 1997 donruss troy percival card

(which shows rod carew's number 29 in it's entirety if you combine the front and back images)

barry bonds' 2000 ud spx card featuring carl hubbell's retired number placard

carl crawford's 2005 topps opening day card which shows billy martin, reggie jackson, and don mattingly numbers

derek jeter's 2003 topps opening day card featuring gil hodges, an obscured 41 for tom seaver, and half of jackie robinson's number

and javier baez's 2020 topps big league orange parallel card giving glimpses of red schoendients, jack buck, stan musial, and enos slaughter

the flagship version of the crawford and jeter cards, as well as the base of the baez card, are already in my collection as they either represent those respective sets in my "topps flagship through the years" mini-collection or my favorite non-dodger card of the year. now i have versions of them with my retired numbers mini-collection, as it was the retired numbers in the background that drew me to the cards originally. the dimaggio and bonds cards were ones that i came across while looking through my defunct player collections that got boxed up in 2002.

the yankees easily have the highest number of retired numbers in any sport and i wonder if we will see triple digit uniform numbers in my lifetime. certainly, number 99 is well on its way to being retired by the yankees, but i don't know that there are any others in line for the honor at this point. time will tell.