four for four twenty

here's a 1981 donruss tommy lasorda card

that has something in common with these next four cards - 2019 topps heritage kenley jansen (this is the chrome parallel)

2020 topps mookie betts

2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary joe kelly (this is the refractor parallel)

and 2022 topps austin barnes

those four cards represent a four year run in which topps had assigned a dodger card to number 420 in one of their sets

i took note of it in 2021 when i saw the checklist for platinum anniversary. alas, there was no continuation of this in 2023, but i couldn't help but wonder if it were an intentional thing, similar to what upper deck did with number 666 in their early days.

not that it's a bad thing - 420 is a number associated with cannabis use, thanks to some california teens in the 1970s and i pass no judgement. it was just conspicuous to me that topps put a dodger in that spot four years running.

speaking of four years running, if cody bellinger (seen here on a 2022 topps allen & ginter chrome mini)

homers today, he will have hit a home run on 4/20 in four consecutive seasons. bellinger, as you might know, has a few 420 themed memes out there.

i almost forgot to mention - the donruss lasorda card up top is the first dodger card that i am aware of to slot at number 420 in a major set. these days, the dodgers have a 1 in 30 chance of being there in just a handful of sets each year. i took a quick look and found that no other team had more than two consecutive seasons at 420 in a topps set. donruss put the a's at 420 three years in a row in their flagship set in the mid-1980s, and the rangers were at 420 three years in a row in major pacific releases. it makes some sense to me as it has to be easier to set a checklist by starting with the previous year's, but maybe, just maybe, there were some shenanigans afoot.

my retired number collection - check their 6

this is the seventh 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 seven people for whom the number 6 has been retired:

stan musial (retired by the cardinals in 1963) 2013 topps tribute

the cardinals retired musial's number 6 on september 29, 1963 as he finished his playing career and so he became the last cardinal to ever wear the number. it was also the first time that the organization had retired a number. musial had announced his intention to retire about a month earlier, and the cardinals responded with plans to retire his number and move him in to the executive suite. i like the brightness of the 2013 topps tribute card which happens to be one of the best cards as far as showing his number. it beats the 1988 pacific legends card i had originally pulled.

musial went 2 for 3 in his final game, finishing with 3,630 hits and a .331 lifetime average. a three-time mvp and world series champ, musial also won seven batting titles and is fourth all-time in hits and third in total bases. in 1969, he was voted in to the hall of fame on the first ballot.

al kaline (retired by the tigers in 1980) 1969 topps

like musial, kaline's was the first number retired by the tigers franchise. they bestowed the honor on "mr. tiger" on august 17, 1980 after he was inducted in to the hall of fame on his first ballot. the tigers did not reissue number 6 following kaline's retirement at the end of the 1974 season, so they obviously had an inkling that they would be retiring it once he was headed to cooperstown.

kaline had 3,007 hits and 399 home runs during his 22-year career. he won 10 gold gloves for his work in the outfield, but never won the mvp although he did have four top five finishes across a 12 year span. i appreciate the tiger uniforms of the era with the numbers on the shoulders - it made finding a card for kaline a lot easier. 

steve garvey (retired by the padres in 1988) 2003 carl's jr padres

like musial and kaline, garvey's number 6 was the first number retired by the padre franchise. the retirement ceremony took place on april 16, 1988 at jack murphy stadium on steve garvey night. attendees received a nice trifold program and there were some commemorative pins distributed as well. garvey hurt his shoulder in may of 1987 and never returned to the playing field, retiring after he did not receive a contract for the 1988 season. i believe it was at one point determined that he had been a victim of collusion but that decision was later reversed in court. garvey was included in this regional set along with other notable padre players from their first 35 seasons. the 6 is visible enough, i think.

anyway, one has to wonder if the padres were quick to retire the number of a player who had been with them for just four seasons for reasons other than his play on the field. he did help to propel them to their first pennant with a dramatic home run in the 1984 nlcs, and he did bring them some legitimacy as a high profile free agent signing, but even for a big fan like me the gesture was a surprise. still, the number is retired and keith moreland (who wore it for a couple of weeks in 1988 prior to the ceremony) had to give it up. i even created a card that should have been for the event. if only topps now was around back then, although even they don't make cards for every number retirement event.

tony oliva (retired by the twins in 1991) 1974 topps

breaking the streak here - tony o's number was not the first to be retired by the twins. he followed fellow hall of famers harmon killebrew and rod carew in terms of number retirements, getting the treatment from the club on july 14, 1991. it turns out that was just in time for his number to be featured prominently during game 6 of the world series as kirby puckett's game saving catch occurred right above the placard displaying oliva's number 6. coincidentally, killebrew's 1974 topps card is in this collection as his representative, too.

oliva was a hitter. he won the american league rookie of the year award in 1964 as the league leader in batting average. he led the league in batting average again the following year as the twins won their first american league pennant. he later won a third batting title in 1971. oliva also led the league in hits five times and doubles four times, and who knows how things would have turned out had his knees held up in to his late thirties. because oliva had remained with the club as a coach following his playing days, no other twin wore the number between tony o and its retirement. oliva was inducted in to the hall of fame in 2022 through the golden era committee.

johnny pesky (retired by the red sox in 2008) 2003 fleer flair greats

the red sox retired pesky's number on september 28, 2008. i couldn't find a card of his showing the number, so this one will have to do. at the time the number was retired, pesky had been a member of the red sox organization for some 57 years - first as a player and then as a manger, broadcaster, coach and finally an advisor. the club didn't take the number out of circulation, however, and so in 2000, gary gaetti became the last player to wear number 6 for the bosox.

pesky began his career with three straight 200-plus hit seasons, although he missed three years to military service between his rookie year and his sophomore season. he wound up hitting .307 over a 10 year career that included time in detroit and washington dc. pesky is not in the hall of fame, so he may be best recognized for having the right field foul pole at fenway park named after him, although there is not a lot of evidence that he ever hit or came close to the "pesky pole" with his seven career homers at the stadium.

bobby cox (retired by the braves in 2011) 1981 donruss

bobby cox managed the braves in two different stints - first from 1978 through 1981 and second from 1990 through 2010. in between he managed the blue jays. i chose his 1981 donruss card for this collection because it shows the number 6 loud and clear, and i also like the fact that it features a glimpse of the black armband that the braves wore for executive bill lucas.

as a manager, cox won five pennants in nine years with the 1990's braves, and claimed the world series title in 1995. overall, he won 2,504 games as a big league skipper, and was elected to the hall of fame in 2014. he was the last brave to wear number 6, as the club retired the number on august 12, 2011.

joe torre (retired by the yankees in 2014) 2004 topps

so the 2004 topps card i chose doesn't show torre wearing number 6, but the number does appear in the outline inset. it's a nice touch on the part of the card design that has some 1973 or 1976 vibes - just less generic than those two. while torre had a decent playing career, he was voted in to the hall of fame alongside cox in 2014 as a manager. he posted 2,326 career wins as a manager, mostly as the yankee skipper. he also managed the mets, braves (he was cox's successor in 1982), cardinals, and dodgers. 

he won six pennants and four world series championships with the yankees after succeeding buck showalter who had guided the club to a postseason return in 1995. he managed the yankees through the 2007 season, but no yankee ever wore number 6 again, even though the club didn't retired his number until august 23, 2014 following his induction in to the hall of fame.

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

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

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

giants - 3, 4

pirates - 1, 4

guardians - 3, 5

red sox - 1, 4, 6

phillies - 1

cardinals - 1, 2, 6

reds - 1, 5

braves - 3, 6

astros - 5

mets

orioles - 4, 5

dodgers - 1, 2, 4

twins - 3, 6

white sox - 2, 3, 4

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

cubs

royals - 5

padres - 6

athletics

angels

expos

rangers

major league baseball

rays

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies

mariners

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

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 48

running total of non-hall of famers: 7

collecting the "o-pee-chee" subset in 1981 donruss

i bought a lot of baseball card packs in 1981. with fleer and donruss joining topps, there were now three sets to chase and complete, and i was all in on all three.  donruss intrigued me because, despite the gum that had a weird powder on it and the flimsy card stock, there were cards of coaches and managers (the first time since 1978 topps) and multiple cards for many star players (including steve garvey) to chase.  plus, the design resembled 1978 topps which i liked.  and then there were the cards that i saw as a nod to o-pee-chee variations.

i am sure by now you all know that i love me some o-pee-chee variations (i had a whole blog about them!). it started with buying packs of 1978 o-pee-chee in saskatchewan during the summer of  '78 and my fascination and appreciation of those variations has never gone away.  in 1981, donruss included some cards that reminded me of those canadian gems, and being unaware of the timing of the cards being printed, i was hopeful of finding a dodger ken landreaux card right up until the time i opened a pack and saw him still listed as a twin.

even though i still have my complete 1981 donruss set (minus all the variants), i decided a couple of years ago to also pull together a collection of what i call the 1981 donruss o-pee-chee subset. the cards lacked the "now with..." or "signed as free agent..." type text variations, but the team name and borders were updated to match the new team affiliation, just like o-pee-chee. there are 17 cards in all. let's have a look.

cliff johnson

johnson was traded to the a's on december 11, 1980 with keith drumright for mike king. neither of the other two players are in the 1981 donruss set.

larry milbourne

milbourne was dealt to the yankees on november 18, 1980 for former dodger brad gulden and cash. his card was also interesting to me because of the positions listed. "short" is a subset of "i-f", so that's weird. now that i have the benefit of baseball reference and can see where milbourne actually played, i think they would have been better off going the "2b-ss-3b" route, as milbourne played all of those, but not first base in 1980.  gulden, by the way, is not in the set.

dave roberts

roberts signed with the astros as a free agent on december 10, 1980. his position moniker is correct in that he played all four infield positions plus catcher (and right field) in 1980.

jim essian

essian was signed as a free agent by the white sox on november 20, 1980. unfortunately for essian, the white sox signed another catcher later in the offseason by the name of carlton fisk.

darrell porter 

porter signed with the cardinals as a free agent on december 7, 1980.  just under two years later, he would earn mvp honors in the nlcs and world series, helping the cardinals take down his former royal teammates in seven games.

willie norwood

norwood was traded by the twins to the mariners on december 12, 1980 for byron mclaughlin. in a confusing move, mclaughlin was left as a mariner in the 1981 donruss set. norwood, who went to long beach poly (same school as tony gwynn), was released by the mariners near the end of spring training. yes, it's a zero-year card! someone alert nick!

ray burris

this card really confused me back when i first saw it in 1981. i knew that burris was on the mets thanks to my 1980 (!) topps card. it blew my mind that donruss was using a photo from 1979 at the latest, showing burris with the cubs. i later realized that there were other older photos used by donruss (one of reggie jackson's cards, for example).  the weird thing here is that burris signed as a free agent with the expos prior to the 1981 season, although that didn't occur until february 18, 1981 so was too late for donruss to update the card i assume.

geoff zahn

sorry, i guess he's "jeff" now. not really - donruss just didn't pay attention to the guy's name or look at any of his other baseball cards that had been issued since 1975.  zahn signed with the angels as a free agent on december 2, 1980 and spent the rest of his career with the halos.

butch hobson

hobson was acquired by the angels on december 10, 1980 along with rick burleson. in exchange, they sent carney lansford. mark clear, and rick miller to the red sox.  those other guys are all in the 1981 donruss set, but hobson is the only one who got the "o-pee-chee" treatment. this confused 10-year old me greatly.

mike vail

vail was traded to the reds by the cubs on december 12, 1980 for hector cruz. cruz was in the topps and fleer sets, but not donruss.

jerry martin

and jesus figueroa

were traded by the cubs to the giants on december 12, 1980 for joe strain and phil nastu. nastu is not in the set, but strain is - and he is still a giant on his card.

bruce sutter

the cardinals acquired sutter on december 9, 1980 from the cubs for leon durham, ken reitz, and ty waller. durham and reitz are in the set, but are shown as cardinals. another head scratcher for young gcrl. the sutter card, by the way, was one of my favorite cards that year.

bob owchinko

this card was also one that interested me as the 1981 season got started. owchinko was part of a december 9, 1980 six player trade between the indians and pirates that had gary alexander, victor cruz, and rafael vasquez joining him in cleveland in exchange for bert blyleven and manny sanguillen. aside from vasquez (who was not featured in the set), owchinko is the only one who got the o-pee-chee treatment. what was more interesting to me, however, was that owchinko wound up pitching for the a's in 1981, as he was traded to them just before the season began.

ron leflore

here's another favorite card of mine from 1981. leflore signed with the white sox as a free agent on november 26, 1980. he was coming off a season in which he had stolen 97 bases, but did so in the same season that rickey henderson stole 100.

fred stanley

stanley was traded to the a's on november 3, 1980 for mike morgan.  morgan rightfully did not have a card in the 1981 set as he spent all of 1980 in the minors, however, this marked the beginning of his travels through the majors which would have him pitching for a then-record 12 different franchises before he was done.

dave edwards 

edwards was traded by the twins to the padres on december 8, 1980 for chuck baker, who was not in the set.

with all of these cards being higher numbers in the set (cliff johnson is the lowest number at #484), i am guessing that donruss took a linear approach to finalizing the designs of the cards, and had completed most of the set sometime in november, with these cards being finalized sometime in december.  in fact, it looks like december 12 was a cut-off of sorts, as doyle alexander and john montefusco were traded for each other on that date, but remain with their former teams in the set despite being cards number 448 and 434, respectively, while norwood, vail, martin, and figueroa saw their cards updated after they were dealt on that same date.  i find it all very interesting.

of course, i would later be treated to the 1981 topps traded set that gave me updated cards of most of these players (there were no cards for figueroa or norwood) including owchinko being shown with the a's and burris with the expos, plus that ken landreaux dodger card is was hoping for.  i didn't go to canada in 1981, so didn't get to see the o-pee-chee variations until a year later when i was back in the prairie provinces. it turns out that only martin, burris (expos), leflore, sutter, johnson, and hobson got the true o-pee-chee treatment, making me appreciate these donruss cards even more.

cards from and inspired by an arbitrary source

brian at hsca is one of the many bloggers who took a cue from jon to offer up free stuff fridays. i was able to claim some cards throughout the spring for my various mini-collections, including a 2012 topps tyler greene double play turn

along with another card from that set for my dodger stadium collection, this one featuring brad brach

i also claimed a 2011 topps chrome rookie autograph

and a 2019 topps magneuris sierra rainbow foil parallel

for my tatooine collection.

speaking of that particular collection, a long while back brian showed the 1981 donruss tim stoddard card as part of his 9-card, team by team posts featuring 1981 cards.

i realized after seeing that post that the stoddard card would also fit in my "name on the back" mini-collection, but then i remembered that i hadn't formally christened that collection yet. still, it's an early entry in my tatooine collection that i honestly hadn't looked at in years and figured i would scan and post it for posterity.

there were a couple of other cards that brian posted that gave me inspiration. one of them was one that i was too late to claim, so instead i went to sportlots and bought a copy for my collection. that was this 2019 topps stadium club andrelton simmons card

which in turn inspired me to review some 2020 topps images in hopes of finding other missed double play cards to add to my cart. as a result, i found this cesar hernandez card

that was new to my collection. while i was at it, i took a deep dive in to some other sets (using comc to browse through photos), and found a nice dodger lurker card from 2006 upper deck

looks like sandy alomar jr. is the catcher here, but i'm not sure who is in the background. one of the best things about this card is the umpire's head and leg positioning. not only does this card hearken back to 1973 topps photography, but it fits nicely in my lurker collection.

the last card i added to my sportlots cart from that particular seller (in order to maximize shipping costs, of course), was this 1994 score jeff kent card.

i had received the gold rush version of this card in a different trade, but lacked the base version.  when brian included this 1994 upper deck jeff kent card in one of his packages

it reminded me and inspired me to go get the base version of the score card. both cards hit a number of my mini-collections as the cards feature dodger stadium in the background, dodgers lurking on someone else's card, memorial patches (although i only keep one representative card for each memorial), and, in the case of the score card, a double play turn.

i'll end things with a few more cards that brian included in one of his pwe's. first up are some 2020 panini donruss cards. here's walker buehler

and here's clayton kershaw

in true panini fashion, one of these cards is a variation. and, in true panini fashion, it's a fairly lame variation, but at least they make it easy to spot.  here are the backs of the buehler

and kershaw

cards.  you'll notice that the donruss logos are different. the red one on the kershaw card indicates the variant, in this case it is the location listed under kershaw's name.  yes, this is a 'chavez ravine' variation.  this is the second case this spring where i've received cards from another blogger that featured a buehler base and kershaw variation where i wondered if the sender was aware of the variation. not because of value or anything, but rather out of curiousity. i've not shared the other trade yet, but as for this one - brian, what say you?

this variation is easier to spot

that's a max muncy holo orange parallel.

one more donruss card to share, and it's a cody bellinger diamond king

i remember opening packs of 1982 donruss and being super excited about diamond kings. of course, it helped that steve garvey was the dodger representative in the inaugural version of the subset, but i thought it was a cool way to feature another card for the stars of the day, as opposed to what donruss (and fleer) did in 1981 with random additional star cards.

this has turned in to a long post which makes sense given brian's generosity, but i'll wrap it up with one more card. it's a 2020 topps opening day sticker preview card of cody bellinger

i think the sticker release is the last thing to hit target shelves for a while.

thank you brian for the free stuff fridays (although i see those posts more as trade bait than giveaways) and for the extra cards and for providing some inspiration for me to discover and add more cards to my collection!