something of an update

when topps update hits the street, i am reminded that thorzul is giving away cards for just about anything. this annual ritual has been going on for seventeen years, and i am happy to say i have participated in most of the offerings. this year, he pulled a number of dodger inserts, and i happily laid claim to this black gold mookie betts

a silver pack michael busch

a gold j.p. feyereisen

and a gold foil gavin stone

these cards accentuated the dodger goodness that i had found in my box purchases. i found four of the five dodger all-star game cards in those boxes, including will smith

mookie betts

freddie freeman

and j.d. martinez

i had to pick up the clayton kershaw card 

online to complete the team set.

as for the base, i decided to use my box purchases to complete two full sets of update, and i didn't have all the dodgers in triplicate so i chose to join a team break. that got me the full dodger team

along with a few inserts, such as david peralta's gold parallel

a gavin stone silver pack card

and a jackie robinson mvp commemorative patch card

that was nice, and i was happy to find a clayton kershaw commemorative patch in one of the boxes i opened, but what i really was after was one of these steve garvey world series manu patches

i had to find one online to add it to me garvey pc.

garvey also shows up on a time spanning tandem card with freddie freeman. it comes in base

blue

black

(numbered to 299)

and gold

(numbered to 75)

versions. it's nice to see the images of garvey that topps used on the manu patch and the time spanning tandems insert. they are different from the two or three images topps has been recycling this year.

i was disappointed not to find a don drysdale all aces card in my breaks, so i went and bought it

it will be interesting to see who shohei ohtani pushes off of topps' checklists in terms of dodgers. jackie robinson is safe, but guys like drysdale may be absent (again) for awhile.

two more cards that i targeted after not finding them in my breaks were james outman's 1988 topps insert

as well as his stars of mlb retail insert

picking this card up individually helped me ignore the urge to buy some update when i saw it on the target shelf last weekend. now, if heritage high numbers had been out, i would have caved, so it's not like i've kicked the retail habit just yet.

a moment for vic davalillo, players from my youth, and the new dodger dh

i read last wednesday that vic davalillo passed away, and it made me pause.

thanks to his incredible, rally starting, two-out bunt in the 9th inning of game 3 of the 1977 nlcs and his inclusion in the 1978 topps set as a dodger, i got to know davalillo at the very beginning of my fandom and collecting days. he didn't play a lot, but he was a dodger and there was cardboard evidence of that fact, so he was respected and celebrated in my collection.

i have all of davalillo's major manufacturer cards (issued in the us, anyway), as his entire topps flagship run 

is encapsulated in my "evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers" mini-collection, and his 1981 fleer offering

is in my dodger collection. there are one or two venezuelan releases that i wouldn't mind adding to the collection, but i haven't ever made it a priority.

davalillo is the sixth member of the 1978 topps dodgers to pass away. preceding him were glenn burke (1995), johnny oates (2004), lance rautzhan (2016), tom lasorda (2021), and don sutton (2021). time marches on, but it is still a bit of a thing to see these players whose cardboard i coveted back then pass away.

shifting to another way of looking at the 1978 topps set, i get excited when i can complete the immaculate grid using only players who appeared in that set. it is always my goal to use as many as i can, and there was a two day stretch last week where i was able to do so:

with davalillo getting center square in saturday's grid! as of now, that second one has a score of 8, which would be my second lowest ever.

finally, i would be remiss if i didn't mention the 700 million dollar man, shohei ohtani. i feel for angel fans who will now see ohtani suit up for the dodgers, but not enough to not be excited about ohtani joining the dodgers. here are some 2018 topps update cards i have of ohtani

with the last one being the most valuable, i guess, since it's a rainbow foil parallel. the dodgers still need pitching for the 2024 season (ohtani can't help them there), but it's a good start to a longer term benefit. i suppose my team break costs for 2024 just went up. way up.

ivan rodriguez is in my hall of famer collection

it's a bit of an ivan rodriguez week here, as the hall of fame catcher was featured in friday's post thanks to the rangers retiring his number 7. this post is all about him entering my hall of famer collection with this card as his entry:

that is a 2021 topps tribute tribute to topps 1982 autograph numbered 94/99. here's the back:

topps provides some of the highlights of irod's career that qualified him for cooperstown, so i won't be repetitive. instead, i will note that one of the reasons i am just now adding him to my collection is that i wanted a card that showed rodriguez from his tenure with the tigers.

i know he spent most of his career with the rangers, but it was his time in detroit that sticks in my mind the most. that's because it was during that time that my son started catching, and he asked me to add detroit's old english "d" to his helmet so he would look like pudge. of course, it wasn't too long after that that he pivoted to joe mauer as his favorite player and catcher icon. still, i will alsways think of rodriguez as a tiger first.

he did win a pennant in detroit, and was an all-star in each of his four full seasons there, so it's not like he wasn't producing as a tiger. welcome to the collection, pudge!

i used to show my entire hall of famer collection in these posts, but not anymore. as a reminder, you can see my complete hall of famer collection here.

my retired numbers collection - lucky number 7

this is the eighth 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 four people for whom the number 7 has been retired:

7 mickey mantle (retired by the yankees in 1969) 2008 topps chrome

mickey mantle announced his retirement on march 1, 1969, and thankfully topps kept him in the set that year. they noted his retirement announcement on the back of the card, along with the fact that he retired with baseball's third highest home run total of all time. his other achievements include a triple crown in 1956, three mvp trophies, and seven world series titles. he was a yankee lifer, and the club retired his number a few months after his announcement, on june 8 to be exact, making mantle the last yankee to wear 7. he was inducted into the hall of fame in 1974 on the first ballot as you would expect from an icon such as mantle.

i like the fact that topps started including him in sets once they secured the rights. having number 7 missing from flagship sets was a bit weird. the 2008 topps chrome card i've used for this collection is a great card in my opinion. the angle of the photo suggests that the photographer was in the stands rather than a photographer's well. i may have to track down the refractor version of this card at some point.

7 craig biggio (retired by the astros in 2008) 2002 donruss originals

i really was a fan of this set when it was issued, perhaps in response to topps' heritage release the previous year. donruss, however, skipped 1981 altogether. anway, the 1984 design that they used for this card of craig biggio shows his number 7 pretty clearly and so it was the card that i chose. biggio's number was retired by the franchise on august 17, 2008. biggio had hung up his spikes at the end of the 2007 season with more than 3,000 hits and 400 stolen bases and so was the last astro to wear number 7.

biggio, who only suited up for the astros during his career, was voted in to the hall of fame in 2015, his third year on the ballot. i used to think that 3,000 hits or strikeouts was an automatic stamp, but that has been disproven time and time again. still, i am glad that biggio was enshrined as i followed his career fairly closely once he moved to second base.

7 ivan rodriguez (retired by the rangers in 2017) 1997 topps

the rangers retired number 7 for irod on august 12, 2017 following his induction in the hall of fame. he spent most of his career in texas over two separate tenures, and when he left the club each time, his number was put back in to rotation. as a result, delino deshields (the son of the delino deshields who was traded by the expos to the dodgers for pedro martinez - sigh) was the last ranger to wear number 7 on the field.

rodriguez had his best years in a ranger uniform, winning the 1999 mvp, although his best postseason success came as a tiger and a marlin. he appeared in the world series with both of those franchises, winning a ring in 2003 with florida. i chose the 1997 topps card for this collection because it is hard to find a card showing his number when he is wearing the catching gear.

7 joe mauer (retired by the twins in 2019) 2011 topps chrome

the speculation was rampant that 2018 was going to be mauer's last year, and when he donned the catching gear in the last game of the season, i think it became clear that he was intending to retire. he did formally announce his retirement during the offseason, and so the twins retired his number 7 on june 15, 2019 making him the last twin to wear the number. 

mauer was the first pick in the 2001 draft, and the st. paul native played his entire career for his hometown (well, the city next door, anyway) team. 2023 is his first year on the hall of fame ballot, and my guess is that he doesn't get the votes this year. i expect to see him enshrined in cooperstown within the next five years, however, as his peak was high with three batting titles and an mvp award to his name. 

[edit - mauer was elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot! i will update the stats below accordingly]

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, 5, 6, 7

giants - 3, 4

pirates - 1, 4

guardians - 3, 5

red sox - 1, 4, 6

phillies - 1

cardinals - 1, 2, 6

reds - 1, 5

braves - 3, 6

astros - 5, 7

mets

orioles - 4, 5

dodgers - 1, 2, 4

twins - 3, 6, 7

white sox - 2, 3, 4

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

cubs

royals - 5

padres - 6

athletics

angels

expos

rangers - 7

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

5 - retired by 7 teams

6 - retired by 7 teams

7 - retired by 4 teams

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 52

running total of non-hall of famers: 7

the eras tour

i continued my annual ritual of purchasing at least one box of topps archives. it's a pattern that began in 2001, and my excitement at seeing so many vintage reprints then and in 2002, and then continued with the new photos on old designs that began in 2003 with all-time fan favorites. i picked it back up when archives returned in 2012, but it's a bit less of a thrill with heritage now in its 23rd year which makes the designs not that fresh. 

on that point, i do not understand why topps used 1965 again in 2023 archives - just a year after using it in a flagship insert set - but that is something that i choose to accept when it comes to topps and this release. i will say that topps did pay attention to logos fairly well (or at least tried to) from what i saw, giving us a sampling of franchise histories through cardboard. for example, the twins.

i didn't pull any 2003 design twin cards, but harmon killebrew is featured with the original "tc" logo. that is good by me, although the first time a twins logo showed up on a topps card, it was 1965 and topps went with the "minnie and paul" logo. speaking of the 1965 design, kirby puckett is featured using that templated. kirby is probably the most recognizable twin from the 1987 and 1991 world series champions, and topps used that era's cap logo on his 1965 design card

the underlined m logo matches the one on kirby's helmet, so totally appropriate. also in the 1965 design, we have david ortiz

topps used the same logo within the pennant, but ortiz is sporting the original tc logo on his helmet. i am ok with this because in 2002, ortiz's last season as a twin, the club reintroduced that logo as part of their home uniforms. the underlined m was still the primary logo, or at least an equal logo.

logos aren't a part of the 1956 card design, but max kepler's card

shows a transitional period in twins branding history. his portrait photo shows him sporting the original tc logo that the club fully adopted for home and away unis in 2010. the version kepler is wearing is accented with gold - a tweak the team instituted in 2020. the action photo of kepler shows him in one of the team's alternate uniforms that was first worn in 2023.

finally, simeon woods-richardson's card shows the current team logos

the tc logo has been rounded and is visible on his sleeve, although the new m logo he is sporting on his hat is used as part of the away unis. the tc logo remains on the home hats. unless they are wearing the twin ciies uniforms, and then i think they have a third hat with two flags - one for minneapolis and one for st. paul.

more franchise era stuff is noted on the boxtopper that was included in my collector's box. i pulled the marlins' 1969 team postcard

and immediately noted that it only refers to them as the "marlins". i believe this is because they have been both the florida marlins and the miami marlins. there is a mix of florida and miami players on the card, with a couple of interesting choices and omissions. here's the back

interesting that the back mentions christian yelich and giancarlo stanton, but they are absent from the front of the card. obviously topps didn't know max meyer would miss all of 2023 (or did they?) but i think either of those players would have been a better choice. and i am a big max meyer proponent! still, the most obvious omission is mr. marlin himself, jeff conine. i am not complaining, because topps once thought it was a good idea to include the team's owner jeffrey loria in one of their archives/fan favorites releases. yuck.

i'll have a bit more to say about these cards later in the post. until then, here is a look at some of the other cards from my box

derek jeter

i think the jeter card is probably the best of the 1956 cards i found. it works for me.

i pulled bo bichette

and bo jackson

back to back in one of the packs. back to back bo!

now for a couple of 2003 designs, featuring cardinals paul goldschmidt

and adam wainwright

the goldy shows him either right after contact or way out ahead of a pitch, and it also features the bruce sutter memorial patch. i was worried the patch was worn for too short of a time and wouldn't show up on cardboard (hence my reason for purchasing a topps now card for the memorial collection) but there it is. and it's not the only card it shows up on, either.

as for wainwright, i will always give props to the cardinals and card manufacturers for choosing cards that show the murals on the busch stadium wall. here we can see rogers hornsby and ozzie smith. ozzie is forever celebrating his 1985 nlcs home run on that display. sigh.

you may have noticed that those cards feature the bird on bat logo. topps used the interlocking stl cap logo for the aforementioned smith's card

signifying that different era of cardinal baseball.

similarly, they used different logos for giants

willie mays and buster posey. it's a hat logo for the say hey kid, and the team's current primary logo for buster.

for roger clemens and alek manoah

topps used era appropriate primary logos

and they did the same for ted williams and wade boggs and rafael devers

although the splendid splinter has a hat logo, while boggs and devers get the team's primary logos from their respective eras.

sticking with the red sox, one of the inserts i pulled was boggs' 1957 topps hit stars

those inserts are pretty clean, unlike the 1979 topps comics inserts. i found mark mcgwire's card from that set in one of the packs.

it looks like moving the design to a standard sized card cramped its style somewhat, but seeing william howard taft's large frame is almost worth it.

next up is the 1989 topps double header card i found. it features mike trout

and shohei ohtani

this two player format is not consistent with the original design of these cards - back in 1989 (and 1990 for that matter) these cards featured one player with their rookie card on one side and their (then) current topps card on the other side.

i found a 1997 number crunchers card of jeff mcneil

which is actually a "season's best" insert. the back says both "season's best" and "number crunchers" but the numbering (just like in 1997) is "sb-#". the more you know.

while i recall finding the number crunchers/season's best inserts in '97, i have no recollection of baby boomer inserts in 1998. i found one of the 2023 archives versions in my box - that of riley greene

i guess i was unfamiliar with these because no dodger was featured back in '98. this year miguel vargas is part of the set, so maybe i will finally get a dodger in this design.

i found one parallel card in the box, and it was a blue foil parallel of tyler o'neill

o'neill is also sporting the bruce sutter memorial patch, but what i like most about this card is that it features the first pitch clock i have seen on cardboard. it's also numbered to 25

sticking with the cardinals theme, my guaranteed autograph is of hall of famer scott rolen

on the 1972 design. i could have done much, much worse. i think i will stick with the card i already have for rolen in my hall of famer collection, however.

as for dodgers, i didn't do so well with this box. i found the will smith

and mookie betts cards

along with michael grove's card

the grove card is weird because topps copied and pasted the state farm text to the right of grove's portrait for some reason. actually, i think they needed to extend the frame of the action photo (here's the original) and so the text behind him looks like it says state state farm.

with that poor showing of dodger cards, i wound up picking up the team set. here are the other 1956 design dodgers:

nice to know i will have an amed rosario dodger card, and it's a double play turn to boot!

here are the 1965 design los angeles dodgers

and the lone brooklyn dodger

with an appropriately different logo.

the two logos can be more readily compared on the 2003 cards of james outman and roy campanella

and i am left to wonder why topps didn't use the brooklyn era logo that was on the 1952 cards for jackie robinson and campy. it would be closer to what they used on the original 1965 cards and it would be heckuva lot more visible on the 2003 card here.

i mentioned that the box i purchased was the "collector's box" and that was because it gave me the only shot i had to pull a steve garvey card. he is only featured on the 1969 team postcards, but as you saw earlier, my box had the marlins.  so, i went and purchased the dodger version:

here's the back:

i am not going to nitpick the player selection as the team has been blessed with some really great players in their history. instead, i'll mention that the team gets the same treatment as the marlins since they have played in both brooklyn and los angeles, and both eras are represented. that makes sense to me, and franchises in similar situations - the giants, braves and even the angels - get the same treatment. for once, it makes sense to just see "angels" on a card since their california, anaheim, and (second) los angeles eras are all represented. other teams like the brewers and a's are recognized as the "milwaukee brewers" and "oakland athletics" since there are no seattle pilots or philadelphia (or even kansas city) a's featured on those cards. this all makes sense to me!  however, topps called the nationals the "washington nationals" on their card even though they feature a few expos on that card. i suppose with a complete relocation and name change there isn't a point to omitting the current franchise location. i can't see any better way of handling that team's card.

for the rays, formerly the devil rays, the card just says "tampa bay", and for the guardians, it just says "cleveland". it is noteworthy that the players featured on that card that did not play under the guardians name, the hats are blacked out of any logos. topps avoided the logo issue on the base cards, too, by only featuring current franchise players in the set. just something i found interesting in a set that recognizes the game's history through cardboard.

finally, one of the other exclusives to these collector's box is a lunch box tin. jackie robinson is on the checklist, but i got roberto clemente.

which was fine by me.

all in all, i am happy with my purchase(s) and with archives this year. it's fun to me to see the different eras of teams represented on different topps designs. still, let's put 1965 out to pasture for a while, shall we?