my retired number collection - 34

this is the 34th 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 seven people for whom number 34 has been retired:

rollie fingers (retired by the brewers in 1992) 1982 fleer

rollie fingers was voted into the hall of fame in 1992 on his second ballot, and the brewers retired his number a week after his induction - on august 9 to be exact. he only spent four seasons in milwaukee, but he won both the cy young and mvp awards as a brewer in 1981, and then helped the club reach the world series for the first (and so far only) time in 1982. so, it's fitting that i've used his 1982 fleer card for this collection.

it's a different game now, however fingers is still fourth on the brewers' franchise leader board for career saves (he was the top dog when he retired following the 1985 season), even though fingers ended his career as a brewer, the number retirement wasn't as automatic as it was for hank aaron. several brewers wore 34 after fingers, with mark lee in 1991 being the last to do so.

rollie fingers (retired by the athletics in 1993) 2004 topps tribute hall of fame edition

on july 5, 1993 - just over 11 months after fingers was inducted into the hall of fame, the a's retired number 34 in his honor. i've used a 2004 topps tribute card to represent this number retirement. the fact that the card notes his hall of fame induction year is a bonus. fingers spent the first 9 years (8 seasons plus a "cup of coffee" in 1968) with the a's so it makes sense that they would retire his number.

he was a four time all-star as an athletic, finishing third in the cy young voting and fourth in the mvp voting in 1975. the previous three seasons, fingers pitched in a total of 203 games, posted 61 saves, and led the club to three consecutive world series titles. the only oakland era player to appear in more games for the franchise is dennis eckersley who will show up in one of these posts in a couple of months. eckersley is also the only athletic, regardless of era, to have more saves than fingers for the franchise. still, he left the a's early enough in his career for them to reissue his number pretty much right away. the last person to wear the number was dave stewart in 1992, and we will get to him in just a bit.

nolan ryan (retired by the rangers in 1996) 1990 topps

the rangers retired nolan ryan's number on september 15, 1996 as part of an appreciation weekend for the future hall of famer. the team kept his number out of circulation after ryan retired following the 1993 season, and he wasn't elected to the hall of fame until 1999 (on the first ballot), so i guess the rangers decided to split the difference and retire the first number in their franchise's history in '96. ryan thus became one of the few to have different numbers retired by different teams, as the angels had retired 30 in his honor back in 1992.

in his five seasons as a ranger, ryan threw his sixth and seventh no-hitters, reached 300 career wins, and passed the 5,000 strikeout milestone. using his 1990 topps card for this collection makes sense not only because it shows his number nicely, but also because 1990 was the year that topps included the career retrospective subset in recognition of the 5k strikeout milestone. 

nolan ryan (retired by the astros in 1996) 2019 topps museum collection

it took the astros two weeks after the rangers retired number 34 for ryan to do the same, marking the event on september 29, 1996. they had not reissued the number since ryan left after the 1988 season, which was his ninth year as an astro. during that time, ryan twice led the league in era and also in strikeouts. i actually had a bit of a hard time finding a ryan astros card for this collection as i recall, so i was happy to see the 2019 topps museum collection card pop up in comc's database.

ryan threw his fifth career no-hitter (against the dodgers) to claim the all-time record for himself, and also reached the 3,000 strikeout milestone as an astro. and, his 1,866 strikeouts as an astro are still the most in franchise history

kirby puckett (retired by the twins in 1997) 1986 topps

it was may 25, 1997 when the twins retired number 34 for puckett, several years before they thought they would. puckett had been forced to retire prior to the 1996 season due to glaucoma, although he didn't formally announce his retirement until july of 1996. there was no doubt that the twins would have hung 34 up eventually, as he led the club to their first two (and currently only) world series titles in 1987 and 1991, with game 6 of the '91 series being a capsulized version of puckett's value to the twins organization. puckett's 1986 topps card shows his number nicely, along with him in the baby blues that the team would retire after the '86 season.

i didn't move to minnesota until later in '97 so i wasn't there for the retirement ceremony, nor did i ever see him play in person. in fact, the retirements of puckett and ozzie smith inspired me to get to the ballpark more often to see players in person. a six time gold glover and silver slugger, puckett led the league in hits four times and batting average once. in fact, no other twin has compiled more hits than puckett in franchise history. he was the last twin to wear 34, obviously, and he was elected to the hall of fame in 2001 on the first ballot.

david ortiz (retired by the red sox in 2017) 2006 topps triple threads

ortiz was another first ballot hall of famer, getting the call in 2022. the red sox, however, had already retired his number, doing so on june 23, 2017. ortiz had retired following the 2016 season, and so became the last red sox to wear the number. i think the 2006 topps triple threads card i chose shows the number nicely.

ortiz led the red sox to their first world series in 86 years, breaking the "curse of the bambino" in 2004. for good measure, he also led them to titles in 2007 and 2013. aside from the postseason heroics, ortiz is firmly set in the upper echelon of red sox hitters. he sits behind only ted williams in terms of home runs hit by a red sox player, and is behind only williams and carl yastrzemski in rbi. 

roy halladay (retired by the phillies in 2021) 2010 topps finest

halladay continues our string of first ballot hall of famers, having been voted in by the writers in 2019. his induction was posthumous, as halladay died in a plane accident in november of 2017. although the phillies didn't immediately retire the number (they did so on august 8, 2021), they did take it out of circulation following halladay's death, making andrew knapp in 2017 the last phillie to wear the number. i appreciate the numbers on the sleeves - it makes finding cards like the 2010 topps finest card above easier.

like ryan, halladay has two different numbers retired by two different franchises. his number 32 is retired by the blue jays, but the phillies had retired that number for steve carlton, so halladay took 34 when he joined the club prior to the 2010 season. he was only a phillie for four seasons, but in that time he won the cy young award and finished second in the voting the following year, and led the club to the 2010 nlcs thanks to the second postseason no-hitter in history. of course, he also threw a perfect game during the regular season that year against the marlins. he is the only phillie pitcher to ever throw two no-hitters.

dave stewart (retired by the athletics in 2022) 1992 upper deck

i mentioned stewart earlier while addressing rollie fingers and the retirement of number 34 by the a's. by the time the number was retired, steward had been wearing it for six-plus seasons, and it is possible that the team was waiting for stewart to leave the team before retiring it for fingers. stewart wound up heading to toronto after the 1992 season, and so became the last athletic to wear the number. his 1992 upper deck card gives a good look at the number, and reminds me of my high school jerseys which were modeled after these a's unis.

with the a's, stewart posted four consecutive top four finishes in the cy young voting, although he never won the award. he led the league in wins in 1987. he helped the a's win three straight pennants from 1988 through 1990, and was the mvp of both the 1989 world series and the 1990 alcs. he returned to oakland in 1995, but wore 35 so it's clear that the a's hadn't yet decided to honor stewart with a number retirement separate from fingers. eventually, they decided to honor stewart, but the ceremony was delayed due to the pandemic. he was finally recognized in a ceremony on september 11, 2022.

fernando valenzuela (retired by the dodgers in 2023) 1986 donruss

number 34 was for all intents and purposes retired by the dodgers in 1991 when valenzuela was released by the club and they chose to never reissue it. however, their policy of retiring hall of fame numbers only (except for jim gilliam's 19) seemed to prevent them from honoring valenzuela with a formal number retirement. they made him one of the inaugural members of the "legends of dodger baseball" which seemed to be the pinnacle for non-hall of fame dodgers, but then reversed course and added 34 to their officially retired numbers on august 11, 2023. 

valenzueala won both the rookie of the year and cy young awards in 1981, the same year that he led the dodgers to their first world series title since 1965. he finished second in the cy young voting in 1986 when he won a career high 21 games and also threw 20 complete games. fittingly, his 1986 donruss card shows his number nicely. side note - both he and his former teammate stewart (who wore 48 during his time with the dodgers) threw no-hitters on the same day - june 29, 1990.

anyway, aside from fernando's statistics, he was (and still is) a cultural icon for the dodgers and their fans. "fernandomania" created a huge interest in the dodgers beyond their previous fan base and he became a true international ambassador for the game. hall of famer or not, he is absolutely the type of player that should be recognized by his franchise in this way.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 34 posts so far):

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

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

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

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, 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, 42

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

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 31, 42

orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22, 33, 42

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24, 32, 34, 42

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 28, 34, 42

white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, 42, 72

brewers - 1, 4, 19, 34, 42

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

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

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 34, 42

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 9 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)

42 - retired by 30 teams (retired by cardinals and yankees for individuals in addition to jackie robinson)

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): 140

running total of non-hall of famers: 49

my retired number collection - 24/7

this is the 23rd 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 seven people for whom number 24 has been retired, including one player who has been so honored by two teams:

willie mays (retired by the giants in 1972) 2020 topps heritage 20 giants seasons

mays had his number retired by the giants while he was still active, albeit with another team. on may 12, 1972, a day after the giants traded him to the mets, number 24 was retired in his honor - at least according to wikipedia. it makes sense - the mets were playing in san francisco on the 12th, and the giants would likely want to waste no time in acknowledging one of the greatest players in baseball history and ensure that no other giant would ever wear the number.

as a giant, mays hit 646 home runs and had 3,187 hits. he sits atop the franchise's leaderboard in most key offensive categories including hits, homers, runs, doubles, total bases and games played. he was a two-time mvp and won 12 gold gloves. a no-doubt hall of famer, mays was elected on the first ballot in 1979, and it is crazy that he got only 94.7% of the vote. there are a few cards that i have showing his number 24, but i like the 2020 topps heritage insert for this collection.

walt alston (retired by the dodgers in 1977) 1967 topps

alston is the only member of the los angeles dodgers to ever wear number 24, as he brought the number with him from brooklyn and it was retired by the team in the year after alston gave up his job as manager of the club. he retired during the final week of the 1976 season, and his number was retired on june 5 the following year during an old-timers game and ceremony. i sure wish i could find photos from the old-timers game i went to at dodger stadium. i don't think it would have been 1977, but i recall hank aaron playing right field for the visitors and jim campanis playing for the dodgers. maybe someday i will find the photos we took. speaking of photos, the 1967 topps card i chose for the collection show his number pretty well, which is somewhat rare for manager cards.

anyway, alston led the dodgers for 23 seasons, winning seven pennants and four world series titles, including the franchise's first championship in 1955. he won over 2,000 games as the dodgers' manager, becoming the only skipper to reach that milestone with a single franchise, and retired with the fifth most managerial wins all-time. he wasn't elected to the hall of fame until 1983, so the dodgers weren't quite as strict about their hall of fame policy as they became after retiring jim gilliam's number 19 in 1978. sadly, alston was too ill to travel to cooperstown, and passed away a couple of months after his induction. 

tony perez (retired by the reds in 2000) 1970 topps

tony perez is rocking the windbreaker under the jersey look on his 1970 topps card, and we can see his number 24 clearly thanks to his awkward looking swing follow through. perez helped the reds to four pennants during his first run with the club from 1964 through 1976, and was a two-time world champion as a result. overall, perez is second only to johnny bench on the franchise's all-time leader board for rbi, which was perez's calling card. he drove in 1,192 runs as a red in 7,630 plate apperances, and his career totals equate to an rbi/pa ratio equal to that of willie mays.

the only reds player to wear 24 after perez was traded to the expos in 1976 was dave van gorder back in 1982. when perez rejoined the club, he reclaimed 24 and no red has worn it since. the team retired the number on may 27, 2000 in recognition of his election to the hall of fame earlier that year. it was his 9th year on the ballot, and he made it in with 77.2% of the vote.

jim wynn (retired by the astros in 2005) 1971 topps

the toy cannon doesn't seem to have a card that shows his full number, but his 1971 topps card comes close, if you combine what you see on both sides of his jersey. wynn was drafted by the houston colt .45s after their inaugural 1962 season from the reds, and he debuted with the club the following year. in 1965 he became their starting centerfielder, and played for the club through the 1973 season amassing 223 home runs in that time. when he was traded, he was the franchise's all-time leader in most offensive categories, including home runs, rbi, and walks. he remained in the top spot in all three of those categories until the killer b's came along.

wynn had his number 24 retired by the astros on june 25, 2005. jason lane, who wore the number earlier in that season, switched to number 16 after it was retired. while not a national baseball hall of famer, wynn was inducted into the team's hall of fame on august 3, 2019 as part of its inaugural class. 

rickey henderson (retired by the a's in 2009) 1994 topps stadium club member's only box set

rickey henderson wore number 35 during the majority of his first stint with the a's. he switched to 24 when he joined the yankees in 1986 as phil niekro was wearing 35. when rickey returned to the a's in 1989, bob welch had 35 and rickey took 22 until he was able to come to an arrangement with ron hassey who was wearing number 24. one suit and set of golf clubs later, rickey was wearing 24, and wore that number for the remainder of his time in oakland across multiple stints.

i think the 1994 topps stadium club member's only box set card is a great one for this collection - it shows the number clearly and portrays rickey as a stealer of bases which is his primary claim to fame. elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot in 2009, rickey is the game's all-time leader in steals and runs scored, and was at one time first in walks until barry bonds passed him. he was the 1990 al mvp and a 10-time all-star who led his league in stolen bases 12 times, including a single season record of 130 swipes in 1982.

while he was an obvious hall of famer, the a's kept number 24 in circulation. kurt suzuki was the last a's player to wear the number, doing so during the 2008 season before the a's retired it on august 1, 2009.

whitey herzog (retired by the cardinals in 2010) 2022 topps allen & ginter

the cardinals were the fourth franchise for whom herzog managed (this includes a short stint in 1974 leading the angels), but he managed them longer than anyone not named schoendienst or larussa - two people who i've already covered in this series. i was happy to pull the 2023 topps allen & ginter card last year, as it was the best example i could find that showed herzog's number.

with the cardinals, herzog won three pennants and one world series title. he won 822 games during the regular season and 21 in those three postseasons. herzog was elected to the hall of fame as a manager by the veteran's committee in 2010, and the cardinals retired his number on july 31 of that same year, making rick ankiel in 2009 the last cardinal player to wear the number.

ken griffey jr (retired by the mariners in 2016) 1990 topps

not only did the mariners announce that they would retire ken griffey jr's number during a ceremony on august 16, 2016, they announced that number 24 would be retired across the entire organization. high recognition for the face of the franchise who was elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot that same year, prompting the announcement from the mariners. once griffey donned the number as a rookie in 1989, no other mariner ever wore 24. 

his 1990 topps card shows most of the number that griffey wore during both of his tenures in seattle (he wore 30 and 3 in cincinnati to honor his dad and kids, respectively, and 17 in chicago because 3 was retired and 30 was taken). i like that he reverted back to his original number when he rejoined the mariners to end his career. and what a career it was, with 417 of his 630 homers hit as a mariner, to go along with 10 consecutive gold glove awards and the 1997 al mvp that he earned during his time with the franchise.

willie mays (retired by the mets in 2022) 2022 topps heritage high numbers 1973 all-star game highlights

while willie mays only spent a season and a half with the mets, he was still willie mays! he helped the team win their second national league pennant in 1973, and was also named to the all-star team that year as the 2022 topps heritage high numbers card shows. he retired after the 1973 season, and the team's owner at the time, joan payson, promised to not reissue mays' number.

unfortunately, it was erroneously given to kevin torve in 1990. after that, rickey henderson wore it during his time with the mets, as did robinson cano up until his release early in the 2022 season. payson's promise was finally fulfilled when the mets formally retired the number on august 27, 2022 . 

i would expect the tigers to retire number 24 for miguel cabrera at some point in the near future, and it wouldn't surprise me at some point if the red sox retired it for dwight evans and manny ramirez, even though i understand why it hasn't happened yet.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 18 posts so far):

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

giants - 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, 24

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21

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

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20

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

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

braves - 3, 6, 10, 21

astros - 5, 7, 24

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24

orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14

white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, 72

brewers - 1, 4, 19

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 16, 23

cubs - 10, 14, 23

royals - 5, 10, 20

padres - 6, 19

athletics - 9, 24

angels - 11

expos - 8, 10

rangers - 7, 10

major league baseball

rays - 12, 66

diamondbacks - 20

blue jays

rockies - 17

mariners - 11, 24

nationals - 11

marlins

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 9 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 (includes mets who will formally retire the number in 2024)

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)

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): 109

running total of non-hall of famers: 39

if you've got a sombrero, throw it to the sky

friday night in los angeles kicks off a weekend celebrating fernandomania and its subject - fernando valenzuela. that same night - august 11 - the dodgers will retire number 34 in his honor.

i wrote earlier this year about the fact that fernando is already a member of the "legends of dodger baseball", and i will be interested to see how the team handles the transition from that group to the retired numbers faction. will they just move his monument from one spot to the other? that would be my guess.

anyway, here are some cards of fernando that i've added over the last year or so, starting with a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback of his 1990 topps card

it's the silver stamp version, not that you can tell.

when it comes to adding cards of fernando to my dodger collection, i am down mainly to oddballs, wo here are a few of those that are new-ish to me

1981 all-star game program insert

1982 topps album stickers

1989 topps super star stickers (with rob deer)

1985 topps rub downs (with tony pena and robin yount)

i also finally added his 1987 star company set to my collection:

i bought the set as single cards on beckett since it was cheaper than what i saw for complete sets, however, one of the cards was missing so i had to pick up a single on ebay

back when the dodgers announced that they were going to retire fernando's number, i made the announcement that i was adding him to my post-dodger player collections. so, i've been adding non-dodger cards of fernando to my collection ever since. some i already had among my non-dodger duplicates and monster boxes, but some i've tracked down online.

i had a reader point out (thanks benjamin!) that fernando's two cards from the 1993-94 line up venezuelan winter league set were on ebay for cheap, but i was too slow to snag his solo card. i did get this card

showing him with urbano lugo. it's a great oddball and i am happy to have a card showing fernando in team mexico gear in my collection.

i've made some great progress in filling out the post-dodger collection (here's my have/want list) so i figured i would share with you. 

1993

you may recall that fernando pitched for the angels in 1991 after he was released by the dodgers just prior to the start of the season. there are sadly no cards of him in his angel uniform, so we jump to 1993. the orioles signed him to a contract and i was pretty happy that he was back in the majors.

those cards include flair, fleer, fleer ultra, leaf, o-pee-chee premier, and topps stadium club.  i have to show the back of the stadium club card

because it features his 1981 topps multi-player rookie (hello jack perconte and mike scioscia!). let's keep going with 1993-1994

i am a big fan of fernando's 1993 upper deck card (it was my favorite non-dodger card that year), and i was confused to find that topps included him in stadium club but not flagship (or traded). after finishing the 1993 season with the orioles, fernando was unsigned until well in to the 1994 campaign. so, it was nice that he was added to some card checklists that year as a phillie.  the cards above are his 1993 topps stadium club member's only parallel, 1993 upper deck, 1994 fleer, 1994 flair, 1994 fleer update, and 1994 pacific.

more from 1994

those are his pacific prism (circles), score, score gold rush, topps, topps gold, and topps stadium club cards from '94. that year marked the end of his run with topps until a few years after his retirement.

here's one more from '94 and some '95 cards

those are the 1994 topps stadium club rainbow foil, 1995 fleer, 1995 fleer update, 1995 mother's cookies padres, 1995 upper deck, and 1995 upper deck series 2 cards. as you can see, fernando left the phillies and joined the padres for the 1995 season.

more '95 cards

there we have his upper deck series 2 electric diamond parallel, his upper deck collector's choice cards (i have them out of order), the upper deck collector's choice trade card redemption, and 1995 upper deck collector's choice se - base and silver signature versions. those last two are nice because he's back in dodger stadium.

on to 1996

it's all padres here, as fernando spent 1996 with them, too. those cards are emotion-xl, flair, fleer tiffany, fleer ultra, mother's cookies padres, and pacific crown collection. i like the back of the emotion-xl card

as it shows fernando peeking to the sky during his wind up.

more from 1996, plus one from '97

pacific prisms, circa, upper deck (young at heart subset), upper deck collector's choice (international flavor subset), upper deck collector's choice silver signature are the '96 cards, and the last card is from 1997 donruss.  there was no regular card for fernando in 1997 upper deck (as was the case with some, but not all, of the other 'young at heart' subjects), but his young at heart card has his full stats on the back, along with a nice photo of him as a dodger

here are the rest of the 1997 cards that i own

donruss press proof, fleer, fleer metal, fleer ultra, mother's cookies padres, pacific crown collection, pacific prism invincibles, pinnacle, score, score premium stock, score showcase series, and upper deck. the back of the upper deck card notes that he was the winning pitcher in the first mlb game held in mexico.

i guess i have a couple more from 1997 - upper deck special report subset, and collector's choice

and those last two are his 1998 final tributes from upper deck and upper deck collector's choice. fernando pitched for the cards in 5 games after being traded by the pads in the middle of the 1997 season. the cardinals released him in july of 1997, so i was surprised (but super happy) to see him in 1998 releases.

as you can see, i am missing a few base cards so feel free to help me out with my post-dodger fernando collection. and don't forget to salute him this weekend as he becomes only the second non-hall of famer to have his numbered retired by the dodgers. fernandomania forever!

love is a bottenfield

usually when i host one my "almost free stuff friday" trade posts, i prefer to receive cards directly from my want list. many of my mini collections are subjective as to cards that i would want to add, and i only have "have lists" posted for them. my want lists are cards that i want (to varying degrees) but definitely need for dodger team sets or player collections or what have you.

bo did not send cards from my want list in exchange for the cards he claimed, but i couldn't be happier with the cards he sent.  here is the big gun:

that is a 2001 fleer triple crown kent bottenfield card. he sent it for my dodger stadium mini collection, as bottenfield is standing out in right field at chavez ravine. i know this because of the mural behind him.  now, i would have sworn that i looked through the entire comc inventory of fleer cards from 1998 through 2005 - including sold out cards - looking for cards that featured the murals in the background, but i never saw this bottenfield card.  

what really amped me up was that the mural in the background features none other than steve garvey, who was being celebrated in 2000 for reaching the 1,000 consecutive games played milestone in a game at dodger stadium, along with other great moments in dodger stadium history.  it was a great surprise and one that impelled me to act further. more on that later.

bo also sent a new double play card for me - a 2003 upper deck ricky gutierrez card

and a 1995 upper deck sp edddie murray card

that goes in the tattooine collection.

back to bottenfield, i quickly added another card to my garvey collection

and then decided to add as many as i could.  i have permanently added this card to my nefarious 9/most wanted cards list, and am up to 10 of them as of this writing

they come in varying shades it appears.

the only other card that a clear view of a garvey mural appears (that i am aware of - please prove me wrong if you can!) is the 2004 fleer ultra preston wilson card. 

that's the gold medallion parallel, which i realized was lacking from my garvey collection. i also picked up a base and another gme parallel

for the dodger stadium collection.  and, like the bottenfield, these cards have also been made permanent residents of my most wanted cards list.  as of right now, i only have one extra base and two extra gme parallels

but maybe you can change that?  the mural that shows up here, by the way, is part of the dodger record setters murals, and this one in particular features the full gcrl infield. it shows up on a few other cards of pitchers, but is not as clear. i would love to find another 2004 fleer tradition dodger team set darren dreifort card, though.

i did see a new ichiro card that featured the 2001 retired number murals, and quickly snapped one up for my dodger stadium collection

this is from 2022 topps 587 montgomery club set 3 if you are curious. just a couple of hall of fame center fielders (that's duke snider on the wall if you can't tell) hanging out on the same card.

and then there are a couple more traditional dodger stadium cards that i've added over the last couple of months...

a co-worker gave me some cards which included a 1989 donruss dave meads card

with the right field scoreboard behind him. i had also thought i had scoured 1980s astros cards for dodger stadium backgrounds as they seem to have a lot - the stadium's color scheme worked well with the astro uniforms back then - but i missed this meads.

and finally, i somehow became aware of this 1990 topps rick reuschel card

featuring big daddy and the always popular dodger stadium pickoff move to first photo. the card is a box bottom, and i saw it thanks to one of my saved searches for the 1989 fleer orel hershiser box bottom card (white back version) which has sat atop my most wanted list for a long, long, long time.

and that is how you bring a post full circle - from want list to want list with some nice dodger stadium cards in between.  as always - help a blogger out and let me know if you have any cards i need.  you will be rewarded!