this is the 23rd 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 seven people for whom number 24 has been retired, including one player who has been so honored by two teams:
willie mays (retired by the giants in 1972) 2020 topps heritage 20 giants seasons
mays had his number retired by the giants while he was still active, albeit with another team. on may 12, 1972, a day after the giants traded him to the mets, number 24 was retired in his honor - at least according to wikipedia. it makes sense - the mets were playing in san francisco on the 12th, and the giants would likely want to waste no time in acknowledging one of the greatest players in baseball history and ensure that no other giant would ever wear the number.
as a giant, mays hit 646 home runs and had 3,187 hits. he sits atop the franchise's leaderboard in most key offensive categories including hits, homers, runs, doubles, total bases and games played. he was a two-time mvp and won 12 gold gloves. a no-doubt hall of famer, mays was elected on the first ballot in 1979, and it is crazy that he got only 94.7% of the vote. there are a few cards that i have showing his number 24, but i like the 2020 topps heritage insert for this collection.
alston is the only member of the los angeles dodgers to ever wear number 24, as he brought the number with him from brooklyn and it was retired by the team in the year after alston gave up his job as manager of the club. he retired during the final week of the 1976 season, and his number was retired on june 5 the following year during an old-timers game and ceremony. i sure wish i could find photos from the old-timers game i went to at dodger stadium. i don't think it would have been 1977, but i recall hank aaron playing right field for the visitors and jim campanis playing for the dodgers. maybe someday i will find the photos we took. speaking of photos, the 1967 topps card i chose for the collection show his number pretty well, which is somewhat rare for manager cards.
anyway, alston led the dodgers for 23 seasons, winning seven pennants and four world series titles, including the franchise's first championship in 1955. he won over 2,000 games as the dodgers' manager, becoming the only skipper to reach that milestone with a single franchise, and retired with the fifth most managerial wins all-time. he wasn't elected to the hall of fame until 1983, so the dodgers weren't quite as strict about their hall of fame policy as they became after retiring jim gilliam's number 19 in 1978. sadly, alston was too ill to travel to cooperstown, and passed away a couple of months after his induction.
tony perez is rocking the windbreaker under the jersey look on his 1970 topps card, and we can see his number 24 clearly thanks to his awkward looking swing follow through. perez helped the reds to four pennants during his first run with the club from 1964 through 1976, and was a two-time world champion as a result. overall, perez is second only to johnny bench on the franchise's all-time leader board for rbi, which was perez's calling card. he drove in 1,192 runs as a red in 7,630 plate apperances, and his career totals equate to an rbi/pa ratio equal to that of willie mays.
the only reds player to wear 24 after perez was traded to the expos in 1976 was dave van gorder back in 1982. when perez rejoined the club, he reclaimed 24 and no red has worn it since. the team retired the number on may 27, 2000 in recognition of his election to the hall of fame earlier that year. it was his 9th year on the ballot, and he made it in with 77.2% of the vote.
the toy cannon doesn't seem to have a card that shows his full number, but his 1971 topps card comes close, if you combine what you see on both sides of his jersey. wynn was drafted by the houston colt .45s after their inaugural 1962 season from the reds, and he debuted with the club the following year. in 1965 he became their starting centerfielder, and played for the club through the 1973 season amassing 223 home runs in that time. when he was traded, he was the franchise's all-time leader in most offensive categories, including home runs, rbi, and walks. he remained in the top spot in all three of those categories until the killer b's came along.
wynn had his number 24 retired by the astros on june 25, 2005. jason lane, who wore the number earlier in that season, switched to number 16 after it was retired. while not a national baseball hall of famer, wynn was inducted into the team's hall of fame on august 3, 2019 as part of its inaugural class.
rickey henderson wore number 35 during the majority of his first stint with the a's. he switched to 24 when he joined the yankees in 1986 as phil niekro was wearing 35. when rickey returned to the a's in 1989, bob welch had 35 and rickey took 22 until he was able to come to an arrangement with ron hassey who was wearing number 24. one suit and set of golf clubs later, rickey was wearing 24, and wore that number for the remainder of his time in oakland across multiple stints.
i think the 1994 topps stadium club member's only box set card is a great one for this collection - it shows the number clearly and portrays rickey as a stealer of bases which is his primary claim to fame. elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot in 2009, rickey is the game's all-time leader in steals and runs scored, and was at one time first in walks until barry bonds passed him. he was the 1990 al mvp and a 10-time all-star who led his league in stolen bases 12 times, including a single season record of 130 swipes in 1982.
while he was an obvious hall of famer, the a's kept number 24 in circulation. kurt suzuki was the last a's player to wear the number, doing so during the 2008 season before the a's retired it on august 1, 2009.
the cardinals were the fourth franchise for whom herzog managed (this includes a short stint in 1974 leading the angels), but he managed them longer than anyone not named schoendienst or larussa - two people who i've already covered in this series. i was happy to pull the 2023 topps allen & ginter card last year, as it was the best example i could find that showed herzog's number.
with the cardinals, herzog won three pennants and one world series title. he won 822 games during the regular season and 21 in those three postseasons. herzog was elected to the hall of fame as a manager by the veteran's committee in 2010, and the cardinals retired his number on july 31 of that same year, making rick ankiel in 2009 the last cardinal player to wear the number.
not only did the mariners announce that they would retire ken griffey jr's number during a ceremony on august 16, 2016, they announced that number 24 would be retired across the entire organization. high recognition for the face of the franchise who was elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot that same year, prompting the announcement from the mariners. once griffey donned the number as a rookie in 1989, no other mariner ever wore 24.
his 1990 topps card shows most of the number that griffey wore during both of his tenures in seattle (he wore 30 and 3 in cincinnati to honor his dad and kids, respectively, and 17 in chicago because 3 was retired and 30 was taken). i like that he reverted back to his original number when he rejoined the mariners to end his career. and what a career it was, with 417 of his 630 homers hit as a mariner, to go along with 10 consecutive gold glove awards and the 1997 al mvp that he earned during his time with the franchise.
unfortunately, it was erroneously given to kevin torve in 1990. after that, rickey henderson wore it during his time with the mets, as did robinson cano up until his release early in the 2022 season. payson's promise was finally fulfilled when the mets formally retired the number on august 27, 2022 .
i would expect the tigers to retire number 24 for miguel cabrera at some point in the near future, and it wouldn't surprise me at some point if the red sox retired it for dwight evans and manny ramirez, even though i understand why it hasn't happened yet.
i am tracking a few things as we go, even though the information is already available elsewhere.
retired numbers by team (through the 18 posts so far):
yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23
giants - 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, 24
pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21
guardians - 3, 5, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 455
red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14
phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20
cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17, 20, 23, 24, 85
reds - 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 24
braves - 3, 6, 10, 21
astros - 5, 7, 24
mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24
orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22
dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24
twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14
white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, 72
brewers - 1, 4, 19
tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 16, 23
cubs - 10, 14, 23
royals - 5, 10, 20
padres - 6, 19
athletics - 9, 24
angels - 11
expos - 8, 10
rangers - 7, 10
major league baseball
rays - 12, 66
diamondbacks - 20
blue jays
rockies - 17
mariners - 11, 24
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)
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)
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): 109
running total of non-hall of famers: 39
Iconic jersey number. Rickey. Barry. Willie. Griffey. Kobe. Woodson. And Kurt Suzuki.
ReplyDeleteProbably the most athletes I have memorized for any single jersey number.