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