my retired number collection - 17 and 18

this is the 16th 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 people for whom the numbers 17 and 18 have been retired:

dizzy dean (retired by the cardinals in 1974) 2011 topps tribute

dean spent six full seasons (plus a cup of coffee) with the cardinals in the 1930's, amassing 134 wins, a world series title, and an mvp award during that time.i was happy to find his 2011 topps tribute card showing his number 17 clearly, as most cards of dean (and other players from the 1930's) tend not to show their backs.

dean passed away in july of 1974 and the cardinals retired his number on september 22nd that same year. i am not sure why they waited so long - dean was voted into the hall of fame in 1953 and the cardinals retired stan musial's number (the first number to be retired by the team) in 1963. due to the wait, tommy cruz has the distinction of being the last cardinal player to wear number 17, having worn it during his three game tenure with the team during the 1973 season.

todd helton (retired by the rockies in 2014) 2001 upper deck sp authentic

only two players ever wore number 17 for the rockies - their first pick in the 1992 expansion draft, david neid, and todd helton. helton was given the number in his rookie season of 1997 after neid's career ended in 1996. the team retired it on august 17, 2014 in a ceremony held about 11 months after helton retired making sure that no other player would wear it after helton. his 2001 upper deck sp authentic card shows the number pretty well.

helton, who was just voted into the hall of fame last month, was a career-long rockie. he is the franchise's all-time leader in games played and pretty much every other cumulative, non percentage based batting stat there is. in 2000, he was eight home runs shy of the triple crown, leading the national league with a .372 average and 147 rbi. he finished with a .316 batting average and an ops of .953 which is behind his teammate larry walker but just ahead of contemporary jeff bagwell.

keith hernandez (retired by the mets in 2022) 1984 topps

there was no doubt in my mind that i was going to use hernandez' 1984 topps card for this collection, so there it is. he switched to number 17 when he joined the mets in 1983 because 37 (the number he wore for the cardinals) was already retired for casey stengel. we'll get to that in a future post.

in the four full seasons hernandez played for the mets (1984-1987) he won four gold glove awards and was an all-star three times. he won another gold glove in 1988 despite appearing in fewer than 100 games. he was also the captain of their 1986 world series championship team and has spent many years as a broadcaster for the team.

the mets retired his number on july 9, 2022 although he has been in the team's hall of fame since 1997 (he's also in the cardinals' team hall of fame but his number 37 remains in play in st. louis). in new york, no player has worn number 17 since fernando tatis (sr.) did in 2010. and now, no other player ever will wear the number again.

speaking of not wearing a number again, the brewers have kept wisconsin native jim gantner's number 17 out of rotation since he retired following the 1992 season. no word as to whether or not they will formally retire it at some point. on to 18!

mel harder (retired by the guardians in 1990) 1989 pacific baseball legends

although harder is identified as a pitcher on that 1989 pacific baseball legends card, the photo surely comes from his time as a pitching coach for the club. he wore number 18 through it almost all of his playing career, from 1930 through 1947 (he had no number as a rookie in 1928 and he wore number 49 in 1929, the first year the team wore numbers) before switching to a different number when he took on a coaching role in 1948. he even managed the club for a few games before leaving the franchise after the 1963 season. 

harder won 223 games over his 20 year playing career, doing so despite playing for a mediocre cleveland team for the entirety of his career. he was a four time all-star and was the winning pitcher of the 1934 all-star game that is best remembered for carl hubbell's performance.  as perhaps the first full-time pitching coach in the majors, he tutored future hall of famers bob lemon and early wynn along with a stable of other pitchers who turned in solid careers such as luis tiant, tommy john, and jim perry just to name a few. his body of work seems worthy of the hall of fame, but he never got close to the 75% vote needed from the writers. he did achieve 75% of the veteran committee vote in 1999, however, the rules back then allowed only a maximum of two players to be elected from this committee, and harder was the third to meet the threshhold so he was denied entry. still, the indians recognized the longtime player and coach by retiring his number (that had been worn by chris james earlier in the season) on july 28, 1990 and inducting him into the team's hall of fame at the same time.

ted kluszewski (retired by the reds in 1998) 2005 upper deck classics

perhaps somewhat fittingly, the reds retired number 18 for kluszewski on july 18, 1998. eric owens had worn the number the year before, but the number was taken out of circulation when the team announced the pending retirement in january of '98. it is fitting that the card i chose from 2005 upper deck classics shows not only klu's number, but also his bare arms.

kluszewski was called up by the reds in 1947 and in the ten years that followed, he hit 251 home runs and drove in 886 runs for them, while batting .302 over that span. he led the national league in homers and rbis in 1954 and finished second in the mvp voting to a deserving willie mays. it was the second of three consecutive years that kluszewski would finish in the top 7. while he is not a member of the national baseball hall of fame, he is a member of the reds' hall of fame, having been inducted in 1962 following his retirement as a player in 1961.

darryl strawberry (to be retired by the mets in 2024) 2011 topps triple threads

like dwight gooden in the last post, i am including strawberry in the collection even though his number is not officially retired. it hasn't been worn by a players since nick plummer's 14 game stint with the mets in 2022, but it was worn pretty regular by others since strawberry left the mets for the dodgers prior to the 1991 season.

as a met, strawberry lived up to his 1st pick overall status, winning the rookie of the year award in 1983 and making the all-star team in each subsequent season he spent with the mets. in his eight years as a met, he hit 252 home runs and led them to the nl east title twice. in 1986, they went all the way to capture the world series championship, but in 1988, they fell to the dodgers in the nlcs. that year, strawberry finished second to kirk gibson in one of the more debatable mvp votes in my lifetime. i recall a lot of discussion regarding how value is measured. anyway, strawberry's career got off track after he left the mets, and he missed out on the type of career that would end in cooperstown. still, a number retirement is a significant acknowledgement of the success he had in queens.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 16 posts so far):

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

giants - 3, 4, 11

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11

guardians - 3, 5, 14, 18

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

phillies - 1, 14, 15

cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17

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

braves - 3, 6, 10

astros - 5, 7

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18

orioles - 4, 5, 8

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14

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

brewers - 1, 4

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

cubs - 10, 14

royals - 5, 10

padres - 6

athletics - 9

angels - 11

expos - 8, 10

rangers - 7, 10

major league baseball

rays - 12

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies - 17

mariners - 11

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) 

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 87

running total of non-hall of famers: 26

mel ott is in my hall of famer collection

i knew of ed ott before i knew of mel ott, but only one of them is in my hall of famer collection now.  here's mel ott's entry:

that is a 2011 topps tribute quad relic, numbered 15/99.  here's the back:

it wasn't too long before i began learning about mel. he was featured in the "the image of their greatness" book that i've mentioned before, and his 511 home runs put him in rarified air when i began learning about the history of the game. in fact, when ott retired in 1947, he was third all-time in home runs behind babe ruth and jimmie foxx.

at some point in the early 1980's i noticed the retired numbers at candlestick park on the right field fence. mel ott was there with john mcgraw and christy mathewson (whose panels just had a "ny" logo) plus juan marichal and others. i really wanted the dodgers to do something similar (including a "b" logo for zach wheat), but they never did. in fact, i don't think they did anything with retired numbers until the late 1990's and the temporary wall murals. eventually, they added the retired numbers under the left and right field pavilions, and now they are found along the façade above the loge section behind the left field foul pole.

anyway, this is supposed to be about mel ott. around the time that i was reading about him in the "the image of their greatness", i received his 1960 fleer card. it, along with those of tris speaker and cy young, became the oldest cards in my collection, and they were of all-time greats! i've since sold the speaker and ott cards in a small purge a few years ago when i was trying to streamline my collection. still, i learned from the back of that card that, as of 1960, ott held the national league mark for not only home runs, but rbi, runs scored, and walks, too. so what if he was a giant?  and, while i no longer have that fleer card, i am happy to have ott back in my collection with this card.

here's my hall of famer collection as its been documented so far:

babe ruth - 2003 topps tribute world series edition world series tribute relic 351/425

honus wagner - 2001 topps tribute relic

nap lajoie - 2002 topps tribute milestone materials relic

tris speaker - 2011 topps tribute dual relic green parallel 53/75

eddie collins - 2002 topps tribute milestone materials relic

george sisler - 2004 topps tribute hall of fame tribute relic

mel ott - 2011 topps tribute quad relic 15/99

dizzy dean - 2001 topps tribute relic

hank greenberg - 2004 topps tribute hall of fame tribute relic

bob feller - 2001 topps archives certified autograph

jackie robinson - 2004 topps clubhouse collection clubhouse relic

ted williams - 1992 upper deck baseball heroes autograph 1067/2000

stan musial - 2002 topps team topps legends autograph

yogi berra - 1998 donruss signatures significant signatures 1640/2000

sandy koufax - 1998 donruss signatures significant signatures 1707/2000

roberto clemente - 2005 donruss greats hall of fame souvenirs relic

warren spahn - 1999 upper deck century legends epic signatures

mickey mantle - 2000 upper deck legends legendary game jerseys relic

willie mays - 1997 topps willie mays reprints certified autograph

al kaline - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

duke snider - 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography hall of famers 144/250

bob gibson - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

hank aaron - 2004 topps originals 1979 topps all-time record holders rbi 03/32

frank robinson - 1995 upper deck autograph

don drysdale - 1993 nabisco all-star autographs

harmon killebrew - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures

pee wee reese - 2001 topps tribute relic

lou brock - 2018 topps archives signature series 1989 buyback 53/61

jim hunter - 1998 donruss signature series significant signatures 0736/2000

willie stargell - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures 

johnny bench - 2019 topps definitive collection legendary autograph 09/25

red schoendienst - 2012 panini cooperstown signatures 038/549

jim palmer - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

rod carew - 2004 topps retired signature autograph

fergie jenkins - 2013 topps five star baseball autograph 154/333

gaylord perry - 2003 topps finest finest moments autograph

rollie fingers - 2018 topps archives signature series 1978 topps buyback 1/3

hal newhouser - 1993 front row premium all-time greats autograph

reggie jackson - 2018 topps tier one tier one talent autograph 19/60

steve carlton - 2018 topps five star career year autograph 43/45

mike schmidt - 2002 topps archives autoproof 1980 topps buyback 048/147

phil niekro - 2017 panini donruss recollection collection 1983 donruss buyback autograph 13/33

don sutton - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

robin yount - 2001 upper deck ultimate collection ultimate signatures 112/150

carlton fisk - 1999 upper deck century legends epic signatures

tony perez - 2004 fleer national pastime 2002 fleer greats authentic autograph buyback 30/59

dave winfield - 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography hall of famers 121/350

ozzie smith - 2019 topps finest finest origins autograph

gary carter - 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game autograph collection

eddie murray - 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary sigs 45/50 

dennis eckersley - 2017 topps archives signature series 1984 topps buyback 47/99

paul molitor - 2016 topps museum collection archival autographs 021/125

wade boggs - 2005 upper deck baseball heroes autograph red parallel 30/49

ryne sandberg - 2016 topps five star autographs gold parallel 17/50

bruce sutter - 2003 topps all-time fan favorites certified autograph

tony gwynn - 1997 donruss signature series millennium marks autograph 0702/1000

cal ripken jr - 2018 topps high tek portraitek autograph 32/75

goose gossage - 2003 topps finest finest moments autograph

jim rice - 2005 upper deck past time pennants past time signatures

andre dawson - 2000 fleer greats of the game autograph

bert blyleven - 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams autograph

ron santo - 2004 topps retired signature autograph

greg maddux - 2018 topps luminaries masters of the mound autograph 13/15

pedro martinez - 2018 topps high tek portraitek autograph 09/60

ken griffey jr - 2003 upper deck game face autograph

mike piazza - 2014 topps five star autograph 35/50

tim raines - 2018 topps tribute tribute autograph green parallel 26/95

alan trammell - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

roy halladay - 2017 topps archives signature series 2004 topps buyback 15/23

pete rose* - 2018 panini flawless legendary signatures 15/25

barry bonds* - 2001 bowman heritage autographs

roger clemens* - 1995 upper deck autograph

 

you can find the full list of hall of famers (and some not - yet) that i aim to include in this collection at my want list site.