the almost daily dodger - jim gilliam

today i want to share jim gilliam's 1962 topps card

that has been languishing in my scanned folder for a few months. i think i scanned this card back when i was starting my retired number collection. that was before i found the card that i ultimately used to represent gilliam's number 19 that the dodgers retired following his death during the1978 postseason.

gilliam has had a big impact on my fandom, primarily through his work as a coach guiding steve garvey, ron cey, bill russell, and davey lopes in the finer points of infield defense. his "clinics" were nicknamed "gilliam's island" which is a name i've used for a fantasy baseball team a couple of times. the fact that the dodgers wore a memorial patch for him in the 1978 world series also piqued my interest and curiosity about that sort of uniform enhancement which ultimately wound up with me creating a mini-collection focusing on examples of these tributes in baseball and other sports.

most recently, gilliam has become one of many players whose career stats have improved following mlb's inclusion of negro league stats in career totals. thanks to his time with the baltimore elite giants, gilliam is now credited with over 2,000 hits (2,021) and 1,250 runs (1,255). his national league totals in those categories were 1,889 and 1,163 respectively. gilliam now sits with the 150th most runs scored in history, which is around 65 spots higher than where he placed prior to this statistical update. he jumped about the same number of spots on the all-time hits list as well.

finally, i will admit that i was well into my collecting years when i finally figured out that the 1962 topps set design was based on the concept of a peeling photo/poster of the players, as if it had been applied to a fence or a wood pole.