he went everywhere

raul mondesi was no longer a dodger when i pulled this card from a pack in 2002

that's one of many team variation cards donruss/leaf included in their 2002 rookies & stars set, showing players with their former teams as well as current ones. it was kind of neat to find a paul konerko dodger card in 2002, but i liked the mondesi the most. largely due to the very visible manny mota heroes patch he sported back in 1999.

while he was a dodger, mondesi was included in a bunch of insert sets, and i finally added his 1995 pinnacle red hot card

to my collection. at the time this card was released, mondesi was my favorite dodger but i wasn't buying pinnacle so i really didn't know about this card until a couple of years ago when i found the mike piazza.  here's another new to me mondesi insert i picked up a few months ago - 2000 topps chrome power players

it's a parallel of the regular power players inserts from flagship, and i was ignorant of its existence for a couple of decades.

back to that leaf card up top - mondesi was a blue jay to start the 2002 season (having been traded straight up for shawn green a couple of years prior), and he has a card showing him in blue jay gear. however, the set was issued late enough in the season such that mondesi's base card shows him with the yankees who acquired him on july 1 that year.

after that, he moved on to the diamondbacks, pirates, and angels before finishing his career with the braves in 2005. six teams in four years is a lot of movement even if it's not quite to the level of what kenny lofton did over his last few seasons. this sort of knowledge comes in handy sometimes when i see the diamondbacks pop up on the immaculate grid.

one more card of mondesi that i was oblivious to until last fall is this 1998 donruss days card

it was apparently some sort of hobby dealer redemption card, and mondesi is one of 14 subjects in the set. thanks to comc for this one - i bought it the same day i learned of its existence. and, speaking of days, only 43 (see what i did there?) left until the dodgers and padres kick off the 2024 season!

my retired number collection - 3 is a magic number

this is the fifth 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 the number 3 has been retired:

3 babe ruth (retired by the yankees in 1948) 2009 topps legends variation

the babe's number 3 was the second number retired by the yankees after lou gehrig's number 4. it was retired on june 13, 1948 during the babe's final visit to yankee stadium. there is a famous image from that day that has shown up on cardboard before that would have worked here as well, but i have one already in my name/number on the back mini-collection. i've had that legend variation rattling around in a monster box since 2009 so it's nice to be able to place it in a meaningful spot in my collection.

ruth retired as baseball's all-time home run leader and was one of the hall of fame's inaugural class voted in by the writers in 1936. he was a seven-time world series champion, and led the american league in key offensive categories numerous times. he is still atop or near the top of the all-time leader board in most meaningful offensive categories today. strangely enough, the yankees put ruth's number 3 back in circulation in 1935 following his departure from the club, and kept it in use even after they created the idea of retired numbers in 1939. the last yankee to wear number 3 was cliff mapes, who switched to number 7 (another iconic yankee number) after ruth was honored.

3 harmon killebrew (retired by the twins in 1975) 1974 topps

the twins retired number 3 for killebrew on may 4, 1975 prior to a game against killebrew's royals. it sounds like the event was fairly poorly executed, but killebrew, who had played for the senators/twins for the first 21 years of his career, hit a home run in front of his former hometown fans. killebrew retired following the 1975 season with 573 home runs, good for fifth all-time, and he was inducted in to the hall of fame in 1984. because he was with the team when they were still the senators, and the twins did not reissue his number after he signed with the royals, killebrew is the only twin to ever wear number 3.

that 1974 topps card is one that i have owned since 1979 or so. it has been with me through countless moves, but it was in too poor condition for me to use it in my 1974 set build. i think it looks great here in this collection.

3 earl averill (retired by cleveland in 1975) 2001 topps tribute

averill played from 1929 to 1941, spending most of his career in cleveland. he was a six time all-star and finished in the top five of the mvp voting three times. he amassed some pretty good stats - a .318 lifetime batting average, 2,000 hits, 1,200 runs scored, and 1,100 runs driven in - but his first ten seasons were quite strong as he now shows to have finished in the top ten of the american league in offensive war eight of those ten years, 

averill's number was retired on june 8, 1975, a few months after he was voted in to the hall of fame by the veteran's committee and a couple of months before he was inducted. averill used his speech at the induction ceremony to call for the hall to induct joe sewell, another top player of his era that had been overlooked for many years. two years later, sewell joined averill in the hall. as for the number 3, woodie held was the last active player to wear the number for cleveland, back in 1962 even though his 1964 topps card still shows the number on his sleeve.

3 bill terry (retired by the giants in 1983) 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts

former giant player, player/manager, and manager bill terry had his numbered retired by the team on april 6, 1983 in a ceremony at candlestick park. as a player, terry could hit. he had a .401 batting average in 1930 to lead the league, and his career average was .341. he became the club's player/manager in 1932 and promptly led them to a world series championship the following year. he won another pennant in 1936 which was his final season as a player, and then led the giants to the world series the following year as a full-time manager.

even though terry stayed on as the team's manager following his retirement as a player, the number was redistributed starting in 1937. it remained in use pretty much through the 1940's and then didn't show up again until 1969 when ozzie virgil wore it. in between there, in 1954 in fact, terry was elected to the hall of fame by the baseball writers. mike sadek took the number over from virgil and wore it until 1981. john rabb and jeff ransom both wore the number for the giants in 1982, with rabb having the distinction of being the last giants' player to do so. 

3 harold baines (retired by the white sox in 1989) 1997 upper deck

baines is considered by many to be at or near the low bar of the hall of fame. elected by the today's game committee in 2019, his counting stats are pretty good. he compares closest to tony perez which makes some sense to me. still, baines has many wondering (myself included) about some other "hall of very good" players who may yet have a shot at cooperstown.

the white sox retired baines' number 3 on august 20, 1989 while baines was very much still an active player. they had traded him to the rangers a few weeks prior, and in his first return to comiskey they held a surprise ceremony to honor him. of course, he made two more stops in chicago before his career was over, so he (like billy martin and earl weaver) got to wear the number after it had been retired as he is doing on the 1997 upper deck card above. however, even before his two return stops with the chisox, he was the last white sox player to wear the number.

3 dale murphy (retired by the braves in 1994) 1979 topps

murphy is one of those "hall of very good" players that could benefit from baines' induction. he won two mvp awards and to this young fan who followed his career in real time, was a shoo-in for the hall. he transitioned from catcher to first base early in his career (as shown on that 1979 topps card above) and hit his stride offensively at the same time that he moved to the outfield. he was a seven time all-star and won five gold gloves as a centerfielder in the 80's, but his production tailed off at the end of the decade and he finished out his career with some forgettable stints with the phillies and rockies.

the braves retired murphy's number on june 13, 1994 - about a year after he had played his final big league game. at that time, he was atop the leaderboard in many offensive categories for the atlanta iteration of the braves, including home runs, rbi, runs scored, and games played. he was the last brave to wear number 3.

3 alan trammell (retired by the tigers in 2018) 1995 pinnacle

trammell entered the hall of fame in 2018 after being voted in by the modern baseball era committee, and on august 26 of that same year, the tigers retired his number making ian kinsler the last tiger player to wear the number.

trammell was a four time gold glove winner at shortstop, was the 1984 world series mvp, and finished as high as 2nd in the 1987 mvp voting. trammell compares pretty closely to barry larkin in terms of stats, which is probably a pretty good comp in my opinion. measuring his value using modern metrics such as war, trammell sits ahead of larkin (just barely) and other hall of fame shortstops, and is even higher on the list when peak war is considered.

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

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

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4

giants - 3, 4

pirates - 1, 4

guardians - 3

red sox - 1, 4

phillies - 1

cardinals - 1, 2

reds - 1

braves - 3

astros

mets

orioles - 4

dodgers - 1, 2, 4

twins - 3

white sox - 2, 3, 4

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2, 3

cubs

royals

padres

athletics

angels

expos

rangers

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

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 36

running total of non-hall of famers: 5

i wonder what dantooine looks like

all that i know about dantooine was that it was too remote to make an effective demonstration of the power of the death star. i do, however, know that tatooine featured a desert landscape that spawned a mini-collection of baseball cards for me.  here are a smattering of such cards that i've added or transferred to that collection in recent months.

1995 pinnacle rickey henderson

happy birthday (one day late) to the man of steal!

1995 upper deck collectors choice se and silver signature parallel will clark

2003 topps chris magruder

2003 topps quinton mccracken

1999 topps sammy sosa league leaders

hard to tell from the scan, but that's nothing but dirt behind sammy

2021 topps gypsy queen david bote

believe it or not, i've yet to find a star wars card that is cropped such that it would fit in to this mini-collection.

where did the summer go?

i had plans for summer 2020. i was going to kick it off with a run along pch in big sur and then meet up with friends. among other things, i had circled several baseball games on the calendar - the dodgers were coming to target field! - and had planned to catch a game in a couple of new stadiums to boot. and, there were plans to get to dodger stadium to check out the renovations and see a dodger home game for the first time since 2012.  well, we all know what happens when we make plans, especially in 2020.

instead, i stayed home and used some of the newfound time to go through neglected monster boxes of cards in my basement. the result was finding more cards for some of my mini collections. although i didn't make it to dodger stadium (or any stadium in 2020), i did find more cards to add to my dodger stadium collection. brace yourself - there are a lot of images in this post.

1995 pinnacle milt thompson

i was not sure that this photo came from dodger stadium, which is why it wasn't already in my mini collection. however, this summer i took a closer look and am pretty sure that it is given the fencing that existed in front of the speaker equipment. plus, what other stadium is more associated with beach balls than dodger stadium? finally, milt thompson did play center for the phillies in a game at dodger stadium in 1994 - one of the few times he played that position. i have never taken a beach ball to dodger stadium, but i have participated in knocking one around.

some cards i didn't find in my monster boxes, but rather went and bought duplicates of cards that were already in my dodger collection because they were good examples of dodger stadium goodness.

1971 dell's today stamps duke sims

1975 hostess steve garvey

that one is the third copy i have

1977 topps tom lasorda/dodgers checklist

1975 topps charlie hough

1975 topps lee lacy

1976 topps tommy john

those last four cards are also in my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers collection. i've lost track of how many copies of each of them i have at this point.

back to the monster boxes to salvage more cards now.

1993 score bob ojeda

1996 topps stadium club todd worrell

1998 upper deck todd worrell

that one could also fit in my lurker collection, thanks to lee smith making an appearance.

1999 upper deck eric karros (back)

2012 panini cooperstown tom lasorda

2013 panini cooperstown duke snider

2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts tommy davis

i've looked at those last two cards a bunch of times, but it didn't click for me that the photos were from dodger stadium until this year. full disclosure - i forgot to scan the davis card so i pulled the image from the internet.

and here are a couple from 2015 topps stadium club - clayton kershaw

and deion sanders

the yasiel puig card from that set has been firmly entrenched in the dodger stadium card collection since i first laid eyes on it, but i failed to add these two until just recently.

i was digging through my old player collections and found another 1990 upper deck larry walker rookie card

that features dodger stadium images on the front and back

yes - i put two copies of this card in my dodger stadium collection.

more from early 90's upper deck - 1990 neal heaton

todd frohwirth

tommy herr

and 1991 freddie benavides

a few more from my abandoned player collections -1992 fleer ultra award winners ozzie smith

1994 upper deck orel hershiser, who's warming up in the bullpen

1994 upper deck collector's choice fred mcgriff

1999 topps ryan klesko (back)

2001 topps randy johnson league leaders (trust me, dodger stadium is in the background)

2002 donruss todd helton

here's a duo from a 2002 topps total stockpile i had - adam eaton and kaz sasaki

both with mariano duncan lurking in the background.

i dutifully completed most of the early 2000s fleer retired player sets, and found a dodger stadium card in my dupes - donn clendenon from 2002 fleer fall classics

i also found an extra 2013 topps chasing history reggie jackson insert card for the collection

and a 2016 topps stadium club phil niekro card

for the collection. that niekro would have been better off being shown in this post, but oh well.

here's the most recent pick-up for this collection, cody bellinger's card from 2020 topps stadium club chrome

it doesn't scan the best, but it gives a good view of dodger stadium behind bellinger and (i think) alex verdugo.

the last card for this post is actually from a pack in 2020 - a gypsy queen will smith card

that features smith pitching in dodger stadium as a brave, which didn't actually happen in 2020. maybe next year.