my retired number collection - 41

this is the 40th 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 two people for whom number 41 has been retired:

eddie mathews (retired by the braves in 1969) 2000 fleer greats of the game

the braves retired number 41 for eddie mathews on july 26, 1969, less than a year after he retired from the game as a player. he had last played for the braves in 1966, and in 1967 the club issued the number to pitcher jim britton. it looks like britton wore it just once as baseball reference notes he also wore 42 in the 1967 season, and he only appeared in two games for atlanta that season. that mistake was somewhat remedied when mathews returned to the field as the braves' manager in 1972 and wore his number 41, making him the last brave to wear the number on the field.

mathews played for the braves from 1952 through 1966, across three cities - boston, milwaukee, and atlanta. his 2000 fleer greats card has him representing milwaukee, which is where he played for the bulk of his career. in fact, he helped the franchise win the world series in 1957 and had two second place mvp finishes to his credit while in wisconsin. his 493 home runs hit as a brave rank second only to hank aaron's 733. in most other offensive categories, mathews ranks third in franchise history behind aaron and chipper jones. like those two, mathews is a hall of famer, voted in on his fifth ballot in 1978.

tom seaver (retired by the mets in 1988) 1976 topps

tom seaver was an all-time great with the mets, and their first superstar. arguably the greatest right handed pitcher since walter johnson, he hit the league as a 22 year old in 1967 and promptly won the rookie of the year award while compiling 16 wins. two years later, he won the first of three cy young awards that he would claim as a met and led the team to an improbable, no, check that, an amazin' world series championship.

he won 198 games and struck out 2,541 batters as a met in two separate stints. his first tenure ended with a trade to the reds in 1977, and he later returned for the 1983 season. choosing a card for this collection came down to his 1976 or 1984 topps issues, because they were the only ones that clearly showed his number. i went for his base card from 1976 (his record breaker card would have worked, too) since it is from his first run with the team when he was most dominant. and, that dominance continues to be evident to this day, as he is still the mets' all-time leader in starts, wins, and strikeouts, and is second in era to jacob degrom by 0.05 runs per 9 innings. 

seaver was the last met to wear number 41, doing so in his return in 1983 although nobody had worn it since he was dealt to the reds. the franchise retired it on june 24, 1988 and seaver was elected to the hall of fame four years later on his first ballot with the highest percentage of votes (98.8%) at that time in history.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 40 posts so far):

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

giants - 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 36, 42

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 33, 40, 42

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

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 26, 27, 34, 42

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 32, 34, 36, 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, 31, 35, 41, 42

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

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

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

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

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 35, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 34, 42

angels - 11, 26, 30, 42

expos - 8, 10, 30, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 34, 42

major league baseball - 42

rays - 12, 42, 66

diamondbacks - 20, 42

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 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)

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)

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): 149

running total of non-hall of famers: 53

some pretty good cards from work

i've traded cards at work a couple of times in the last 30+ years. the first time was in the early 1990's, and i obtained my first 1989 upper deck ken griffey jr card that way. most recently, i swapped a lunch for a couple of cards, including a si for kids eric karros card, from a coworker last year.

this post features cards i received from my employer, although indirectly. i was given one of those "choose your own retailer" gift cards for a years of employment milestone, and i quickly turned that into a target gift card that i decided to redeem for cards. i placed an online order and soon received the boxes i had requested.

first up was a 2024 topps series 2 mega box. these have 16 packs, and i am going to show just the inserts by pack.

pack 1

yes, the lone insert was randy arozarena's stars of mlb card. not a great start

pack 2

better. a freddie freeman "around the horn" insert, jose ramirez' "city to city" insert (more on that insert set in a future pots), hank aaron's 1989 35th anniversary card given the mega box foil treatment, and spencer strider's stars of mlb insert.

pack 3

another 1989 mega box foil - this time it's the say hey kid and an all-star card at that. sonny gray, who has been getting some insert love from topps the last couple of years, is the obligatory stars of mlb subject

pack 4

now we're cookin'! obviously the orange mega box foil parallel of adley rutschman's 1989 all-star card is the star here, but i will also acknowledge the royal blue parallel of jon berti, corey seager's 1989 all-star card, and trea turner's stars of mlb insert. a couple of former dodgers there.

the rutschman card is special, as it it numbered to just 25

which is pretty sweet.

pack 5

the box has already peaked at this point, but i was pleased to see a byron buxton home run challenge card as well as shohei ohtani's stars of mlb card. i almost redeemed buxton's card for the july 4th game i attended but decided not to. he didn't homer so i had no regrets.

pack 6

there's a good variety of inserts, from the significant statistics card for jhoan duran to the women in baseball card of alyssa nakken and ichiro's mega box foil parallel of his 1989 all-star card. plus we get topps stretching the definition of "stars of mlb" with a zack gelof card.

pack 7

a gold parallel of taijuan walker reminds me of how high the print runs must be today. the gold parallels seem a lot harder to come by even though they are printed in about the same numbers from year to year. that means there are a lot more packs out there. the other inserts feature nolan jones, who is currently being victimized by the sophomore slump, and luis arraez, who is trying to win a third consecutive batting title, each for a different team. 

pack 8

nothing but a joey votto stars of mlb insert for this pack

pack 9

finally a national all-star card with matt olson, and a rainbow foil parallel of giancarlo stanton. what i said above for the gold parallels goes for the rainbow foil as well. and, i was very happy to find the yoshinobu yamamoto stars of mlb card in this pack!

pack 10

not a bad pair of inserts of cal ripken jr (around the horn) and derek jeter (1989 all-star mega box foil parallel) and a sal frelick stars of mlb insert. i should note that the around the horn inserts are similar to the stadium club triumvirate inserts in that they connect to show the entire infield across three cards. ripken is shown as a shortstop on his card, and he would have cards of brooks robinson and eddie murray on either side of him. for the dodgers, it's max muncy, mookie betts, and freddie freeman. i would have loved to see ron cey, davey lopes (or bill russell), and steve garvey featured.

pack 11

big dodger turnout with the clayton kershaw chrome parallel and base stars of mlb cards. and then there's the 1989 mega box foil card of a yankee rookie.

pack 12

not a good pack for inserts when all there is is a manny machado stars of mlb card

pack 13

a lot of blue here - royal blue bo bichette parallel, blue around the horn alex bregman parallel, and a freddie freeman fantasy favorites insert. bucking the trend is the ceddanne rafaela stars of mlb insert. i am an alex bregman magnet, i swear.

pack 14

and to prove that fact stated above, here's bregman's 1989 all-star card in mega box foil fashion, along with a josh jung home run challenge card and jose ramirez's stars of mlb insert

pack 15

evan carter's 1989 card gets the mega box foil, and carlos correa is the stars of mlb subject in this penultimate pack

pack 16

very cool to see a satchel paige 1989 all-star card, and the final insert of the box is jasson dominguez's stars of mlb card.

next up was a 2024 bowman blaster. i was really hoping to score a pete rose card. i didn't, but in the end i did ok.

i got a mookie betts base

an elly de la cruz chrome insert

and a jackson chourio prospects chrome insert parallel

but not much else.

except for this

a dylan crews blue autograph parallel!

i will admit that i wasn't entirely sure about it - the name sounded familiar - and then i turned it over and was reminded that he was the 2nd overall pick behind paul skenes in last year's draft.

speaking of skenes, he showed up in the bowman mega box i also picked up.

both chrome and mega box chrome prospect parallels!

there were some other decent cards, but nothing to top the crews or skenes cards. between those and the rutschman card, i think i did ok with my gift card purchase. i am already (sort of) looking forward to the next work anniversary milestone payout!

bet your bottom dollar

i am really looking forward to tomorrow. one day closer to the weekend, sure, but it's also going to be the season debut of clayton kershaw.

the future hall of famer is back from his offseason shoulder surgery and subsequent rehab and will be on the bump against the giants. my expectations are tempered, but i am hoping that he doesn't suffer any setbacks and is able to pitch for the remainder of the season on a regular basis.

kershaw is just 56 strikeouts away from 3,000 and if he stays healthy over the next 10 weeks, he has a real shot at achieving the milestone this season. of course, that depends on his stuff. anyway, here are 17 kershaw cards to share in honor of his 17th season kicking off tomorrow.

2024 topps grand gamers

2024 topps superstar blueprints

2020 topps choice black parallel /299

2016 topps chrome sepia refractor

2017 topps triple threads

2019 bowman's best

2019 topps allen & ginter x

2020 bowman platinum

2013 panini hometown heroes zip code parallel

2015 topps tribute

2017 bowman chrome

2019 panini prizm blue prizm parallel

2020 panini prizm stargazing white wave prizm parallel

2021 panini donruss photo variation holo pink parallel

2022 panini capstone summit

2023 topps favorite sons black parallel /299

2024 topps silver pack chrome 1989 35th anniversary

once he gets on the mound, the "k is for kershaw kountdown" will continue! stay tuned!

a white black & white whale for someone

every so often i venture over to beckett marketplace to look for autographs and parallels from 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams and 2005 donruss studio portraits. usually, there is nothing new to tempt me, but a few weeks ago i found a steve garvey parallel from the studio portraits set that i didn't already own.  i own it now.

it's the zenith white black & white parallel, numbered to 35. the first color in the description usually refers to the color of the border, but this border certainly isn't white. anyway, by my count, this is the 27th different garvey card i have from this release of parallels. i don't think that is even half of the number available.

it also turns out that this version was a white whale of a reader who commented on my want list post nearly three years ago. i've left a followup comment, but graytiger if you are reading this and still need a white black & white garvey, let me know!

the seller also had a diamond kings blue parallel of kirk gibson

which numbered to 50.

the garvey was $2.50 and gibson cost $1.50, so i was a pleased customer. anyone else peruse beckett marketplace in addition to the usual shopping grounds?

a sweet spot for sutcliffe

here's a card that's just about 40 years old - rick sutcliffe's 1984 fleer update card

i have valued this card ever since my dad handed me the update set in the fall of '84 and i saw that sutcliffe was standing in dodger stadium. sutcliffe was the first dodger rookie of the year during my fandom, so i was a fan even after he was traded away to cleveland and i continued to follow his career in the newspaper box scores and baseball publications i had at my disposal back then. plus, i had caught cubs fever that season and marveled at the stats sutcliffe had put up after his trade from cleveland. 

seeing the pen and ball in sutcliffe's right hand, i always assumed that he was signing autographs for some fans and the photographer requested a quick photograph. a couple of weeks ago, however, i saw the photograph used for the card in much greater detail

i quickly zoomed in to see if i could make out his signature on the ball and was surprised when i saw this (rotated for your convenience)

that's sandy koufax's signature! on the sweet spot! how cool is that?!

i assume koufax is standing just off camera, and i figure somewhere there is a photo of the two cy young award winners together. and, i wonder if sutcliffe signed the ball in his left hand to give to koufax or if perhaps someone who worked for the dodgers such as don newcombe (another roy and cy young award winner) was also on the field that day to sign the ball.

in other news, today marks the 30th anniversary of sutcliffe's final big league appearance. he was a cardinal then, and earned the win against the braves although he left the game during charlie o'brien's at bat in the sixth inning after allowing a run to score on a wild pitch. it turned out that he had a shoulder injury and was placed on the disabled list shortly after the game. then came the strike and the free agent sutcliffe never returned to a big league mound. 

always a good hitting pitcher, he did double in his final big league at bat, so he has that going for him. he also may very well have a sandy koufax signed baseball in his trophy room, nestled in between a rookie of the year trophy and a cy young award. 

the almost daily dodger - chris gwynn

one of the recent almost daily dodger posts i shared featured a gold parallel card that completed a team set. today, i have chris gwynn's 1995 score gold rush parallel

that gets me one card closer to a completed team set. i am still 11 shy, according to my want list.

if you were to turn the card over (sorry, i didn't scan the back) you would see that gwynn's numbers from 1990 and 1991 were pretty similar. in each of those seasons, he hit 1 triple, 5 homers and had 22 rbi. in 1995, he would score 8 runs, hit 1 homer, and drive in 10. the following year, now a royal, gwynn scored 8 runs, hit 1 homer, and drove in 10. here's to consistency!

the almost daily dodger - adrian beltre (again)

yes, i've featured adrian beltre as the "almost daily dodger" in a post before, but with his formal induction into the hall of fame happening tomorrow, i ask that you indulge my duplicity.

over the last few months i've added a couple of beltre cards worth showing - his 1999 topps gallery card

and one of his variant 1999 topps tek cards

beltre was the apprentice to bobby bonilla, i guess, back in 1998 when he first came up to the big leagues. by the end of the season, however, beltre had appeared in more games as the dodger third baseman than bobby bo.

as for the tek card, i had thought at first glance that the design had something to do with jackie robinson, but it's actually a sort of stat line design - beltre had 42 career hits heading into the 1999 season. he would get 907 more with the dodgers before heading to the american league and finishing his career with 3,166 hits. he will go into the hall tomorrow as a ranger, but he will always be a dodger to me.