this is the 36th 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 four people for whom number 36 has been retired:
robin roberts (retired by the phillies in 1962) 2003 topps all-time fan favorites
having played when he played, there aren't too many cards of roberts showing his torso let alone his number, which back then only appeared on the back of phillie jerseys. 2003 topps all-time fan favorites comes to the rescue, sort of, as only half of roberts' 36 is visible. at any rate, the phillies retired the number in his honor on march 21, 1962 when roberts faced his old club in spring training as a member of the yankees. he had been with the phillies from 1948 through 1961, and so was the last phillie to wear the number.
the yankees released roberts in april of 1962, but he wound up joining the orioles, and he pitched for another few years before retiring and getting the call to cooperstown in 1976 on his fourth ballot. with the phillies, roberts was a workhorse who won 20 or more games six seasons in a row. he led the league in wins four years in a row, and also led in strikeouts for two of those seasons. those years - his best years - occurred prior to the introduction of the cy young award, and he surely would have won the award multiple times had it existed. for example, he missed out on the pitching triple crown in 1953 by a few runs, finishing second in era to warren spahn, and finished second in the 1952 mvp voting to hank sauer.
roberts remains a fixture on the phillies' all-time franchise leaderboard, sitting at the top in games pitched, shutouts, and a few other categories. his 234 wins is second only to steve carlton's 241, and he trails only "lefty" in strikeouts, but by a much higher margin.
perry spent the first ten seasons of his career with the giants, from 1962 through 1981. he racked up 134 wins and 1,606 strikeouts as a giant, leading the league in wins in 1970 - the same year he placed in the cy young voting for the first time (he finished second). those numbers were enough for the giants to retire his number on july 23, 2005, making aj pierzynski in 2004 the last giant to wear the number.
perry went on to pitch for a number of other teams after leaving san francisco in a trade, winning a cy young in each league along the way, and was voted into the hall of fame in 1991 on his third ballot. perry's number is fully visible on his 2002 fleer greats of the game card, making it a solid choice for this collection.
it's hard to believe that just about three years ago, on august 28, 2021, koosman became only the third met player to have their number retired in a ceremony that was delayed from the 2020 season due to the pandemic. since then, the mets have retired four more players' numbers in what may be an attempt to catch up to other franchises in terms of honoring their all-time greats. koosman was definitely one of those for the amazins', winning 140 games and striking out 1,799 batters over the course of his 12 seasons in queens, although his career was not quite that of a hall of famer.
koosman was a huge part of the mets' 1969 world championship team, as well as their 1973 pennant winning club. in fact, the mets won all six of koosman's final six starts in 1969, with the lefty throwing complete games in five of them, and shutouts in three. he remains high on the mets' all-time leader board, behind only his teammate tom seaver in some categories, and behind seaver and dwight gooden in a few others.
koosman wasn't a met when his 1979 topps card was released - he was resurrecting his career in minnesota - but it shows his number 36 clearly and is a good fit for the collection. the last player to wear number 36 for the mets was sean gilmartin 2017, but it was worn after that by the team's former manager mickey callaway through the 2019 season, making callaway the last met to wear the number on the field.
kaat debuted with the washington senators in 1959 and moved to minnesota with the franchise in 1961, remaining a fixture in their rotation until he was claimed on waivers by the white sox during the 1973 season. as a senator/twin, kaat won 190 games and won 11 consecutive gold gloves (he won a 12th straight in 1973 so maybe he won 11.5 as a twin). he finished in the top five in league mvp voting in 1966, the season after he helped the twins win their first pennant in minnesota.
kaat is the twins' all-time leader in wins, and is second only to walter johnson in franchise history. same goes for innings pitched and games started (and losses, too). in between kaat's departure and the retirement of the number, many players sported 36 for the twins (including koosman) but tyler clippard in 2020 became the last twin to do so.
i am tracking a few things as we go, even though the information is already available elsewhere.
retired numbers by team (through the 36 posts so far):
yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 42
giants - 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 36, 42
pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 33, 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, 42
astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 42
mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 31, 36, 42
orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22, 33, 42
dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24, 32, 34, 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
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): 145
running total of non-hall of famers: 51
Three Phillies legends and Perry.
ReplyDeleteVoting for Roberts.
Apparently 36 is another pitchers number.
ReplyDeleteI tried to think of any athlete who wore #36... and came up short. Maybe it's because I just woke up. Had not clue any of these four hall of famers wore that number. But my biggest disappointment was not realizing that Terry Steinbach wore that number for over a decade with the A's.
ReplyDelete