what about kenny lofton?

i was on the lookout for a kenny lofton autograph card the last couple of years since he was showing up as a dodger on some releases. i sort of forgot about it until late last year and started tracking them again. i wound up purchasing a 2024 topps tribute autograph - the blue parallel, actually

which is numbered to 199. here's the back

lofton wore number six during his lone season with the dodgers (jd drew wore lofton's normal number 7), which is always a reminder to me that the number that had been held out of circulation while steve garvey was on the writer's ballot for the hall of fame will likely never be retired by the club. i'm ok with that, but i do think that lofton is the fourth hall of famer to wear that number for the dodgers. more on that in a bit.

lofton has been showing up as an autograph subject on topps cards the last few years, with most of those cards showing him on teams other than the indians, with whom he spent the bulk of his career over three different stints. i suppose that's because topps no longer uses the indians team name for players from that era of the franchise, nor do they show the chief wahoo logo (his 2025 topps 1990 design autographs have him with "cleveland" and wearing a logo-less hat) which was very prevalent during lofton's playing days.

case in point, here is his 2008 topps card

with the nickname and logo prominently shown, even as the team had introduced the non-controversial "i" logo for their hats. for the record, i believe that the chief wahoo logo was offensive and not appropriate, and i think that the name change was the right move as well. i understand why topps avoids the use of both the name and logo, but it is part of the historical record so i use them here.

here's the back:

which is a true final tribute with his full career stats.

his 2008 topps opening day card looks the same, but with a red border

and the opening day logo watermarked on the back

and i've added both of these to my final tribute collection.

i reserve that collection for personal favorites and hall of fame caliber players, and lofton checks both boxes. moreso the latter, but i did enjoy following his career which i think should qualify him for the national baseball hall of fame. yes, kenny lofton is in my hall of famer collection!

i wanted a card from his time in cleveland, and found this 2013 topps tier one crowd pleasers autograph numbered to 59

for a song. here's the back:

with carlos beltran and andruw jones being elected to the hall last month, it is worth noting that there is another centerfielder who sits between those two in jaws ranking, and it's kenny lofton.

by any metric in those columns other than peak war and dwar, lofton surpassed jones and performed close to beltran (far exceeding him as a fielder). i think lofton's issue is his lack of power comparatively (his ops was .423 while both beltran and jones settled at .486). however, lofton's ops of .372 is better than either of theirs which brings his ops close to .800 (and better than hall of famer richie ashburn's). 

i got to see lofton play in person a few times. the first time was in 1996 (august 13 against the angels) when he was still in his first go-round with cleveland. he didn't steal a base in that game, but he did go 2 for 4 with a solo home run. the primary memory i have from that game was albert belle's solo shot in the second inning which is one of the hardest hit balls i have ever seen in person. absolutely crushed. i did get to see lofton steal a base in 2006 when he was with the dodgers. he also tripled in that game (june 9 against the rockies). 

lofton scored over 1,500 runs, had 2,428 hits, 945 walks, and 622 stolen bases during his career which ended with a .299 lifetime average. as i said earlier, i consider that to be a career worthy of the hall of fame, where he would join other dodgers to wear number 6 - joe medwick, joe torre, and hopefully one day, steve garvey.

you can see lofton and the other members of my hall of famer collection here.