gil hodges was the first met to wear number 14. he took his number that he had worn previously as a dodger and wore it as an inaugural member of the national league expansion team in 1962. he later reclaimed the number when he returned to manage the club in 1968. following a losing season that year, he led the amazin' mets to the pennant and world series title in 1969, cementing his place in new york met history and his status as a mets' legend. his 1971 topps card shows off both his number and his striking blue eyes!
hodges had the mets above .500 in each of the next two seasons, but passed away of a heart attack during spring training in 1972. the following year, on june 9, 1973, the team retired his number. the dodgers were in town that day, and it was also old-timers' day in queens, featuring a matchup between former mets and former dodgers, so lots of people with connections to hodges were able to participate. while a couple of mets wore number 14 after hodges retired from his playing career (including a guy who appears later in this post), no met wore it after he took it back in 1968.
ernie banks (retired by the cubs in 1982) 2018 topps update silver pack 1983 35th anniversary
let's play 2! the cubs retired banks' number on august 22, 1982 making him the first in team history to be so honored. he had retired after the 1971 season and was voted in to the hall of fame on his first ballot in 1977. he was a coach for the cubs for a couple of seasons after he retired and remained affiliated with the club in the years after that, so i am not sure why it took the team so long to recognize banks in this way.
a member of the 500 home run club and a two-time national league mvp, banks is arguably mostly remembered today for never making the postseason during his 19 seasons in the majors. he spent that entire time with the cubs, and eventually became known as "mr. cub". it was more difficult than you might think to find a card showing his number, but i think it turned out ok thanks to 2018 topps update.
ken boyer (retired by the cardinals in 1984) 1993 action packed
boyer was one of the two players (ron swoboda is the other) who wore number 14 for the mets. boyer wore it for the white sox as well, but when he went to the dodgers at the end of his career he shifted to 45 and let len gabrielson keep the number. for most of his career, however, he wore 14 for the cardinals.
boyer held down the hot corner for the cardinals for 11 years starting in 1955, winning five gold gloves and the 1964 national league mvp award. he was a big part of the cardinals' success that season as they beat the yankees in the world series. boyer became a coach and manager following his playing career, finally taking the helm of the cardinals' major league club in 1978. while many others he led the team until he was replaced by whitey herzog during the 1980 season.
sadly, boyer passed away in 1982 at the age of 51. at some point after that, the cardinals made the decision to retire his number, making september 1983 callup jim adduci the last cardinal to wear 14. the number was officially retired on may 20, 1984, making boyer the only person in franchise history to have his number retired but not be enshrined in cooperstown.
larry doby (retired by the guardians in 1994) 2005 upper deck mini jersey collection
i really have no idea what this set is or why there is a regular sized card in a set called "mini jersey collection" but it was the only one i could find showing doby in a cleveland uniform with 14 on his back (the number also appears as part of the card design). doby, of course, was the first black player in the american league (and second in the majors), debuting about two and a half months after robinsion first took the field for the dodgers.
doby joined cleveland from the newark eagles, but struggled in that first season. the next year, he hit over .300 in the regular season and .318 in the fall classic as he helped cleveland win the world series championship. in 1954, he led the american league in home runs and rbi and helped cleveland win the pennant. he left cleveland after the 1955 season, but returned for the 1957 and 1958 campaigns. in his 10 years with the club, he hit 215 home runs and had a
his number was retired on july 3, 1994 in front of a sellout crowd at jacobs field, and four years later he was enshrine in the hall of fame via the veterans' committee. the retirement of number 14 in cleveland made jesse levis the last player to wear the number.
kent hrbek (retired by the twins in 1995) 1984 topps
twin cities native and fan favorite kent hrbek had his number 14 retired by the club on august 13, 1995. he spent his entire playing career with the twins - a career that ended in august of 1994 with the strike. by the time his number retirement ceremony came about a year later, the twins had started 10 different players at first base.
hrbek, of course, was a big part of the twins' 1987 and 1991 world series championship teams, but he was also the runner up to cal ripken jr in the 1982 american league rookie of the year race, as well as the runner up to guillermo hernandez in the 1984 american league mvp voting. it's just a coincidence that i used his 1984 topps card for this collection, however. during his rookie year, he was a write-in all-star which turned out to be the only way he ever made it to the midsummer classic.
the last twin to wear 14, hrbek was gifted with an assortment of items at the number retirement ceremony. these included golf clubs from the visiting california angels, plus a couple of atvs, a pig, a cow, and a shotgun according to the los angeles times. hrbek is a big outdoors guy who has shown up at several events around the twin cities and greater minnesota. and, while he is not in the hall of fame, he is in the twins' hall of fame, and has a statue outside gate 14 at target field.
jim bunning (retired by the phillies in 2001) 2001 fleer greats of the game
it's appropriate to use this 2001 fleer greats of the game card for bunning, as his number (which had been most recently worn by gary bennett in 2000) was retired by the phillies on april 16, 2001 which was opening day. he was only a phillie for six seasons (over two different stints) but did have some of his best years in philadelphia. his first run with the club lasted from 1964 through 1967. he won 19 games in each of the first three seasons of that run, with a cumulative era of 2.48 during that time. in 1967 he won 17 and (wrongfully) finished second in the cy young voting to mike mccormick. mccormick won 22 games, but trailed bunning in every other pitching category that matters. in fact, bunning led the league in innings pitched, shutouts, and strikeouts, and was second to phil niekro in era.
perhaps the highlight of his phillies tenure was the perfect game he threw on june 21, 1964 (father's day) against the mets in queens, but i would guess overall his biggest accomplishment was being voted in to the hall of fame by the veterans' committee in 1996. his body of work, which included nine seasons with the tigers and two seasons split between the pirates and dodgers, included 2,855 strikeouts. at the time of his retirement, that was the second highest strikeout total of all time!
jim rice (retired by the red sox in 2009) 1986 fleer
there's no missing rice's number 14 on that 1986 fleer card, and there was no missing rice in the box scores that i perused daily during the 1978 season. he was the american league mvp that season, leading the league in home runs, rbi, and triples! over the course of his 16 season career (all with the red sox), rice piled up 2,452 hits, 382 home runs, and a .298 batting average.
it took rice all 15 years of eligibility on the writers' ballot to make the hall of fame, but he was elected in 2009. as a result, on july 28 of that same year, the red sox (who had kept his number out of circulation since his playing career ended) officially retired his number.
paul konerko (retired by the white sox in 2015) 2008 topps
i think 2008 topps works for some teams better than others, and the white sox are a team that it definitely works for. anyway, former dodger prospect paul konerko found a home on the south side of chicago after short stints as a dodger and a red. he spent 16 seasons playing for the white sox, during which time he hit 432 home runs and drove in 1,383 runs. in 2005, he hit 40 home runs for the second straight season and helped the white sox to the pennant and world series championship. he was the mvp of the alcs and hit a grand slam in game 2 of the world series.
he retired at the end of the 2014 season, and the club retired his number on may 23, 2015 making him the last to wear the number. while he is not a hall of famer (he was one ballot and done), he is a big presence in white sox history. in the entire run of the franchise, only luke appling appeared in more games for the white sox. he is also second (to frank thomas) among all white sox players in home runs, rbi, and total bases.
pete rose (retired by the reds in 2016) 1979 topps
you can smell the action on this 1979 topps card of the all-time hit king with his swing complete, back foot pivoting, mouth open and number 14 showing below his left arm. every time i see a 1979 topps card i am taken back to opening packs with my neighborhood friends. i have memories of opening packs from 1978 as well, but for some reason (maybe the fact that the 1979 set is more colorful?) the '79 memories seem stronger.
anyway, the reds finally retired rose's number in a ceremony on june 26, 2016 that also saw him inducted into the team's hall of fame. that is probably the only baseball hall of fame he has a chance for thanks to his betting on baseball while managing the club in the late 1980's. still, he owns the all-time records for games played and hits and was considered a lock for cooperstown until the betting allegations hit. the only person to wear number 14 for the reds following rose's dismissal as their manager in 1989 was his son, pete rose jr, who had a short stint with the club in 1997.
gil hodges (retired by the dodgers in 2022) 2002 topps tribute
gil hodges bookends this post, thanks to his status of being the first and the most recent person for whom number 14 was retired. the dodgers have a well known policy of not retiring numbers for players or managers who are not in cooperstown (with the only exception at the time of hodges' number retirement being jim gilliam) and so hodges, despite his presence as a key member of the brooklyn era boys of summer did not have his number on display next to teammates gilliam, pee wee reese, duke snider, jackie robinson, sandy koufax, roy campanella, and don drysdale, plus manager walter alston. no, hodges had to wait until june 4, 2022 to be so honored.
the dodgers announced plans to retire his number shortly after he was voted in to the hall of fame as a player by the golden eras committee late in 2021 for enshrinement in 2022. the ceremony took place prior to a game against the visiting mets which is a nice reversal of the mets' retirement ceremony mentioned at the top of this post.
hodges hit 361 home runs and drove in 1,254 runs as a dodger. he was an eight-time all-star as the club's first baseman, and led them to world series titles in brooklyn (1955) and los angeles (1959). in the latter series, he hit .391 and his home run in the bottom of the eighth inning was the difference in the pivotal game 4.
it took a long time for hodges to be voted in to the hall of fame, and the dodgers did not keep his number out of circulation like they did for fernando valenzuela (who, in 2023, became the second non-hall of famer to have his number retired by the dodgers) and so a litany of players wore number 14 over the years. the most notable was mike scioscia, but the last was fan favorite kiké hernandez in 2020. that means the last time a dodger wore number 14, they were celebrating a world series title which is a pretty good way to go out.
