a moment for tommy john

tommy john passed away yesterday, which was not a surprise given how much attention his health had received lately. john penned a "farewell" message to his fans during the yankees' oldtimers' weekend just over a week ago, and it was picked up by nearly every media outlet that i came across. 

he obviously associated himself, or a large part of himself, with the yankees as he had two stints playing for them and won more games while in pinstripes than in any of his other stops. to me, however, he was always a dodger.

when i think of numbers, it's john who is number 25. being a member of the 1978 topps dodgers 

asserts that "privilege", with very few exceptions.

being included in that set as a dodger means that i have all of john's topps flagship cards, thanks to my "evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers" mini-collection. as i've done for some other recent passings, i've compiled the full run of his primary cards in the topps sets. in john's case, that means cards from 1964 through 1989

for others, i've tiled the cards into a single image, but there are just too many cards here to do that effectively. john was left out of the traded sets each time he switched teams - 1982, 1985, and 1986 - but he does have a sweet 1979 topps burger king yankee card that serves the purpose of a "traded" or update set. he also was featured on the yankees' 1982 team leader card as well as a 1983 super veteran card and one of the 1984 career leader cards. the latter two speak to his longevity in the game, a remarkable feat especially given the fact that he had his namesake surgery (what turned out to be) so early in his career.

he began his career in 1963 (no card) and ended it in 1989. he was left out of all major 1990 releases, although i did make a "final tribute" for him years ago

the stats on the back of that card show his 288 career wins and 760 games pitched. he is one of eight men to have started at least 700 games as a pitcher. the top 15 pitchers on that list are all in the hall of fame except for john and roger clemens. yes, he was a stat compiler due to his longevity, but i think he is worthy of the hall of fame. he's in mine.

john is the ninth member of the 1978 topps dodgers to pass away, joining davey lopes, jerry grote, vic davalillo, don sutton, tom lasorda, lance rautzhan, johnny oates, and glenn burke. i am sad to have lost another member of the team of my youth, but happy that i was able to witness the majority of his career. rest in peace 25.

a moment for davey lopes

damn.

davey lopes passed away earlier today.

i heard he was in bad health just the other day thanks to a comment on night owl's excellent recent post. i went looking for an update on that news just about an hour ago and saw the announcement that he had passed away.

there aren't many words, so here is a retrospective of his primary topps cards from his playing days, each of which has a special place in my collection.

of course, lopes also featured prominently on topps record breaker and league leader cards throughout his career, as well as the 1978 topps 1977 nlcs retrospective card

and 1982 all-star and in action subset cards along with a traded set card that year. i even made a custom when he was left out of the 1984 and 1986 topps traded sets. he returned to topps flagship sets as the brewers' manager in 2001 and 2002

and has a ton of other cards from various releases due to his career as a player, coach, and manager.

i've written often about my love for the dodger infield, and that i played second base quite a bit. i was a big fan of lopes, and i wore his number 15 on a couple of different occasions in my babe ruth baseball playing days. i never really had the chance to interact with him other than a short recognition and simultaneous head nod and thumbs up from him at a nationals game in 2017 where he was the first base coach under dusty baker.

my most recent lopes additions to my collection come from that same year, as these 2017 topps rediscover topps buybacks

arrived in my mailbox just a week or so ago from a sportlots seller.

lopes is the eighth member of the 1978 topps dodgers to pass away, joining jerry grote, vic davalillo, don sutton, tom lasorda, lance rautzhan, johnny oates, and glenn burke. i am sad to have lost another member of the team of my youth, but happy that i was able to witness the majority of his career. 

rest in peace 15.

my retired number collection - dressed to the 9s

this is the tenth 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 six people for whom the number 9 has been retired:

ted williams (retired by the red sox in 1960) 1996 topps ted williams tunnel opening day commemorative

i bought this card directly from topps through the mail back in 1996, and now it finally has a set place in my collection thanks to its display of the splendid splinter's number. the central artery tunnel in boston that opened in late 1995 is also the ted williams tunnel. williams also has a highway named after him in san diego, for what it's worth.

the red sox retired number 9 for williams in may of 1984 (along with joe cronin's number 4), making them the first red sox players to be so honored. unlike cronin, the red sox did not issue williams' number to anyone after he retired in 1960, making him the last member of the franchise to wear the number.

as a player, few were better than williams. he is currently the last person to hit over .400 in a season and he won six batting titles and two mvp awards while accomplishing the triple crown twice. elected to the hall of fame in 1966 in his first year of eligibility, i would submit his name as a candidate for the person who had the greatest american life. 

minnie minoso (retired by the white sox in 1983) 2001 topps archives

minoso had five different stints with the white sox, if you include his two "stunt" returns in 1976 and 1980. while he was not elected to the hall of fame until 2022, the white sox retired his number on may 8, 1983. the 2001 topps archives card i chose is, of course, a reprint of his 1964 topps card, and shows his number prominently on his sleeve. the white sox did not immediately retire his number, but with his final appearances in 1976 and 1980, he was officially the last player to wear the number for the team.

1964 was the final season of his "initial" major league career, and he only appeared in 30 games for chicago. however, in his previous 11 years on the southside, minoso had four top-4 mvp finishes and was the runner up to gil mcdougald in the 1951 american league rookie of the year voting. in all, he posted over 1,500 hits and had a .304 average as a member of the white sox.

roger maris (retired by the yankees in 1984) 2001 topps archives

the yankees retired number 9 for maris during their oldtimers game on july 21, 1984 (the same day the retired number 32 for elston howard - more on that in a future post). the timing for maris' number retirement is curious to me - is it because graig nettles, who had worn number 9 for the previous 11 seasons (and so became the final yankee to wear it) had left for san diego? in fact, one could argue that a dual retirement for both maris and nettles would make sense for the yankees.

anyway, i chose the 2001 topps archives card reprint of maris' 1961 topps in action card not just because it shows his number 9 clearly, but because home run number 61 was a huge thing for me as a young fan learning about the game.

maris' claim to fame is his 61 home runs in 1961, but he was a two-time mvp winner (one of two eligible players not in the hall of fame). as a yankee, maris hit just over 200 home runs in seven seasons, but helped them to five pennants and two world series titles during his tenure. 

bill mazeroski (retired by the pirates in 1987) 1965 topps

bill mazeroski was largely responsible for denying maris a third world series ring, thanks to his series ending home run in game 7 of the 1960 fall classic. a heralded defender, maz may be best known for that home run. i think it certainly kept him in the baseball conversations until the veteran's committee voted him in to the hall of fame in 2001. his 1965 topps card displays his number nicely.

his reputation as an elite defender is supported by the fact that he won eight gold gloves as a second baseman and at one time held the modern day all-time assist record for the position, as well as by modern metrics such as total zone fielding runs for which he sits atop the all-time leader board for second basemen. following his playing career which was spent solely with the pirates, maz coached for the pirates in 1973 and then served mainly as a spring training instructor. he was the last pirate to wear number 9, although the club did not officially retire the number until august 7, 1987. 

enos slaughter (retired by the cardinals in 1996) 2005 upper deck pastime pennants

slaughter's number 9 is mostly visible on his 2005 upper deck pastime pennants card, which was the best example i could find. i tend to think of enos slaughter as an old-timey player like tris speaker, but then i see him in the late 1950's topps sets and am reminded that he's a peer of ted williams'. speaker's career began in 1938 and ended in 1959, and although he played for four different franchises, he left his mark in st. louis cardinals history.

it was his "mad dash" in game 7 of the 1946 world series - he scored from first on harry walker's two-out double in the top of the ninth inning to give the cardinals a one-run lead - that is probably most well remembered. he never led the league in any category, but amassed some big numbers in his 13 years with st. louis - over 1,000 runs scored; more than 2,000 hits and over 1,100 rbi with a .305 batting average - that are worthy of his number being retired by the franchise.

thirteen cardinals wore number 9 after slaughter was traded to the yankees in 1954, including minnie minoso, roger maris, and terry pendleton (the last cardinal to wear the number) before the cardinals finally retired it on september 6, 1996. this was a full 11 years after the veteran's committee elected slaughter to the hall of fame, and it seems like the club was doing some catching up with retired numbers as they honored red schoendienst, slaughter, and the newly retired ozzie smith all during the '96 campaign.

reggie jackson (retired by the athletics in 2004) 1973 topps

this particular 1973 topps reggie jackson card of mine is not in the best shape, but i've had it for about 40 years. the one in my 1973 complete set is much nicer, so this one was available to represent reggie in this collection thanks to the prominence of his number on the front of the colorful a's vest jerseys. 

while the a's didn't retire reggie's number until may 22, 2004 (making olmedo saenz the last oakland player to wear the number), he was elected to the hall of fame in 1993 based on a stellar career that began with the franchise in kansas city. chosen second in the 1966 draft after the mets did mets things and took steven chilcott first overall, reggie joined the a's in 1967 and was an all-star earning mvp votes two years later. he won his lone mvp award in 1973, and twice led the american league in home runs, runs scored, and ops as a member of the a's.

he helped them to five straight postseason appearances, including three consecutive american league pennants and world series titles from 1972 through 1974, although he was injured in the 1972 alcs and did not appear in that year's fall classic. when he left the a's for baltimore after the 1975 season, reggie was the franchise's modern era leader in home runs and rbi. of course, the notoriety that he brought to his career following his time with the a's contributed to his status as a hall of famer, and i'll cover some of that later on, as graig nettles did not relinquish number 9 to jackson when he joined the yankees in 1977, and reggie settled for his third choice - 44. and, while jackson wore number 44 during his final season which came as a member of the a's, only number 9 is retired for mr. october in oakland.

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

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

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

giants - 3, 4

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9

guardians - 3, 5

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9

phillies - 1

cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9

reds - 1, 5, 8

braves - 3, 6

astros - 5, 7

mets

orioles - 4, 5, 8

dodgers - 1, 2, 4

twins - 3, 6, 7

white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

cubs

royals - 5

padres - 6

athletics - 9

angels

expos - 8

rangers - 7

major league baseball

rays

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies

mariners

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

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 64

running total of non-hall of famers: 8

it's high time

i've mentioned many times that i am a big fan of the replacements - the band, not the movie - as well as lead sinder paul westerberg's solo stuff (plus bassist tommy stinson's non-gnr material). one of westerberg's solo songs is called "high time" in which he sings that "it's high time that i let you slide". i can't really say that it's time for me to let topps slide with more shenanigans, but perhaps it's time for me to just accept the fact that they aren't going to put a lot of effort in to their products.

we've waited all year to get clayton kershaw's 2022 topps heritage card, and now we have it courtesy of the high numbers set

it's a short print, of course, and features the green screened background to boot. now that we are in the era of action shots on cards, i am disappointed to not see a photo of that ilk on kershaw's card. however, to be fair, topps didn't use an in game action shot for a dodger pitcher on a base card until 1974 when they gave claude osteen the treatment. before that, only osteen's 1972 "in action" subset card showed a dodger pitcher actually pitching on cardboard.

anyway, i picked up the dodgers' team set, which does feature a couple of pitchers on the actual bump

i will need to find dupes of the justin bruihl and hanser alberto cards for the dodger stadium mini-collection. any card that shows the unocal logo gets automatic entry! all of these cards work in terms of 1973 topps, with the tony gonsolin portrait and the action on the bruihl, alberto, trea turner and craig kimbrel cards. kershaw's spring training pose - one fit for a panini card - is not one that was featured in the 1973 set, but i guess i need to let that slide.

it strikes me as odd that we had to wait for both kershaw and trea turner heritage cards, although turner did get a parallel in the initial heritage release, with a different image used. another oddity is seen when you compare kershaw's base card to the oversized boxtopper

topps left the all-star game patch on the photo for the boxtopper, but scrubbed it from the base card. having the patch helps bring some color to the card, and there was no reason to remove the patch from a 2022 card. i didn't even get it back in 2020 when the game was cancelled. even then, it was reality. the players wore an all-star game patch during spring training. i don't know why it needed to be removed then and certainly not now.

one more bit of strangeness is that topps used max muncy as the subject for another boxtopper

i find this strange because muncy was in the initial heritage release, and surely there were other players that could have been used that better tie the card to the high numbers issue. i doubt any muncy super collectors were snapping up boxes trying to find this card.  i get why topps didn't include freddie freeman in high numbers - he was already featured in the initial release, and high numbers is not an update set in that regard - but they still could have used him as a boxtopper. i will admit i was sort of hoping for a freddie freeman card in the style of steve garvey's 1973 topps card with muncy greeting him at home plate a la wes parker.

my team set came with a kershaw clubhouse collection relic

which at least features a different image from his base card and the initial heritage clubhouse collection card of his. the green screen background is the same, however.

with the high numbers set in hand, i should have the initial heritage team set taken care of as well, but i don't. i did grab the cody bellinger short print

along with the joe kelly

but i still haven't received the matt beaty card. that's ok - it's on its way and it features a lackluster pose similar to kelly's with the same background as kelly's card.

seriously, would it have been too difficult for the photographer to ask the dodger pitchers to pose in their follow through which was the custom back in the early 1970's? even don sutton gave up his traditional "suttoning" pose to match the position logo

and don't get me started on what a 50th anniversary means, because that buyback ain't it.

with all that said, i really hope to see some better dodger cards in 2023 heritage. at least give me a horizontal card that's not a variation. bonus points if the spectators in the stands are blurry.

50% of not quite 50th anniversary cards

a few years ago, i told myself that it was likely that the first steve garvey topps heritage buyback i would own would be from 2022 heritage - his 1973 topps card. that's because 1971 is his rookie and 1972 his card is a high number. i didn't think there would many (if any at all) of those cards bought back and stamped for the heritage releases.

i don't recall seeing either of them on ebay in 2020 or 2021, although at least the 2020/1971 card shows up in the beckett checklist for garvey. i have seen two of his 2022/1973 cards, however, and i bought the second one

the first one sold before i saw it, so i was pretty sure i wasn't going to let the second one to come up get away. it's dumb and weird and confusing, but i like the buyback idea for heritage. i also really like the 2015 topps originals buyback effort. the other years - 2014, 2016, 2017 - not so much. i am already looking forward to next year's heritage which will feature garvey's fantastic 1974 card in buyback form (hopefully).

2022 marks the third year that i've obtained a bill russell buyback

his 1972 card is also a short print, and like the garv, i don't recall seeing any offered for sale at any time. i've previously added russell's 2019/1970 and 2020/1971 buyback cards to my collection.

this is the first year that, in theory, all four dodger infielders would have buybacks available, but ron cey shares his second year card with mike schmidt (and topps should be ashamed if they stamped one of those cards). dave lopes is also on a multi-player rookie card, but i would expect one of those cards to show up at some point - maybe with high numbers. for now, i'll settle for having half of these 49th anniversary cards of the dodger infield of my youth.

i actually bought a blaster of heritage from amazon of all places. i haven't opened all the packs yet, but i did find a real one auto of diamondback (of course) tyler gilbert and a dodger i needed - gavin lux

yes, that's the same background as most of the other dodger cards. i also found one of enrique "kiké" hernandez' cards 

for my double play collection.

finally, i am not sure yet what i will do with this card

but i couldn't leave that sweet, sweet buyback sit around with a low buy it now. 

leaders old and new

i was pretty pleased to see that topps included the all-time leaders subset in 2022 heritage even though they weren't able to produce the manager and coaches cards which were the other subset i was hoping against hope for.  i think they did a great job matching the 1973 original all-time leaders subset even as they had to pivot in a couple of spots. i shared my complete 1973 subset in this post (i decided to put it together even though i had all of the cards in my 1973 complete set already). for 2022 heritage, i only completed the subset, and i won't even complain that they are high numbers given that they match the numbering of these cards in the 1973 set.

let's take a look:

as a reminder, here's what the cards looked like in 1973:

they look great! there are a few differences to note, however.

in 1973, card number 471 featured ty cobb and his 4,191 hits as the all-time hit leader. in 2022, cobb is again at number 471, but it's his batting leader card (which was 475 in 1973) instead of hit leader. of course, with pete rose being the all-time hit leader, there was no way we were going to see the hit leader card in this set. it would be cool to see panini do it, though.

as for the batting leader card, here's the 1973 back

and here's the 2022 back:

gone are the at bats and hits, but you will notice on both the front and the back that cobb's average dipped a bit in the last 49 years. that's because someone figured out sometime after 1985 that he only had 4,189 hits. other statistical changes affected rogers hornsby, willie keeler, and tris speaker. in addition to keeler, dave orr and dan brouthers dropped off this list. added to the list are a number of negro league stars, which is cool. the other things i found interesting is that topps added (in small print) a team affiliation on the back and they got around the joe jackson issue by just calling him "j. jackson". 

despite what you see in the image above (i messed up the order) the next card is the wins (or victory) card. here's the 1973 back:

and here's the 2022 back:

topps chose to affiliate young with the red sox which is fine even though he spent just one year (1908) with the franchise when they were known as such. his victory total didn't change, but walter johnson, jim (now pud) galvin, and kid (still kid) nichols gained, while tim keefe lost. grover cleveland alexander now goes by pete, and john clarkson and ed plank got bumped by greg maddux and tim keefe. 

next up is the strikeout leader card. here's the 1973 back:

and here is the 2022 back:

there was a lot of movement on the strikeouts leader board after 1973. even walter johnson added a k to his career total, and everyone other than the big train who was on the 1973 card got bumped. i think it's cool that topps used a photo of ryan from his angels days rather than another ranger photo of him. cool to see don sutton namechecked on a card like this.

the next card is a new one - the all-time saves leader. here's the back:

obviously these are all more recent pitchers. i really wish this had been a card in 1973 because hoyt wilhelm was the leader back then and who knows - he might have been shown as a dodger on such a card. this card replaces the all-time rbi leader card (which would have hank aaron on it now instead of babe ruth) and evens out the cards at four for pitchers and four for batters.

hank aaron is back in 2022 as the all-time total base(s) leader. here's the 1973 back:

and here is the 2022 back:

cool to see the higher stats for both aaron and willlie mays who were active in 1973. cobb lost 9 bases, so in addition to losing 2 hits, he must have had some other hits downgraded. topps identified pete rose as "p. rose" but gave barry bonds the full name treatment. i suppose that is because he isn't on the permanently ineligible list, but i wasn't sure they had license to use his name.

next up is another new one for 2022 - the all-times doubles leader which happens to (still) be tris speaker. here's the back:

this card exists because pete rose is the all-time hits leader, and we can't have a pete rose card, although he is second all-time in doubles. that makes a big difference however, and he again gets the "p. rose" treatment on the back. weird that topps affiliated speaker with the cardinals. i say weird because he never played for that franchise.

walter johnson remains the all-time shutout (which didn't get pluralized like some other categories did in this new iteration) leader, even though he lost three in his total since 1973. here's the 1973 back:

and here's the 2022 back:

christy mathewson and cy young also lost shutouts, but ed (now eddie) plank gained one. i assume ed walsh also has at least one fewer shutout to his name, otherwise i would have expected a tie to be mentioned rather than seeing don sutton's name on the back.

last but not least, the all-time grand slams leader is still a yankee, but not the same yankee as it was in 1973. here's the 1973 back:

and here's the 2022 back:

alex rodriguez passed lou gehrig on the list and four others passed jimmy (now the more universally accepted jimmie) foxx on the leaderboard as well. aaron hit a couple more grand slams in 1974 to keep his name on the back of the card - tied with dave kingman and babe ruth!

note that i didn't include the 2022 heritage card number 1 in this subset even though i did for my 1973 subset collection - that's because it's not an all-time leaders card (despite what it says on the back).

i think topps did well with this subset, and it gives me hope for some version of mvp cards in 2024 heritage and all-time all-stars in 2025. time will tell!