during one of the many dodger broadcasts i've watched in the last two to three years, i saw a photo from dodger stadium that was used as a bumper or a promo background that showed steve garvey's legends of dodger baseball monument. on that monument, his 2005 topps pristine card was shown. during my recent trip to dodger stadium, i wanted to be sure to find the monument and see what cards represent the other members of this fairly new dodger tribute group.
i had a heckuva time finding them, however. i wandered all around the stadium, looking at a bunch of other displays including gold gloves and murals and photos but couldn't find those specific items. i saw an information booth tucked under the right field pavilion just off center field and walked over to inquire. on my way there, i spotted some glass cases with a bunch of baseball cards in them. one of those cards was steve garvey's 1976 topps card
no players have been added since 2017 which is too bad, but i still had fun looking through the cases. they aren't in any particular order (juan samuel is hanging above garvey) and there is a wide variety of cardboard representation. here are photos of the cases (sorry for the glare)
the person at the booth was able to direct me to the legends display (it's under the drip line of the left field pavilion just off the center field plaza) and so i headed over. each player has a metal display with a card and text displayed. here's a sideways view of all six members:
the first three members were inducted in 2019 - they were don newcombe, steve garvey, and fernando valenzuela
so there's the pristine card i mentioned up top. newcombe has a 1991 topps archives ultimate 1953 card, and fernando's card comes from 1986 topps and shows an alternate take on his 1981 topps traded card. none of these cards are iconic for the player, and i have to admit i was a bit disappointed with the card selection.
here are the other three members - maury wills, kirk gibson, and manny mota
wills and gibson went in during the 2022 season, and mota was just added in april of this year. those are obviously 1972, 1990, and 1970 topps cards, respectively. orel hershiser will be inducted later this year - not too long after the dodgers retire fernando's number 34.
speaking of which, here are the retired numbers on display in the left field corner:
this was my first time to the stadium since they added the microphones for vin scully and jaime jarrin, and number 14 for gil hodges. i will have to come back sometime after number 34 is added.
i was actually surprised to see that the dodgers also had a display for the retired numbers behind the right field pavilion at the back of the center field plaza. each of the numbers and microphones have the same sort of display as the legends of dodger baseball, complete with baseball card images for the field personnel.
1 - pee wee reese
2 - tommy lasorda
1989 topps
4 - duke snider
1959 topps
14 - gil hodges
1991 topps archives ultimate 1953
19 - jim gilliam
1964 topps
20 - don sutton
1978 topps
24 - walter alston
1965 topps
32 - sandy koufax
1964 topps
39 - roy campanella
1991 topps archives ultimate 1953
42 - jackie robinson
2012 topps archives
53 - don drysdale
1961 topps
vin scully
jaime jarrin
some interesting choices there, and it's a shame that there aren't even dodger team issue cards for scully or jarrin to be used. it would have been easy enough, i think, to include them in the lapd/dare sets at some point. it will be in august that fernando valenzuela joins this group, and i wonder if they will just move his marker from the legends side, or add a new marker. he is obviously the first (and will probably be the only) legend of dodger baseball to later have his number retired so there are no set rules for how to handle the "promotion".
seeing all these cards got me thinking.
i thought about pulling together the cards that represent the dodger all-stars in to a mini-collection, but the fact that the post-2017 all-stars aren't recognized killed that idea. then i thought about a mini-collection for the legends of dodger baseball, but the card selection didn't thrill me. same for the retired numbers, even though the use of the 1991 archives set would make chasing down cards for campy and the others a lot less expensive.
after returning from my trip and looking through all my photos - it hit me. i have decided to put together a mini-collection featuring cards of all field personnel to have their number retired by a major league team. so, not just the 11 (soon to be 12) dodgers, but the dozens of yankees (i exaggerate only slightly) and people from the other 28 (plus the expos) teams as well. my goal will be to find cards that show the player/coach/manager's number but i know that will be impossible thanks to honus wagner whose 33 was retired by the pirates even though i don't know that he ever wore 33. plus i don't think there is a card of don zimmer showing him wearing 66 for the rays. focusing only on field staff means i don't need (or want, frankly) a card of bud selig wearing number 1 for the brewers or august busch jr wearing 85 for the cardinals. gene autry actually wore an angel uniform with 26 on it, but there are no cards showing it.
there are over 200 retired numbers in major league baseball, and i've already begun culling cards from my duplicates and monster boxes that have been sitting around without a purpose. i'll post some cards from time to time and i'll have a "have" list up at my want list site.
some teams don't display uniform numbers anywhere but the back, so one or two of you may be wondering how i will differentiate these cards from my "name/number on the back" mini-collection. well, i knew from the get go that there would be at least one card in both collections, but for the most part i will try to avoid duplication across collections. for example, this 2002 topps stadium club bernie williams card
Seeing those cards on the bats makes me want to go to a Dodger game this summer even more (probably not gonna happen though).
ReplyDeleteAs for Scully... if they didn't want to go the team issue route... they could have at least used a Panini Cooperstown card.
On one hand, it's cool that they use baseball cards so often in their displays. On the other hand, it's kind of surprising they don't go into their own photo archives as they likely have better action photos for most of these players than whatever appeared on a card.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they gave up on the ASG project in 2017 because so many players were getting named All-Stars it has kind of diluted the honor a bit.
Bernie Williams was an extremely important part of a four-time WS champion dynasty, and one of the greatest postseason players everywhere. Certainly deserving of a number retirement, and more HOF-worthy than some of the players going in recently.
Would love to help out with this new mini-collection when you get your haves/wants up.
I like that idea for a mini-collection! You're right though - there'd be a few challenges with some of the older-time guys. I didn't know Honus Wagner had his "number" retired by the Pirates.
ReplyDelete(Also, why did the Dodgers use Kirk Gibson's 1990 Topps card for that display?? It's by far his worst card.)
Do all stadiums have displays like these, or is it just Dodgers stadium?
ReplyDeleteThat's very cool, thanks for sharing! Good luck with the new mini collection
ReplyDelete