my retired number collection - 51

this is the 48th 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 51 has been retired:

trevor hoffman (retired by the padres in 2011) 2000 topps

hoffman retired after the 2010 season with 601 career saves. he earned 552 of them as a padre, filling the closer role in san diego from 1993 through 2008. interesting to me is the fact that hoffman first wore 34 with the padres (that was rollie fingers' number) after joining them during the 1993 season, but switched to 51 for the 1994 campaign. that number shows up nicely on his 2000 topps card above, as does the easily identifiable orange on the jack murphy stadium outfield wall.

the padres officially retired number 51 for hoffman on august 21, 2011. they had not issued the number since he left the club after the 2008 season, so he was the last to wear it for the pads. he is the franchise leader in games pitched, saves, era, k/9, and a host of other metrics. one of the greatest closers in history, hoffman was elected to the baseball hall of fame in 2018 on his third ballot.

randy johnson (retired by the diamondbacks in 2015) 1999 topps

johnson spent a total of eight seasons in two separate stints with the diamondbacks. his first run, from 1999 through 2004, is the stuff of legend. in those six seasons, johnson won the cy young award four times and finished second in one of the other two years. he won 103 games in those six seasons, and 118 as a dback overall. he won the pitching triple crown in 2002 and led the league in strikeouts four other times and era twice while pitching in arizona. he sits atop the team's all-time leader board in many pitching categories, including strikeouts and era. most notably, perhaps, he was a co-mvp of the 2001 world series wherein he was 3-0 in two starts and a memorable relief appearance in game 7 against the yankees.

his 1999 topps card features his number 51 thanks to the numbers on the front of the diamondback jerseys, and i had it in my long discarded pc box so it makes its way into the collection. when johnson left arizona for the yankees prior to the 2005 season, the team did not reissue his number. he wore it when he returned for the 2007 and 2008 seasons and it was formally retired without anyone else wearing it on august 8, 2015. that coincided with johnson's election to the baseball hall of fame on his first ballot.

bernie williams (retired by the yankees in 2015) 2002 topps

randy johnson wore number 41 when he pitched for the yankees because 51 belonged to bernie williams. i think his 2002 topps card is a great one and would have fit in my "name/number on the back" collection if i hadn't pegged it for this one early on.

williams spent his entire career with the yankees, spanning from 1991 through 2006. he wasn't officially part of the "core four", but he did contribute to four of the yankees' world series titles won during the era of jeter, pettitte, rivera, and posada. he was the 1996 alcs mvp and finished his career with 22 postseason home runs.

while not a hall of famer, the yankees held out his number following the 2006 season and formally retired it on may 24, 2015. it makes sense for the yankees to have retired the number given the fact that williams is squarely within the top 10 in many offensive categories on the franchise's all-time leader board.

i fully expect the mariners to retire number 51 next year in honor of both randy johnson and ichiro, as ichiro should be inducted into the hall of fame in the summer of 2025. i already have cards in my collection to fit the honor, just as i have with stephen strasburg should the nationals decide to follow through on their earlier intent to retire number 37. for ichiro, i have his 2012 topps chrome orange refractor parallel

and for the big unit, i have his 2022 topps stadium club xfractor parallel

now it's up to the mariners to not let me down!

[edit - the mariners retired number 51 for ichiro in 2025 (and will honor randy johnson in 2026). this retirement is not reflected in the tracking below]

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

retired numbers by team (through the 48 posts so far):

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 37, 42, 44, 46, 49, 51

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, 45

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 32, 34, 36, 42

cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17, 20, 23, 24, 42, 45, 85

reds - 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 24, 42

braves - 3, 6, 10, 21, 25, 31, 35, 41, 42, 44, 47

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 40, 42, 49

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, 47

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

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 35, 42, 51

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 34, 42. 43

angels - 11, 26, 30, 42, 50

expos - 8, 10, 30, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 34, 42

major league baseball - 42

rays - 12, 42, 66

diamondbacks - 20, 42, 51

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)

45 - retired by 2 teams

46 - retired by 1 team

47 - retired by 2 teams

49 - retired by 2 teams

50 - retired by 1 team

51 - retired by 3 teams

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): 160

running total of non-hall of famers: 58

advantage, my collection

those home field advantage cards that topps has included in recent flagship and update releases are case hits, and don't show up at card shows from what i've seen. i decided to track a couple down, including one of my adopted home from 2023 topps update, even though it's carlos correa on the card

for the record, my least favorite astros, in order, are yuli gurriel, jose altuve, george springer, and then correa. jr richard used to be on the list but only because he was so great, especially against the dodgers. that was respect, not scorn. anyway, the card arrived and it's not really reflective of the twin cities at all.

the downton scene in the upper left is minneapolis (that's city hall with the green copper roof on the tower), but saint paul is nowhere to be seen. the building in the upper right is also in minneapolis (it's the minneapolis institute of art, or mia - pronounced like nomar's wife's name). it would have been pretty easy for topps to tick the saint paul box with a shot of the state capitol, but i guess they had other ideas. 

the other two images reference northern minnesota with a wolf (the international wolf center is in ely, minnesota) and the split rock lighthouse which is on the north shore between duluth and grand marais. fine towns, both.

i went and picked up freddie freeman's card from 2023 topps series 1

there's a very "hollywood" theme to this one, with the academy museum and a film reel shown. also featured are the griffith park observatory, rodeo drive street signage, and a couple of ubiquitous palm trees.

the dodgers' home field advantage cards (two of them, anyway) from 2024 topps are a little more straight forward

the first one gives us two images of clayton kershaw, palm trees, dodger stadium, and the hollywood sign. the second features two images of yoshinobu yamamoto, more palm trees, a different view of dodger stadium, the santa monica pier, and the iconic theme building at lax. i suppose it's easier to focus when there are four other teams in the state, although topps used palm trees on cards for other teams, including the padres. there is another home field advantage card featuring a dodger in 2024, but it's sandy koufax and seems to be even scarcer than the two i've managed to obtain.

these cards were first seen in 2022, and i also recently added mookie betts' card from the series 1 topps release that year

there is a lot going on there for sure! beach scene at sunset! downtown la skyline snippet! palm tree! lifeguard station! movie camera! beverly hills sign! and, what i assume is supposed to be or at least represent a california grizzly bear to boot. the california grizzly has been extinct for 100 years now.

it will be interesting to see if the home field advantage inserts continue, and if so, what other southern california landmarks might be seen on cardboard.

these cards are not to be confused with the unnecessary topps flagship parallels from the early 2000's that were "home team advantage" cards. i have some of those, with my most recent pickups being shawn green's 2000 card

chin-feng chen's 2001 card

and the dodger team card from 2002

i wonder how long topps will go with the home field advantage inserts. there are plenty of iconic landmarks to go around for most teams, and i would really like to see what the a's card looks like next year.

350 is a magic number - more than zero

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350. as a reminder, here are the cards that make up this effort:

topps flagship #350 type collection

1957 topps eddie miksis       
1958 topps ken boyer           
1959 topps ernie banks  

1960 topps mickey mantle      
1961 topps ernie banks
1962 topps frank robinson  
1963 topps bob purkey         
1964 topps willie mccovey  
1965 topps mickey mantle  
1966 topps mel stottlemyre
1967 topps joe torre             
1968 topps hoyt wilhelm     
1969 topps richie allen         
1970 topps roberto clemente            
1971 topps billy williams      
1972 topps frank howard    
1973 topps tom seaver        
1974 topps bob gibson         
1975 topps bobby murcer   
1976 topps lefty grove         
1977 topps larry dierker       
1978 topps steve garvey      
1979 topps garry templeton              
1980 topps george hendrick               
1981 topps j.r. richard          
1982 topps thad bosley        
1983 topps robin yount        
1984 topps george foster    
1985 topps wade boggs       
1986 topps jack clark            
1987 topps keith hernandez               
1988 topps will clark             
1989 topps andy van slyke  
1990 topps bret saberhagen              
1991 topps glenn davis        
1992 topps gregg olson        
1993 topps joe carter           
1994 topps jim abbott          
1995 topps barry larkin        
1996 topps jay payton          
1997 topps kenny lofton      
1998 topps chuck carr          
1999 topps larry walker       
2000 topps jose cruz jr.        
2001 topps bruce bochy      
2002 topps oakland athletics             
2003 topps post season highlight     
2004 topps mark prior|kerry wood 
2005 topps albert pujols|larry walker            
2006 topps joe nathan                         
2007 topps chase utley        
2008 topps mark teixeira     
2009 topps dustin pedroia  
2010 topps prince fielder|ryan braun            
2011 topps francisco liriano
2012 topps evan longoria    
2013 topps albert pujols      
2014 topps carlos gonzalez 
2015 topps yasiel puig          
2016 topps kris bryant          
2017 topps david ortiz          
2018 topps clayton kershaw

2019 topps nick markakis    
2020 topps pete alonso       

2021 topps d.j. lemahieu

i am posting cards from the same year of each decade, and so far i've shown nine of the 10 sets: the 8s, 7s, 6s, 3s, 2s, 1s, 4s, 9s, and 5s. that means this is the last post, and it's all about the zeroes.

1960 topps #350

mickey mantle is one of two players to appear on this list twice. i am happy to have an excuse to add this particular card to my collection as it really is a nice piece of cardboard. i own his 1957, 1960, 1965, and 1969 flagship cards, plus a few subset cards from his playing career, and 10-year old gcrl would be giddy about it. mantle didn't lead the league in any categories in 1959 other than strikeouts (which i'm not tracking) and ops+ (which nobody knew about back then) as the yankees failed to win the al east for the first time since 1954. he bounced back in 1960 to lead the league in home runs and runs scored along with ops (and ops+) as the yankees returned to the fall classic.

1970 topps #350 

roberto clemente was one of the cards that gave me pause when considering this endeavor. luckily, i had a dupe of his 1970 card from my set build effort so the pursuit was officially a go once i discovered that fact. as the card back states, clemente just missed leading the league in batting average in 1969, but he did lead the circuit in triples. he hit .352 in 1970 but failed to qualify in the batting race, but it didn't matter as rico carty hit .366.

1980 topps #350

george hendrick is no doubt wearing his pants in his traditional fashion with no sock or stirrup showing even though you can't see it on the front of the card, regardless of what the cartoon on the back shows. he had a solid season for the cardinals in 1979 and improved upon it in 1980, making the national league all-star team for the first time. this was the second year in a row that a cardinal checked in at number 350.

1990 topps #350

bret saberhagen really did pitch better in odd seasons. just look at the back of his card! he led the league in wins and era in 1989 (along with innings pitched and games started) and won the cy young award as a result. unfortunately for saberhagen and the royals, the a's were a powerhouse in the al west at the time.

2000 topps #350

jose cruz jr. was a big deal when he debuted, as the card back states. i was shocked that the mariners traded him in 1997, but i guess they really needed help in the bullpen. still, cruz went on to have a decent career for the blue jays, giants, and dodgers among a host of other teams. he hit over 30 homers in both 2000 and 2001, and even had a 30/30 season in '01.

2010 topps #350

ryan braun/prince fielder bring us the first and only checklist in the collection. it's interesting that ryan braun is also card number 331 and is included on this checklist twice. i'll go ahead and consider this a subset so i won't count prince fielder and his 2009 league-leading rbi total in my tally at the bottom of the post.

2020 topps #350

pete alonso was named the national league's rookie of the year in 2019 after leading the league with 53 home runs. he also won the home run derby at the all-star game. it's worth noting that his offensive war for the season was 5.5 but he had a negative defensive war which brought it down below 5 as seen on the card. i am guessing at some point he transitions to dh full-time.

i have been tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now final through 10 posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 2 (kris bryant, pete alonso)

number of reigning mvps: 4 (ernie banks, frank robinson, robin yount, dustin pedroia)

number of reigning cy young winners: 1 (bret saberhagen)

number of reigning world series champions: 2 (keith hernandez, joe carter)

number of reigning pennant winners: 9 (frank robinson, mickey mantle, steve garvey, robin yount, jack clark, keith hernandez, joe carter, 2004 st. louis cardinals, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 18 (ernie banks - home runs, rbi; ernie banks - home runs; mel stottlemyre - complete games; willie mccovey - home runs; roberto clemente - triples; billy williams - runs, hits; garry templeton - triples; robin yount - hits, doubles; keith hernandez - walks; andy vanslyke - triples; kenny lofton - sb; larry walker - batting average; chase utley - runs; dustin pedroia - hits, runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era; pete alonso - home runs; dj lemahieu - batting average)

subset types: 3 (all-time all-stars, postseason highlights (4), checklists)

number of repeat players: 2 (ernie banks, mickey mantle)

number of dodgers: 3 (steve garvey, yasiel puig, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (8), cubs (5), yankees (5), mets (5), astros (4), twins (3), braves (3), dodgers (3), reds (3), red sox (3), giants (3), brewers (3), a's (2), phillies (2), rockies (2), pirates (2), blue jays (2), white sox, indians, angels, rangers, orioles, rays, padres, royals

it looks like if you were a cardinal and a reigning league leader you would have a pretty good shot at getting card 350. we will see who lands there in 2022!

quien es mas macho - larry wayne edition

time for another installment of "quien es mas macho" - the posts wherein we pit cards that have something in common against each other rather than ricardo montalban vs. fernando lamas (here and here are links to some other posts that i've done in this vein). today, we have cards of chipper jones to evaluate - his 1998 topps card

and his 2000 topps card

this is certainly not a rare thing, topps producing cards of players using different photos but similar poses, but i think the fact that these are not posed shots is a bit different. i remember opening packs of 1979 topps and wondering if every nolan ryan card showed him with his hands above his head because that was how he was shown on both his 1978 and 1979 base cards. of course, my go-to for this sort of repetition is don sutton and his "suttoning" pose. 

anyway, the name of the game is essentially which card is better than the other, and here i have to go with 1998. the 2000 card features a kind of awkward looking follow through to his swing, and the unbalanced card design does it no favors, either. the '98 card features a more confident looking swing, plus the jackie robinson patch which is a plus in my book.

what do you think? quien es mas macho?

2000's represent!

sometime around the year 2000, i began putting together "sampler" sets of topps sets from 1952 through 1969. i had no intention of ever completing any of those sets, and i figured it would be a fun idea to pick up a card from each team and each subset for those older sets.

i finished the task in a few years (it was a low priority), but then decided to scrap the collection as i began putting together the 1965 and 1957 sets.  now, i've decided to put together a "representative card" mini collection that will make it easier for me to see a great card from each topps flagship set from 1952 on.

i'll show off the cards occasionally, along with a reason for choosing that particular card. i won't use a card that is in my dodger collection, or any other collection for that matter, so i should wind up with a good variety.  here are the cards that represent the 2000's in this mini collection:

2000 - mike piazza

piazza had only been a met for a couple of years when this card came out, but it became clear to me by the end of the 2000 season that he would not be wearing a dodger hat on his hall of fame bust that would eventually be installed in cooperstown. he led the mets to the national league pennant and made his only world series appearance that year while putting up what i considered to be typical piazza power numbers - 38 homers and a 1.012 ops. in 2001, he would help bring baseball back in to the national spotlight after 9/11 and even further cemented himself as a met.

2001 - garret anderson

ga may seem out of place in this collection, but i do love this card. it was almost my favorite non-dodger card in 2001, but just couldn't surpass the awesomeness of another flagship card. for their 40th season which occurred in 2000, the angels added murals to their outfiled wall similar to the treatment the dodgers had been featuring at chavez ravine for a couple seasons prior. as far as i can tell, the images were just of notable angels, not limited to any specific theme like the dodgers had over the course of several seasons. some of the angels that were featured were frank tanana, chuck finley, troy percival, don baylor, mike witt, brian downing, doug decinces, reggie jackson, rod carew, jim fregosi, and even gene autry (even though they were owned by disney in 2000), along with nolan ryan and bob boone who both show up on this card. i wanted more of these cards for both the angels and dodgers!

2002 - albert pujols

the machine. pujols burst on the scene in 2001 with a monster season. i was actually more in tune with what ichiro was doing at the same time in seattle, but pujols' numbers were hard to ignore. in 2002, he did the same, and helped the cardinals reach the nlcs.

2003 - derek jeter

2003 was the year that jeter missed a bunch of games after injuring his shoulder in an opening day play involving old friend ken huckaby. he returned in may and helped the yankees win the american league east. again. he destroyed the twins in the alds (although the twins actually won a game that series - their last postseason win to date, in fact) as the yankees advanced to the alcs against the red sox. in game 3 with the series tied 1 game apiece, he hit a solo home run off of pedro martinez in the third inning to tie the game. i was watching the game with a buddy, and i recall us looking at each other in a bit of disbelief. there have been many who have tried to define "clutch", and we agreed that we had just seen it in jeter. the yankees went on to win the series on aaron boone's home run in game 7 (that same friend and i were watching that game and he just about swore off of baseball when boone's homer landed). thank goodness for josh beckett and the marlins.  

by the way, the 2003 topps jeter card is one that almost had me starting a "retired number" mini collection. gil hodges' 14 and parts of tom seaver's 41 and jackie robinson's 42 are visible in the background. i settled for a "42" mini-collection subset, and have jeter's 2003 topps opening day card (same image) in that collection even though the number is partially obscured.

2004 - manny ramirez

give credit to the red sox, they came back in 2004 and finally beat the yankees thanks to old friend dave roberts, plus david ortiz and a cast of cowboys. manny was being manny in 2004, and this card is a great one in my opinion to represent 2004 in this collection. as fate would have it, the dodgers visited fenway park in 2004 - the first time they had been there since the 1916 world series. i made my first (and only so far) trip to fenway and attended all three games that weekend, the first of which featured a fly ball muffed by ramirez with 2 outs in the top of the 9th inning that allowed the dodgers to tie the game. no worries, though, as david ortiz hit a walk-off single to win the game in the bottom of the inning. manny and his teammates went on to break the curse of the bambino in 2004 which was great except that the boston fans seemed to go from suffering to insufferable as a result.

2005 - carl crawford

just like with the jeter above, i am drawn to this card due to the presence of the retired numbers (this time it's the yankees) on it. the layout of the display of retired yankee numbers is quite different from ken mcmullen's 1971 topps card which also showed some of the yankee monuments, but it is still neat to see them show up on cardboard. here we have billy martin (1), reggie jackson (44), and don mattingly (23). it would have been nice to see this as a horizontal card to fit more yankee legends on it.

2006 - felix hernandez

king felix was 19 when he debuted for the mariners in 2005. i had added him to my fantasy team, and was pleased with his performance for his first few weeks in the bigs. he struck out 11 royals in his third big league start, and then 9 twins in his next game. i missed out on drafting him in 2006, but was excited to get to see him pitch against the white sox in a game at comiskey/us cellular in may of '06 while on a work trip to chicago. he wound up giving up a three-run homer to jim thome in the bottom of the first and only lasted five innings, but i was still a fan.

2007 - josh hamilton

this was the last card that i needed to complete my 2007 topps set - the first set i put together by hand since the 90's, and the first topps flagship set i completed that way since maybe 1987. hamilton had finally made his big league debut after conquering his demons, and was playing pretty well. hopes were high that he was living up to his potential, and so this card was tough to find on the secondary market. hamilton spent just the one season in cincinnati before being traded to the rangers where he won the 2010 american league mvp and put on a show at the 2008 home run derby.

2008 - joe mauer

joe mauer was still a catcher in 2008, and he proved that his 2006 season was no fluke by winning his second american league batting title. he would do that one better in 2009 by winning his third batting title, an achievement not accomplished by any other catcher in history. he tied fellow twin icon tony oliva on the all-time list of multi-batting championship winning players, as well as folks like george brett and pete rose. i went to a few twins games in 2008, including one in seattle, and mauer was 6 for 13 in those contests. i loved watching him hit, even though he seemed to always take a fastball down the middle for strike one.

2009 - mickey mantle

i chose this mickey mantle card to represent 2009 for a couple of reasons. one, it shows him fooling around during spring training doing his pee wee reese impression at second base. two, it lists him as a shortstop. both of those could be reasons for me to add this card to my double play collection, but i have chosen not to. instead it is here for a third reason, and that is that 2009 was the year that topps began to add retired legends to the flagship set as variations. this mantle is not one of those - it is base card #7 as topps "unretired" card #7 in 2006 in order to add mantle to the flaghsip sets - rather, the variations were of players like reese, babe ruth, jackie robinson, lou gehrig, and even guys like george sisler. i didn't mind it, although i do not like how it morphed into multiple variations and super short printing in later years. so, mantle gives a nod to other retired players who got cards in topps flagship in 2009, even if he is just a plain ol' base card himself.

up next, the 2010's represent! stay tuned...