my retired number collection - 15 and 16

this is the 15th 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 15 and 16 have been retired:

thurman munson (retired by the yankees in 1979) 1975 topps

munson died in a plane crash on august 2, 1979 and the yankees retired his number 15 the following day, ensuring that no other yankee would ever wear the number after munson. in fact, they kept his locker exactly as munson had left it after playing in his final game on august 1. his 1975 topps card gives a good look at the number, and also features a tarp which doesn't show up on cards too often.

munson's career lasted almost exactly 10 years to the day, and in that time he established himself as one of the best catchers in the game. he was the 1970 american league rookie of the year, won three gold gloves, was a 7 time all-star, and was voted as the mvp of the league in 1976. add to that his .357 lifetime postseason average and many wonder why he isn't in the hall of fame.

dick allen (retired by the phillies in 2020) 2020 topps update decades' best

i believe this 2020 decades' best insert is the only card in this mini-collection that isn't technically a card of the player it represents, but it was one of the best i could find that shows allen's number 15 and it is giving heavy 1976 vibes so it makes the cut. allen is widely considered to be one of the best, if not the best, eligible players from his era not in the hall of fame. he just missed a couple of years ago with one of the eras committees, but i have high hopes the next time around.

like munson, allen was a seven time all-star, rookie of the year (1964) and league mvp (1972). he had two stints with the phillies, as he spent the first seven years of his career in philadelphia and then returned to the club in 1975 for a two-year stay. he was a part of the team's rise in the national league east in the latter part of the '70's and made his lone postseason appearance with them in 1976.

as a phillie, allen hit 204 home runs and held a .290 average. while the team did not hold his number out of rotation (andrew knapp in 2020 was the last to wear it), they did see fit to retire it on september 3, 2020 - just three months before allen passed away. 

i have been remiss in previous posts in not speculating or pointing out potential future number retirements, but i will mention here that the angels have never reissued tim salmon's number 15 since he retired after the 2006 season, nor have the giants handed out their number 15 which was last worn by bruce bochy in 2019. i would expect bochy's number to eventually be formally retired by the club.

whitey ford (retired by the yankees in 1974) 2004 donruss team heroes

i haven't done extensive research, but i think it was the 1999 upper deck century legends set that first normalized black and white photographs of "oldtimer" players on cards issued by one of the major manufacturers. i know that conlon really brought black and white to the hobby en masse in the early 1990's, and before that there were tcma and cramer/pacific releases, but nothing that i recall from the big companies. anyway, the use of black and white photos allows us to get cards that show whitey ford's number 16 as evidenced by his 2004 donruss team heroes card.

the yankees retired ford's number on august 3, 1974 to honor the newly inducted hall of famer. ford spent his entire career with the yankees, winning 236 games and six world series titles between 1950 and 1967. he won the american league cy young award in 1961 and the world series mvp award that same year. he was such an obvious hall of famer to the yankees, that they held his number out of rotation so that he would be the last to wear it.

ted lyons (retired by the white sox in 1987) 2005 upper deck classics

ted lyons was inducted into the hall of fame as a player in 1955. the white sox, however, did not retire his number until july 25, 1987. in addition to his exploits on the field (which included 21 seasons with the white sox, 260 career wins, and 356 career complete games), lyons also managed the white sox for two-plus seasons. he was a player-manager for the latter part of the 1946 season and then focused solely on his managerial duties for the next two seasons. 

his 2005 upper deck classics card doesn't show his number, but he is wearing a glove so i figure the photo is from his playing days. fun fact alert - in lyons' last full season (1942), the 41 year old led the american league with a 2.10 era. he also made 20 starts and threw 20 complete games!  he spent three years after that in military service before returing in 1946. he likely would not have reached 300 wins had he pitched from 1943-45 but would have been close! 

with the gap between lyons' retirement and the retirement of his number, 21 different players wore 16 for the white sox before it was retired, the last of whom was ken williams in 1986.

hal newhouser (retired by the tigers in 1997) 2003 fleer flair greats

hal newhouser won back-to-back mvp awards for the tigers in 1944 and 1945 and finished second in the voting in 1946. in all three years he led the league in wins, and in two of the three he led in era and strikeouts culminating in the pitching triple crown in 1945 - the same year he led the team to a world series championship. in all, newhouser won an even 200 games as a tiger

i'm not fully sold on newhouser's 2003 fleer flair greats card, but it does show a sliver of his number. speaking of which, david wells was the last tiger player to wear number 16 before it was permanently retired on july 27, 1997 - five years after newhouser was inducted into the hall of fame. 

dwight gooden (to be retired by the mets in 2024) 2009 topps tribute

even though the mets have not yet held the ceremony to retire number 16 in honor of dwight gooden (it is scheduled to occur on april 14, 2024), i decided to include him in the collection using his 2009 topps tribute card. while gooden is not a hall of famer, he hit the big league scene with a hall of fame-esque first impression as he was the 1984 rookie of the year as a 19-year old, finishing second in the cy young voting. he topped that performance in 1985 by winning the cy young award and the pitching triple crown with 24 wins, a 1.53 era, and 268 strikeouts.

gooden led the mets to the world series in 1986, and although he lost both games he started in the fall classic, the mets came away with the championship, cementing the legacies of many members of that team in mets lore. gooden was suspended for the 1995 season which essentially ended his tenure with the mets. he wound up with the yankees when 1996 came around, and hideo nomo eventually took number 16 when he joined the mets in 1998. since then, 15 players have worn the number, with travis jankowski in 2022 being the most recent. 

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

retired numbers by team (through the 15 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

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

phillies - 1, 14, 15

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

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

braves - 3, 6, 10

astros - 5, 7

mets - 14, 16

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

mariners - 11

nationals - 11

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)

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 85

running total of non-hall of famers: 22