my retired number collection - 44

this is the 42nd 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 three people for whom number 44 has been retired:

hank aaron (retired by the brewers in 1976) 1976 topps

the brewers were quick to retire hank aaron's number 44, doing so at some point after the home run king played in his final game on october 3, 1976. some sources say that was the day it was retired, but i could find no mention of any ceremony or announcement that day. certainly it was the last day the number was worn, but from what i've read, the brewers really didn't mark aaron's final game in any notable way. topps didn't bother to include aaron in the 1977 set (not even with even a highlight card as they had done with al kaline in 1975 and would do with brooks robinson in 1978) either, but his 1976 topps card fits well within this collection as it shows his number pretty clearly.

we all know that bud selig, the owner of the brewers, was a big fan of the milwaukee braves and so bring aaron back to milwaukee for the 1975 and 1976 seasons was probably a no-brainer for the future commissioner. as a brewer, aaron hit 22 homers in 222 games. he legged out an infield single in his final at bat, but was denied the opportunity to score one more run to pass babe ruth on the all-time leader board when he was removed for a pinch runner.

hank aaron (retired by the braves in 1977) 1982 topps kmart 20th anniversary

the braves kept number 44 out of circulation in 1975 and 1976, and formally retired it for aaron on april 15, 1977 during pre-game ceremonies. at the time, aaron was the only player to have his number retired by two franchises. he spent the bulk of his career with the braves - first in milwaukee and then in atlanta - and became the all-time major league home run king at home in fulton county stadium as a brave (on a pitch from another 44 in al downing). that moment is captured on the 1982 topps kmart card i've used for this collection. it was the first hank aaron card i owned, and i treasured it.

as a brave, aaron had 3,600 hits and 733 home runs to go along with a .310 batting average. he led the milwaukee braves to back-to-back pennants in 1957 and 1958 with a world championship in '57. that same season, he was the national league mvp - just one of seven seasons in which he finished in the top 3 of mvp finalists. to this day, aaron remains one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game and was inducted into the hall of fame in 1982 on his first ballot.

willie mccovey (retired by the giants in 1980) 1978 topps

i am always happy to be able to use a 1978 topps card in any collection, and willie mccovey's record breaker card from that set does the job nicely in this one. the giants retired mccovey's number on september 21, 1980 which was a couple of months after he played in his final game, so that means that nobody on the giants wore 44 after mccovey, who was ultimately voted into the hall of fame in 1986 on his first ballot.

in two separate stints with the giants, mccovey hit 469 home runs and drove in 1,388 runs. he won the rookie of the year award in 1959 and the mvp award 10 years later. he led the league in homers three times as a giant, and helped the club to the 1962 pennant. he famously lined out to end the 1962 fall classic with the winning run on second base, breaking giants fans' hearts, including that of charles schulz who created an iconic comic strip shortly thereafter.

reggie jackson (retired by the yankees in 1993) 1993 upper deck fifth anniversary

the "straw that stirs the drink" led the yankees to american league pennants in three of his five seasons in new york and was recognized with a number retirement ceremony on august 14, 1993. that came just after he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame on his first ballot, going in as a yankee. i like that the card i chose for this collection, the 1993 upper deck fifth anniversary insert above, shows both his number 44 and one of his prodigious swings. 

while reggie wore number 9 with the a's and orioles prior to joining the yankees, he had to choose a new number in new york since number 9 belonged to graig nettles. jackson considered 42 in honor of jackie robinson, and actually wore number 20 for frank robinson during spring training before switching to 44 to honor the recently retired hank aaron.

the highlight of reggie's yankee tenure was 1977. in his first season with the club, he was the mvp of the world series, hitting five home runs against the dodgers, including three in the series clinching game 6. in all, he hit 144 homers for the yankees, leading the league in that category in 1980 with 41. in doing so, jackson was the first yankee to reach the 40 home run mark since roger maris and mickey mantle did so in 1961. when jackson left to join the angels in 1982, the yankees did not recirculate his number which i thought was a (rare) classy move by george steinbrenner.

as a young fan in the late 1970's, i considered 44 to be a slugger's number, and you can see why with these three guys. i was a little confused when mickey hatcher took the number for the dodgers, but felt a little bit better when darryl strawberry arrived and claimed it for his own. i don't know if we will see another 44 retired anytime soon, although i could see the diamondbacks doing it for paul goldschmidt at some point in the future just because.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 42 posts so far):

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

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

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, 44

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, 44

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 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. 43

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 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)

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): 154

running total of non-hall of famers: 53

a slight return of manager cards!

well well well. i have been lamenting the loss of manager cards in topps heritage over the last few years as it has denied me cards of dusty baker and dave roberts to collect. thankfully, topps included roberts in a flagship insert set - "mlb awards" or some such thing - a few years ago, and both roberts and baker were part of the short printed "skippers" mini insert set in 2016 allen & ginter's (i still need to get a copy of baker's card, by the way).

then along came 2021 topps archives. when i saw that roberts and baker were on the autograph checklist, i figured it would be as fan favorite players, since both were definitely that during their playing careers. but no - they are managers!

i am pretty happy to have a new card of dusty as a non-dodger; especially one that features him in a new uniform. the aforementioned skippers card is the only one i know of from his time with the nationals, so i really do need to track one down.

as for roberts, it's great to have a certified autograph of him as the dodgers' manager. i already had a ttm auto from him on that aforementioned awards card which kept alive my string of autographed cards of dodger managers back to walter alston, but certified is preferred.

topps even went with the 1982 design even though there were no manager cards issued in that set. just great all around stuff that i was all too happy to track down on ebay. for the record, twins' manager rocco baldelli is also featured in the managerial subset which is nice to see, but the other highlight is kim ng's card - even if topps put "marlins" above her name rather than "general manager".

there were no steve garvey cards in archives this year which was a bit of a surprise given his appearance in a number of other topps releases. topps did recycle some of his old cards for their 2021 archives signature series retired players edition, and i dutifully picked up a few of them:

the first two were purchased from comc and i didn't notice that the seller had salvaged the one-touch holders. i put them in one-touches after they arrived though, although i have some uncaged autos from other releases (like 2004 topps originals) that i've left loose. i should work on my consistency. the last card there is the tiffany version of garvey's final topps card. this is the third or fourth year that garvey has been included in this set, and i really don't need to add another signed buyback of his 1987 card, that's for sure. i might be the only person around who would like to see a jim tracy card included in this set, however. more manager cards, please!

all that glitters is not gold

just another cardboard abomination from 2008 tristar signa cuts

that i had to add to my steve garvey collection. this one is a gold parallel, and features a mutilated 1985 fleer superstar special card of the garv and goose gossage. this is fool's gold, but i can't resist.

i have saved a few signed cards from potentially becoming tristar fodder in the past few months as well, adding these cards to my non-certified autograph collection:

1983 fleer rick monday

1986 topps pedro guerrero

1981 fleer don stanhouse, 1989 upper deck ricky horton, 1990 topps debut mike munoz, and 1992 fleer ultra brett butler

1982 topps kmart maury wills

1982 topps kmart steve garvey

1982 donruss steve garvey (diamond kings)

1975 topps jeff burroughs/steve garvey (1974 mvps)

1984 fleer steve garvey

1984 topps ralston purina steve garvey

1985 leaf steve garvey

1986 topps quaker steve garvey

1990 pacific legends steve garvey

and finally, a 2015 theautographcard.com steve garvey

that is upside down, no matter how you look at it

that last one might actually look better as a tristar signa cut!

my favorite cards of the year - 1982 edition

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

1982 was a fun year for me. the dodgers were the reigning world series champions and my dad was collecting cards alongside me. in addition to hoping for a dodger repeat in the world series, i was in on billy-ball and the oakland a's, and my favorite cards from that year reflect this sentiment.

favorite non-dodger card: donruss billy martin

it was either this card or the topps rickey henderson card that were my favorite non-dodger cards that year, and i gave billy the nod due to the umpire interaction. i hoped then that tom lasorda would get a similar card, and i like to think that his 1983 topps card features a similar scene to the martin card above. truly, i enjoyed watching martin argue with the umpires. i think it is a bit ridiculous that managers today can't argue balls and strikes as i've watched a lot of games this season, and the strike zone is definitely wider than the plate. where is the accountability? at least billy was able to yell at them and kick some dirt and maybe give the umps something to ponder.

favorite dodger card: kmart don drysdale

like many if not most collectors, my first experience with a retail box set was the 1982 kmart set. my grandma used to take my brother and i to kmart once in a while, and i was surprised during one visit to find a box of cards at the checkout stand. to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first kmart opening, topps produced a set featuring cards of the league mvp winners from 1962 through 1981, and also added three highlight cards. the highlight cards featured pete rose, hank aaron, and don drysdale. i thought the inclusion of highlights in the set was strange, and the inclusion of drysdale even stranger. rose was already in the set thanks to his 1973 mvp status, and aaron was an mvp (although his award came in 1957 and so was not represented in the set). drysdale, however, was not a league mvp. because of how out of place this card seemed, i treasured it even more.

up next, 2011. stay tuned!

turn back the clock to cards that didn't exist

i posted about a month ago about the cards that were my favorite back in 1987. they were both 'turn back the clock' cards from the topps set that year, which is reflective of both the lack of diversity in collecting options and the reduced amount of cards i was buying then.

anyway, one of the cards was the maury wills card that featured his 1962 style card.

of course, that card did not exist in 1962 thanks to wills' refusal to sign with topps.  i first learned that it wasn't an actual card sometime in 1982 after buying the kmart mvp box set while on a big box retail visit with my grandma.  thanks to it being a 20th anniversary set, the 1962 mvps were included, and that meant maury wills got a card:

meanwhile, my dad was collecting dodger team sets of the 1960's and we eventually discovered that wills was not part of the 1962 topps set. this was later confirmed with our local card and comic shop owner who knew more about these things.  

as a result, i realized that the 1975 topps 1962 mvp card that was still on my team collection want list at the time also featured a card that should have been or never was or however you want to name it

i believe that was the first time that topps used that card image, and it may be one of the first such cards they created i suppose.

it wasn't the first, however, because in that same subset there was a 1951 topps roy campanella card created

as well as a 1955 topps campanella card

complete with an erroneously placed la dodger hat instead of a brooklyn dodger one.

this discovery gave me hope that there might one day be a 1978 topps brooks robinson or 1977 hank aaron or 1975 al kaline card created to fill the final tribute holes left behind.  and, even though the all-time fan favorites sets of the early 2000s and the current archives releases gave and continue to give me hope, i'm still waiting on brooks and aaron cards.

a few years after learning about the maury wills card in 1982, i found another one.

when i first saw the fernando valenzuela turn back the clock card in a 1986 topps pack, i was happy as he and the dodgers certainly defined the 1981 season for me. good job topps! when i went to put it in my dodger topps team set binder, however, i was reminded that his 1981 topps traded card featured a slightly different photo.

it's from the same photo shoot, so you can see how i assumed it was the same image at first.  at the time, i thought that topps did this on purpose for some reason, but these days i wonder if they erroneously used a mockup from 1981 without checking to confirm it was the actual card produced.

last year, i was happy to see topps bring back the 'turn back the clock' cards even though they weren't done in a 'card within a card' style that had been the norm for these sets when they appeared post-1977. i actually preferred the use of new photographs that tied to the event on the card, and besides, there weren't topps card designs that would have fit such events that took place prior to 1951.  still, i would like to see more of the 'lost cards' from topps, like the '62 wills and the two campy cards. maybe 2021 archives will afford topps an opportunity to create a card that should have been.