my retired number collection - 29

this is the 29th 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 three people for whom number 29 has been retired:

rod carew (retired by the angels in 1986) 1983 topps

following the 1978 season, reigning back-to-back american league batting champ rod carew was dealt to the angels for, among others, future dodgers ken landreaux and brad havens. he spent seven seasons with the club, hitting .314 during that time and remaining a popular and high performing player, as his six all-star nods as an angel attest. he had three top-five finishes in the american league batting title race while playing in anaheim, and hit as high as .331 in 1980. even though carew was the american league's starter at first base in the 1983 and 1984 all-star games, his 1983 topps all-star subset card which serves as carew's angel card in this collection was the last one he received, with eddie murray getting the cardboard in both 1984 and 1985.

while with the angels, carew passed the 3,000 hit milestone and cemented his place in cooperstown and, i think, effectively ending his time with the angels. with that milestone out of the way near the end of the 1985 season, the angels were able to enjoy the attention that comes with a chase for 3,000 hits and still let him walk as a free agent at the end of the season, which they did. even though carew last played in 1985, he had hoped to continue playing but had no takers after becoming a free agent and so ultimately formally retired during the 1986 season.  as an aside, i recall hoping the dodgers would sign him, but they were committed to greg brock at the time.

just like in minnesota, carew was the last angel to wear number 29, and the angels formally retired the number on august 12, 1986 (per this upi article) shortly after his formal retirement announcement. this was largely seen as a pr move by the angels, but carew did have a good relationship with the owner, gene autry. autry at the time was the only other person for whom the angels had retired a number, making carew the first player to be so honored.

rod carew (retired by the twins in 1987) 1979 topps

carew was a twin for the first 12 years of his career, and he was an all-star in each of those seasons. he was the 1967 american league rookie of the year, and a seven time league batting champion. he hit .388 for the twins in 1977, which was the highest average among eligible batters since ted williams hit .406 in 1941. as a result of his performance that season, carew was named the league's most valuable player.

carew's tenure with the twins ended after the 1978 season (when he hit .333 to claim his sixth batting title) due to a rift in his relationship with club owner calvin griffith who had given an offensive and bigoted speech during the offseason which in turn prompted carew's request for a trade. even though carew was not a twin for as long as players like harmon killebrew (who was the only twin to have his number retired before carew) or joe mauer, he is the top position player on the franchise's all-time war leader board.  he also ranks highly in most offensive categories among non-washington senator players.

the twins retired carew's number on july 19, 1987, although they had kept it out of circulation since his departure after the 1978 season meaning he was fittingly the last twin to wear the number. his 1979 topps card is one of my favorite carew cards (behind only the 1978 topps and 1978 o-pee-chee cards), so i am happy to include it in this collection to represent carew's greatness with the twins.

john smoltz (retired by the braves in 2012) 1993 upper deck sp

smoltz spent all but one year (the last) of his 21 year career with the braves, piling up 210 wins, 154 saves, and 3011 strikeouts for atlanta. he won the 1996 national league cy young award as a starter, and later finished third in the cy young voting in 2002 in his first full year as a closer. smoltz spent two more years as the braves' closer before returning to starting, and wound up leading the league in wins and starts in 2006.

smoltz was the 1992 nlcs mvp, and pitched well in the 1992, 1996 and 1991 world series fot the braves. he was a member of the 1995 world championship team, although his pitching line in that series was not the best. overall, smoltz is the franchise's all-time leader in strikeouts. he is fourth in wins, second in saves, and fourth in war for pitchers (behind hall of famers kid nichols, warren spahn, and phil niekro).

the braves retired smoltz's number on june 8, 2012 as part of his induction into the franchise's hall of fame. three years later, in 2015, smoltz was voted into the national baseball hall of fame. he was the last brave to wear the number, which is shown almost in its entirety on his 1993 upper deck sp card.

adrian beltre (retired by the rangers in 2019) 2012 topps

beltre spent the last 8 years of his career with the rangers, earning three gold gloves and three silver sluggers in that time. he retired as the franchise's third best player in terms of war, which is an indication of his overall value on the field for a club that has had some solid long term players during the course of its history.

beltre retired following the 2018 season, and the rangers retired his number on june 8, 2019 so as to be able to hold the ceremony in globe life stadium where beltre spent his time with the club. he was the last ranger to wear 29, and i think the 2012 topps card above is a good one for this collection. beltre will be inducted into the hall of fame this summer as a first ballot inductee.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 29 posts so far):

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

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

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

guardians - 3, 5, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 42, 455

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 26, 27, 42

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 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, 42

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 42

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

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

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

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

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

brewers - 1, 4, 19, 42

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

cubs - 10, 14, 23, 26, 42

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 42

angels - 11, 26, 42

expos - 8, 10, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 42

major league baseball - 42

rays - 12, 42, 66

diamondbacks - 20, 42

blue jays - 42

rockies - 17, 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)

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): 122

running total of non-hall of famers: 44

pwease pwease pwease let me get what i want

there have been a ton of pwe trades flying around the blogosphere over the last few months, and I've played my role in a fair share of them.

sometimes, these envelopes contain pancakes

one card, as was the case with an envelope from wes.  that card was this 2005 donruss leather & lumber steve garvey hitter's inc. insert

panini has brought hitter's inc back (as hitter's ink) to us in recent years as an autograph insert set.

a couple or three months ago, i tried my hand at a 'free stuff friday', with the caveat that any card or cards claimed would require sending me a card from my want list. i am happy to report that all participants came through in quick order, making for a successful endeavor.  here is the card that matt from diamond jesters sent me:

that is a very attractive 2019 topps stadium club chris taylor red foil parallel. it is much more appreciated by me than the card(s) i gave up to get it.  thanks matt!

sometimes, the envelope contains multiple cards.  case in point is this more recent trade with adam at infield fly rule.  one of the cards he sent me was this 2016 topps update chad qualls

it's not a photo variation, it's qualls' base card. that means someone at topps either didn't know or didn't care that qualls is wearing number 42, which that year was a reason to create a variation. i wish topps would do this more often and skip the more interesting photo as a variant scheme. this is a great add to my '42' collection!

adam also included this 2017 topps daniel descalso card

which features a dodger stadium background and this 2014 topps joe blanton card

that gives a great look at the patch that the angels wore for dr. lewis yocum. unfortunately for blanton, he's not going to supplant mike trout in my memorials mini-collection.  thanks adam!

brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary and i have completed a number of trades, and one of his most recent envelopes was heavy in tatooine goodness.

those are 1995 pinnacle lou whitaker, 2009 bowman adam laroche, 1998 fleer tradition vintage '63 kevin young, and 1996 pinnacle summit above and beyond marquis grissom cards. nothing but dirt goodness, all of them.

as i was going through my collection to find cards to send to brian (and others), i found a few more cards for this particular mini collection, such as this 1997 upper deck brad radke card,

this 2002 topps total omar vizquel card,

and this 2016 topps update xander bogaerts card

that had somehow previously been overlooked.

finally, i have also been inspired by a couple of bloggers out there to order some cards from sportlots, which also typically arrive in pwe fashion.  first, fuji showed off this 1998 topps gallery kevin brown card

a long time ago, and more recently, daniel from it's like having my own card shop showed this 1993 upper deck sp card

of brown on his blog.  both posts had me heading to sportlots to track down copies for my own collection.

all of these cards made for happy mail days!  let me know if you are up for trading - i am always game! and, for those of you who made it this far, i am planning to have another go at an 'almost free stuff friday' this coming friday with a posting time of 7:55 pm central. hopefully there will be something for everyone, although it will likely only be baseball this time around.

the missing link

buybacks are a divisive topic, and stamped buybacks may be even more of a polarizing idea.  i have pulled two non-stamped buybacks from packs during my near 40 years as a collector, and i was disappointed both times due to the fact that there was nothing distinguishable about the cards.  i was fairly oblivious to the stamped buybacks topps put in packs in 2014, but i went all-in on dodger buybacks in 2015.  i liked the "topps original 2015" stamp design (better than the variable sized topps logo used in 2014, i thought), and i liked the fact that the buybacks spanned from 1957 through 1980.

i began seeking out dodger buybacks with the goal to have at least one from each year and a complete team set of the 1978 club, but i quickly found that 1964 and 1965 were not included - most likely due to the heritage buyback inserts the previous couple of years.  i also found that the 1980 buybacks were limited to the first dozen or so cards in the set (but thankfully included the manny mota record breaker).  i fairly quickly had dodger buybacks from 1957-1962 and from 1966-1980.

you will notice that i did not have a 1963 dodger buyback. for about 18 months, i would check ebay and comc for these buybacks, and at one time found an auction for a lot that included johnny podres' 1963 card. i lost that auction, but shortly thereafter, the podres appeared on ebay as a single.  i lost that auction, too, with the single podres going for more than the lot had.  so, my search went on until about a month ago when a kind seller listed this card for sale on comc:

the wally moon buyback was only the second dodger card i had seen from 1963 in all that time spent looking.  i quickly scooped it up, and now my run of dodger buybacks is fully representative.  i'm still keeping an eye out for a few 1978 dodgers, but they may not have been included in the buyback program so i'm not too stressed about it.

that is not the only wally moon card that i have added to my collection recently, however.  nick at dime boxes sent me the unibrowed one's autographed card from 2017 topps archives

in a blind trade. topps did a good job with this card as it is pretty similar to moon's actual 1960 card, aside from the dodger logo.

nick also sent along a 2015 topps original 1970 topps alan foster

and some modern dodgers such as kenley jansen

 and justin turner

 from this year's archives, and another turner from 2017 topps bunt

turner, as you may know, won the final vote for an all-star spot.  he might be my favorite current dodger behind clayton kershaw these days.  i appreciate his play the same way i appreciated the play of the last dodger third baseman to make the all-star team.  that was mike sharperson back in 1992.

nick is a fellow double play collector, and he sent me some cards that were new to me, but i assume were duplicates to him.  they were all from 1993 upper deck sp, which has some great photography - double play or not.

rich amaral

is turning two on the front and back

as is benji gil

jeff blauser's card features an inaugural season marlin

while mickey morandini's card hits three of my mini-collections

double play, dodger stadium, and dodger lurker - brett butler is sliding in.

thank you nick, and thank you random comc seller, for some great additions to my collection!