free the nipple

i just noticed a few days ago that there are a couple of shirtless guys on the blue jays' 2024 topps team card

that's the rainbow foil parallel, by the way.

not sure i've seen that much chest on a baseball card since gary lavelle's 1984 fleer card. 

i sure appreciate these photos - as close to the old school team photos as we will get - on team cards. the dodgers, despite making the postseason annually, don't seem to get photos like this and it resulted in a disappointing (but still awesome) card #1 in 2021 topps heritage.

the marshall matters post

i got an email from gio, the proprietor of when topps had (base)balls, about a month and a half ago about one of his custom sets that was for sale. this particular set focused primarily on final tributes that should have been, as well as some single-player rookie cards that could have been. the kicker was that gio created stat backs for these cards, and as i am always looking for a good final tribute card that topps missed, i ordered a set.

there were a couple of key cards for me in the set, and as usual, gio hooked me up with a couple extras for a small amount. first, here's a 1958 topps roy campanella card that should have been

gio chose to go ahead and show campy as a los angeles dodger to fit all of the other dodger cards in the set, but we know that he sadly did not get to suit up for the club in california. here's the back:

solid!

gil hodges was the other player that i was looking to get a dupe of for my final tribute collection. here's his 1964 topps card that should have been

and the back

hodges was actually included in the 1964 topps set, but as a manager for the senators. that would have been ok if topps had done what they did for joe torre in the 1978 set and put his playing stats on the back, but instead, they went with a standard manager narrative writeup. happy to have a playing days hodges final tribute finally!

knowing that i am a dodger fan, gio also sent an extra 1961 topps style don newcombe card

that covers his final season which was spent with two ohio teams. here's the back

newk was only with the indians for a short time, appearing in 20 games in 1960. as such, the hatless photo comes in handy.

here are the other cards in the set, in threes:

the 1957 musial is just a lost card, but the 1959 lemon card would be a final tribute and the 1960 williams card a rookie card that could have been.

here's stan the man's back:

it's an uer thanks to the birth year which made me do a double take!

continuing with the next three cards

which are rookie, rookie, and final tribute. for some reason i thought that freehan had a rookie parade card in 1962 but i guess he didn't show up until the 1963 topps set.

next up are three more rookies that could have been

of the three, only raines had a multiplayer rookie card. lyle and gibson went straight to solo cards in 1969 and 1981, respectively

last up are these three

minnie minoso's 1981 card covers his two short stints with the white sox that made him a five decade player. here's the back:

a nice touch by gio to note his position as pinch hitter.

seeing the mike marshall 1982 topps card there reminded me that he was absent from topps sets after 1977. here's the back of what would have been his final tribute card:

seeing the card also reminded me that marshall was in the 1982 fleer set for real, and that i should add that card to my final tribute collection.

and so, here it is

with complete career stats on the back, just like gio's card

although fleer did not include the 10 saves that marshall earned in 1967 in their stats. saves weren't an official stat until 1969 so i assume that is why.

i will note that 11 year old gcrl may not have immediately connected the dots between this mike marshall returning to cardboard for the first time in five years back when 1982 fleer packs were being opened and the record setting, cy young award winning mike marshall who pitched for the dodgers. once i looked at the back and saw the stats it made sense, but i didn't understand why he was not in any other sets. besides, there was another dodger mike marshall who showed up in 1982 fleer and had more of my attention.

another final tribute card that i added to my binder is gil hodges' 1972 topps card

i mentioned this card when i posted about dusty baker's 2024 topps heritage card which serves as his managerial final tribute, and so i went and pulled a dupe of hodges for the collection as well. here's the back

hodges sadly passed away just before the 1972 season began, making this card his last.

gio's set included a couple of bonuses - this missing 1951 topps joe dimaggio card

(it's a blue back), a 1973 topps mike schmidt solo rookie card 

that was gio's original prototype for printing

and an official wthb@lls membership card featuring mark fidrych

here's the back:

i have another membership card that features reggie jackson on the 1978 topps design - both are great.

finally, gio included a stan musial sticker

if you aren't already, be sure to get on gio's email list to know when these sets are being offered. they are fantastic. thanks gio!

my retired number collection - 49

this is the 46th 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.

you might notice that we skipped the number 48. that's because, like 38, no franchise has retired that number. i suppose one day the twins might retire the number for torii hunter, and it sure looked like jacob degrom was on that trajectory with the mets until injuries and free agency intervened. anyway, this post is not about number 48, so, without further ado, here are the two people for whom number 49 has been retired:

larry dierker (retired by the astros in 2002) 2001 topps

dierker pitched for the houston franchise from his mlb debut in 1964 through the 1976 season, and he spent one more year in the majors with the cardinals. after that, he returned to the astros in 1979 as a broadcaster before being named the team's manager just after the close of the 1996 season. he managed the clubs through the 2001 seasons, achieving postseason berths in four of his five seasons at the helm, although his teams never advanced beyond the nlds. it's from his managerial stint, obviously, that the 2001 topps card used for this collection comes.

while not a hall of famer, dierker is on the astros' wall of honor which i understand is akin to their team hall of fame. because of his stints with the franchise as a pitcher (he won 137 games, struck out 1,487 batters, and threw a no-hitter), a broadcaster (he returned to the astros' booth in 2004), and a manager (he was the 1998 national league manager of the year), the team retired his number on may 19, 2002. the astros had redistributed the number between dierker's tenure as a player and skipper, but he was the last person to wear the number before it was retired, thanks to his managerial stint.

ron guidry (retired by the yankees in 2003) 2001 ud decade 1970's

the 2001 ud decade 1970's card of ron guidry is a good one for the collection because it shows his number but it also references the time wherein i became acquainted with the yankee ace. his 1978 season was the stuff of legend, even to a new fan like me. 25 wins, a 1.74 era, 248 strikeouts (he missed the pitching triple crown by a dozen k's), the cy young award, and a world series championship to boot! 

guidry pitched for the yankees for the entirety of his career, from 1975 through 1988. he tallied 170 wins, 1,778 strikeouts, four top five cy young award voting finishes, and two world series titles. he is fifth in franchise history in terms of most games started as a pitcher in franchise history, and ranks third in strikeouts and fifth in wins.

guidry remained on the hall of fame ballot for 10 years before dropping below the 5% threshold in 2002. he has not garnered support from any eras committee that i can see, but the yankees decided to retire his number nonetheless, and did so on august 23, 2003. according to baseball reference, a yankee pitcher named jeff johnson wore number 49 for some period of time in 1992 which makes him the last player (and only one after guidry) to wear the number for the yankees. for what it's worth, guidry took the number back when he served as joe torre's pitching coach in 2006 and 2007.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 46 posts so far):

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 37, 42, 44, 46, 49

giants - 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 36, 42

pirates - 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 33, 40, 42, 44

guardians - 3, 5, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 42, 455

red sox - 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 26, 27, 34, 42, 45

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 32, 34, 36, 42

cardinals - 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17, 20, 23, 24, 42, 45, 85

reds - 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 24, 42

braves - 3, 6, 10, 21, 25, 31, 35, 41, 42, 44, 47

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 40, 42, 49

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 31, 36, 37, 41, 42

orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22, 33, 42

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24, 32, 34, 39, 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, 44

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 16, 23, 42, 47

cubs - 10, 14, 23, 26, 31, 42

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 35, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 34, 42. 43

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 10 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

37 - retired by 2 teams (retired by mets and yankees for same person)

39 - retired by 1 team

40 - retired by 2 teams

41 - retired by 2 teams

42 - retired by 30 teams (retired by cardinals and yankees for individuals in addition to jackie robinson)

43 - retired by 1 team

44 - retired by 4 teams (retired by brewers and braves for same person)

45 - retired by 2 teams

46 - retired by 1 team

47 - retired by 2 teams

49 - retired by 2 teams

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): 158

running total of non-hall of famers: 56

it looks like topps put some thought into this!

there are so many parallels these days that only exist as filler. the days of being interested in a differently colored border or background treatment are long gone for me, and i suspect, many other collectors. i still have an affinity for the gold parallels because they hearken back to a simpler time, but topps can take the holiday foil parallels, for example, and discontinue them immediately.

this year, however, i decided that i definitely wanted to get my hands on at least one vintage parallel from flagship. i wound up picking up walker buehler's card

usually these cards just have different stock and the old topps logo. this year, you should have noticed right away that there are fundamental changes to the design. here's buehler's flagship card for comparison

the vintage style card has become a "what if" sort of card. what if the 2024 design was produced in the 1970s? gone is the neon, and solid backgrounds have been added behind all of the text. the best detail, in my opinion, is the change from the black to white color gradation on the flagship card to a stipple pattern. it's very thoughtful in my opinion.

here's the back of the vintage parallel:

no changes there, but that's ok. the effort put into the design on the front is enough.

well, we hardly knew you this time

business is business and baseball is a business. still, it was odd to see the dodgers acquire amed rosario at the trade deadline for the second year in a row, hardly use him, and then dfa him a couple of weeks later. still, he achieved status as a dodger double dipper!

i don't think there are any cards from rosario's stint with the rays (yet), and i doubt that we will see him in a dodger uniform in any future topps releases now that he is with the reds, so this 2023 topps archives aqua sparkle parallel numbered to 75

will have to stand alone in this post. i picked up this card after rosario was designated for assignment figuring that i'd put up a double dipper post and there was no point in waiting for future cards to be released.

the dodgers also recently dfa'd jason heyward to give chris taylor a spot on the roster. i think i would have kept heyward and cut taylor loose, but i was not consulted. heyward is now with the astros and i am not looking forward to a potential astros/dodgers world series matchup.

there was a period over a couple of weeks where the dodgers were cutting a lot of people loose, most of whom i doubt we will see as dodgers on cardboard. they released cavan biggio a couple of months after trading for him, then rosario, then they dfa'd brent honeywell who had been with the team for about a month although he was then outrighted to triple-a and is now back with the dodgers. shortly after honeywell was designated, nick ahmed (who had also been on the roster for about a month) was dfa'd followed by heyward. 

maybe topps will surprise me and feature biggio or ahmed as a dodger in archives or heritage high numbers or update this year. time will tell.

the almost daily dodger - ramon martinez

as i was preparing the next retired number post, i was reminded that there are no mlb teams who have retired number 48. to me, 48 belongs to ramon martinez, who wore the number well over the course of his 11 seasons with the dodgers.

a while back i picked up his 1992 leaf black gold parallel

to complete my team set of those cards. ramon's number is front and center on the card, which looks pretty sharp overall in my opinion. 

i also had his 1997 fleer si card in my scanned folder

but i am still in need of three more cards to finish that team set.

one of my favorite ramon martinez memories is of his big league debut. he started a game against the giants in august of 1988 and pitched into the 8th inning, allowing just one run. it's really a ramon martinez adjacent memory because it was the game that tim leary won with a pinch-hit single in the bottom of the 11th inning. i was watching the game at a house party with a bunch of people and it was a tremendous shared experience with some longtime friends and teammates.

no more mondays

i have had a couple of saved ebay searches centered around two elusive rick monday cards for years with no triggers. then, in the span of a month or so, both cards showed up on ebay from two different sellers.

the first one - a 1991 padres coke issue - is one that i sort of already had. meaning, i had the card but it was signed by monday

and i still wanted a "clean" version. 

enter comc, who added one to their ebay inventory and recently introduced a $2.99 shipping option on that platform which made me decide to buy the card that way rather than load funds to comc and pay slightly less for the card but with the long wait and $4.99 shipping. it took only a few days for the card to show up, and here it is:

here's the back

these cards were given to members of the padres' coca-cola junior club. i know that as a young dodger fan, i would have been confused if i received some dodger cards that included announcers, but would have totally loved it once i got older.

the other card was from the team's 1990 unocal 76 set that was (mostly) distributed through the padres' game programs, and it features monday and his broadcast partner, jerry coleman

that's a pretty strong flex by monday to be wearing his 1981 dodgers world series ring, but he earned it so he should wear it.

here's the back:

monday was only with the padres from 1989-1992, and these are the only two cards featuring him that i am aware of from that stint. he rejoined the dodgers as a broadcaster in 1993 and has been with the team ever since.

because i am only interested in cards from post-dodger careers of the primary players (and manager) of the team of my youth, my rick monday pc stands complete. there are still quite a few dodger monday oddballs out there to chase, though.

football is in the air (and the mail)

right after i posted about the cards that fuji sent me from his summer sort, he let me know that another envelope was on the way with some cards that failed to make it into the initial mailing. he noted that these included cards from my "nefarious 9" list of my most wanted cards. one of them that showed up a few days later was this 2021 score mark brunell card

it was one of my most wanted non-dodger cards, a "bonus" 9 cards in addition to the top 9 that are all dodger centric. not to be outdone, i also got an email from jon at a pennysleeve for your thoughts asking (as he does from time to time) if i need a certain card or two. most of the time (all of the time?) the answer is yes! this time, the ask involved a couple of brunell cards - a 1997 pacific crown royale

and a 1998 skybox premium d'stroyers insert

i don't mention it often, and i don't have it loaded into tcdb or have a want list, but i have a pretty solid mark brunell collection. 

now, through the interaction with jon, i took a look at jon's "yours for the taking" page and asked for a few others to accompany the brunells through the mail

here's a double play card i didn't have - 2003 bowman bret boone

and four topps archives reserve cards - two from 2001

and two from 2002

the 1952 topps jackie robinson looks especially nice all refractored up! thanks jon!

as for the remainder of fuji's envelope, he was able to hit the top three cards from my "nefarious 9" list, including a 1987 drake's fernando valenzuela card

that isn't cut too badly. the other two cards were kevin brown's 2002 upper deck sweet spot

and marquis grissom's 2001 topps stars

cards. all three of those completed team sets for me (in brown's case, the non-sp team set) and i was quite happy to take them off the list. thanks fuji!

if you are interested in helping a blogger out, i have since refreshed my "nefarious 9" linked above with some new most wanted cards. in the meantime, i think a decent goal for the football season is to get my brunell collection cataloged. more fun than watching the vikings, that's for sure. stay tuned!

the birds and the betts

there was no monthly collector's club show in july here in the twin cities and after attending the august show a couple of weeks ago, i think i know why. the building that the show is held in is an old armory in a first tier suburb and has no air conditioning. it was stuffy in august and would have been unbearable in july.

at any rate, i found some cards as usual. i am sure that from the title you expect to see some blue jay or cardinal cards, but actually i was thinking about this 1977 hostess mark fidrych card that i found in a 5/$1 box

it is poorly cut but that's ok.

there were a bunch of hostess cards in the box, and i grabbed a couple others including this horrendously cut 1976 hank aaron

worth twenty cents for sure. still, i wonder if someone was using their toes to work the scissors with this one.

the other part of the title is more obvious - i added a few mookie betts cards to my collection at the show. here's a 2015 topps "robbed" insert

and a 2019 factory set exclusive all-star game variation

i was also happy to find a cache of 2022 topps uk edition cards, including the "career year" inserts that were only found in that release. here's betts' card from that set

and here is the lone dodger in the set, clayton kershaw

2014 was not a triple crown year for kershaw, but it was the year that he won both the cy young and mvp award.

this same seller also had dollar boxes that were really 71 cent boxes and then even less when all is said and done as this guy gives pretty good discounts.

i found a few parallels from these boxes such as a green foil miguel rojas 2024 topps card

and a 2001 fleer ultra tom goodwin gold medallion edition card

one of my favorite card finds was a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback card of joel skinner from 1992 topps

i appreciate this card because back in 2001, i pulled a 1992 joel skinner card from a pack of topps. they were inserting buyback cards in packs back then, but not marking them in any way. so, while i beat the odds, what i really had was just another 1992 common. so, i appreciate the stamping of buybacks these days.

other cards of interest that came from this seller include a 2016 topps heritage clay buchholz card

it's not a variation as far as i can tell, but buccholz is wearing the 4th of july hat and uni from 2015

here's the original 1967 design but it's a diamond cut vada pinson card

i also randomly picked up a 1997 upper deck collector's choice ken griffey jr checklist

that explains the difference between a subset and an insert

i was an annual collector of collector's choice but i don't remember these checklists.

there's another regular seller with dime boxes that i typically spend some time with, and i found some keepers there this month. this 1993 pacific nolan ryan texas express 27 seasons card

goes into my retired number collection as a sort of header card. i suppose it could also be a lurker card as rod carew is featured along with ryan.

a couple of new to me double play cards include a 2023 topps heritage brandon drury card

and a 2013 topps asdrubal cabrera purple parallel

here's another 2013 topps purple parallel that i picked up - it's carlos pena

i have cooled my pursuit of tatooine cards, but the color combo on this card appealed to me.

i also found some vladimir guerrero cards for my collection including this 1998 fleer ultra kid gloves insert

and then there is one for my name/number on the back collection from 2023 topps black & white

my first thought when i saw this card was when did cody bellinger play for the rockies?

another seller had some cheap autos and relics, and i bought the 1996 leaf signature series steve sparks card

just because of the knuckleball grip he is sporting

there were some in person autos in the box, and while i tend to shy away from these, i did pick up two bob welch signed cards

and one davey lopes card

for the collection. those were just under two bucks apiece.

the last dealer i stopped at had vintage bargain bins filled with oddballs. i chose a 1963 topps tommy davis peel off

and a 1975 hostess twinkies don sutton panel

with plenty of black bar showing on the back

that was the most expensive card of the day for me with a tag of $5

the last card i bought was another "bird" - a 1975 fleer cloth patch old hoss radbourn card

featuring his famously extended middle digit. here is the back:

as i was asking the seller about reducing the price of the sutton panel, i heard the person to my left say my name. it was none other than brian from highly subjective completely arbitrary! i've met up with him at this show many times, but didn't think to check with him before heading out to this one.

as always, brian had some cards for me, which brings me to even more mookie betts cards!

2024 topps heritage white border parallel

2023 topps stadium club mookie betts chief fantasy professional insert

and a 2024 topps royal blue parallel

that also features freddie freeman

a non-mookie card from brian that was great to see was this 2016 topps bunt joc pederson moon shots insert

it's numbered to 50 which belies the low end product that bunt was thought to be back then.