christmas in august

like many of you, i was both surprised and excited to see an email from david at tribecards a few weeks ago. he let me know that my cards from his christmas 2020 giveaway were shipping! about a week later, i had a 660 count box in my mailbox!

now, i had forgotten about this giveaway, and so i went back to see what it was all about. after all, this was not the first time that david hosted a huge card giveaway. for this one, he had asked us to choose our top 3 teams and top 3 players. i didn't see any cards featuring the players that i most likely identified, but i recognized the three teams for sure.

the dodgers were team number one for me, of course, and while there weren't a lot of boys in blue, the best thing in the box related to them was this 1997 donruss vxp 1.0 mike piazza thing

that's the front of a booklet that contained this

which is a rectangular cd-rom. i did not know that donruss was in the cd-rom game, but they were. here are the instructions

i did not try the item out before putting it in my 1997 dodgers binder, so i don't know if it is windows 10 compatible or not. what a great oddball for my collection!

the other two teams i identified are represented by the oldest and newest cards in the box

a 1977 topps dan ford twins card and a 2024 topps heritage george springer blue jays card. the oldest blue jays card was this 1978 topps jesse jefferson

and holy smokes i love getting 1978 topps cards in the mail!

there were a couple of outliers in my box, including a 1980 topps rusty staub card

i certainly didn't mind seeing le grand orange, and this card and the other 1980 topps cards gave me some serious flashbacks to neighborhood pack ripping.

here are some of the other cards that caught my eye. 

from the dodger stack, this 1988 score mini great moments in baseball insert was new to me

it's all about the end of don drysdale's scoreless innings streak

i always knew drysdale's streak as 58 and two-thirds innings, but at some point, elias changed it to just 58 innings which is the number on the back of the card. i recall drysdale not being in favor of losing two outs from the streak (although that last out was a sac fly). it was all made moot when orel hershiser went 59 innings without allowing a run at the end of the 1988 season.

here's a 1982 topps derrel thomas card

that made me do a double take. it's not blackless as it has the border around the photo and the facsimile signature, but the color is definitely not all there.

another printer anomaly was this 1991 topps mike scioscia

which had some printing plates off register - but not as badly as some that jon shared recently!

another 1991 card david included was this jose gonzalez card

which really features a photo of billy bean. bean passed away recently, and will be remembered as a bit of a trailblazer in the sport.

not a dodger card, but here's the guy who was drafted immediately after alex rodriguez

little d had flashes of dominance, but it just didn't work out in the end.

most of the cards i received (like last time) were twins cards. i've no issue with that, as these cards included some gems like this 1995 topps embossed golden idols kirby puckett card

i had probably not thought of or looked at darrell jackson's 1981 fleer card

for over 40 years, but there it was in the box i received and i immediately thought back to me and my friends wondering why an american league pitcher was holding a bat.

the cards also reminded me that shane mack must have had a clause that his cards needed to show him sliding into third base

i don't think i had ever seen randy bush's 1989 fleer card before (i stopped set collecting fleer after 1987)

but his teammates were nicer to him than bill ripken's teammates were to ol' duckface. for what it's worth, i don't think that bush is holding his bat in the photo.

there were some recent twins cards, including these 2024 bowman inserts (paper and chrome)

of brooks lee. lee is from near where i grew up so he has potential to become my favorite non-dodger.

one more twins card - a 2021 topps allen & ginter ryan jeffers auto card

it's more like an initialed card, but it's still pretty sweet.

as for the blue jays, here's a roger clemens base card

from that donruss vxp 1.0 release.

i have a weird affinity for buybacks, and i received these two from 2017

the 1999 topps jose cruz jr is a silver foil version, while the 1988 topps jose nunez is bronze. i remember being shocked when the mariners traded cruz to the blue jays during his rookie campaign as he was a highly touted prospect.

speaking of prospects, here's a 2023 bowman sterling prospect autograph of manuel beltre

i think this one actually is just initialed, but with a star added for effect. beltre is currently 20 years old and with the blue jays single-a affiliate in dunedin.

my favorite blue jays card in the box was this black & white parallel

of vladimir guerrero jr's 2019 topps archives snapshots card.

by choosing the dodgers, twin, and blue jays, i was able to handle a lot of cards that i hadn't taken the time to look at for a long time. i was also able to do a comparison of ken landreaux cards from near-opposite ends of the 1980's

fun fact - for a brief time in 1987, the dodgers had half of the players that the angels sent to the twins for rod carew in landreaux and brad havens. i will always remember landreaux for the 1981 season and the fact that he caught the last out of the 1981 world series.

thank you david for your giveaway! your generosity is appreciated!

my retired number collection - 35

this is the 35th 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 three people for whom number 35 has been retired:

phil niekro (retired by the braves in 1984) 1978 topps

it took five ballots for niekro to be elected to the hall of fame which blew my mind as the guy had over 300 wins and 3000 strikeouts which to me were automatics for induction. at any rate, he made it in 1997 which was 13 years after the braves had retired his number.

niekro pitched for the braves from 1964 through 1983, but when he refused to retire, he was released by the club in october of '83. he signed with the yankees and the braves decided to honor him by retiring his number on august 6, 1984. he was the last brave to wear the number, doing so when he returned to the club for his final big league appearance in 1987. 

during his primary stint with the braves, niekro led the league in era in 1967 and in wins in 1974 and 1979. of course, he also led the league in losses four straight seasons from 1977 through 1980. still, his knuckleball is legendary, and he remains the franchise's all-time leader in games pitched (as well as losses, walks, and wild pitches) and if it weren't for about 100 john smoltz strikeouts, he would be the top in that category, too. i think this is the only jacket number in this collection, but it's niekro's 1978 topps card and so it makes the grade! 

randy jones (retired by the padres in 1997) 2004 topps all-time fan favorites

it's fitting that i am using a fan favorites card to represent jones in this collection, because his presence here is, i think, partly due to his status as a padre fan favorite. he was the first padre to win the cy young award, doing so in 1976 (after finishing second in the voting in 1975), and he was the first padre pitcher to lead the league in era and/or wins. he twice won 20 or more games for the padres (the only pitcher in franchise history to do so), and no other pitcher in team history has made more starts or pitched more innings.

after retirement, jones became a fixture at the ballpark with a bbq stand and worked as part of the padres' gameday announcing crew. because of his place in franchise history and his continuing ties to the team, the padres retired his number on may 9, 1997 (making al osuna the last padre to wear the number) and made him one of the first inductees into their hall of fame two years later. 

frank thomas (retired by the white sox in 2010) 1991 topps

thomas was the last person to wear number 35 for the white sox as the team kept it out of circulation from 2006 until they retired it on august 29, 2010, just a few months after he formally announced his retirement as a player. his 1991 topps card shows his number nicely with the pinstripe uniforms that i most closely associate with "his" era of southside baseball.

thomas spent the first 16 years of his career with the white sox, racking up 448 home runs and posting an ops of 0.995. he won back-to-back mvp awards in 1993 and 1994, and had a total of five top-five finishes in the mvp voting during his time in chicago. it was unfortunate that he missed the team's 2005 postseason run due to injury because he was such a force up until that point. he remains the franchise's all-time leader in homers, rbi, obp, slugging, ops, runs scored, walks, and extra base hits. he was a no doubt hall of famer, and got the call to cooperstown on his first ballot in 2014.

it's worth noting that the phillies are honoring cole hamels, who wore number 35 for them, tonight with a retirement ceremony. the ceremony is for hamels who only recently formally announced his retirement, and not for his number. david dahl, who had been wearing 35, is going to switch to a different number, so i guess for the time being the phillies are keeping the number out of circulation.

as for future 35 retirements, i think justin verlander is a lock - likely by the astros and tigers. in fact, the tigers haven't given anyone else number 35 since he left in 2017. i also thought that the orioles might retire it for mike mussina after he made the hall of fame, but they didn't. adley rutschman is currently wearing the number, so maybe in 15 years or so it will be up for discussion.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 35 posts so far):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

braves - 3, 6, 10, 21, 25, 31, 35, 42

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

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 31, 42

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

dodgers - 1, 2, 4, 14, 19, 20, 24, 32, 34, 42

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 28, 34, 42

white sox - 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, 35, 42, 72

brewers - 1, 4, 19, 34, 42

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

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

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 35, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 34, 42

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 9 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

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

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): 142

running total of non-hall of famers: 50

a retired favorite

paul molitor reaches retirement age tomorrow. at least, what standard retirement age used to be: 65. i believe molitor has stated that he is, in fact, retired from managing, but with tony larussa returning to the dugout at the age of 76, who knows for sure whether or not molitor could be lured back to a uniformed position.

i followed molitor's career pretty closely from start to finish. he was a rookie in the 1978 topps set - the first set i ever saw and collected - and had enough early success that i quickly paid attention. he finished his career playing for his hometown team, and the timing of his return to minnesota pretty much coincided with my move to the land of 10,000 lakes.

once steve garvey's career ended, i anointed molitor as my favorite non-dodger. he remained so until the strike in 1994, after which i started paying attention to shawn green. here are the cards of molly that i have in my "favorite non-dodger of the year" mini-collection:

1988 score

1989 fleer

1990 donruss baseball's best

1991 topps

1992 upper deck

1993 fleer flair

1994 topps black gold

i tried for some variety amongst manufacturers to get some different designs in the collection, but there is only so much that can be done from this peak of the junk wax era. it's a little bit daunting to see people i followed as a youngster hit milestone ages, but time waits for no man. happy 65th molly!

350 is a magic number - we're number 1s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350. 

i am posting cards from the same year of each decade, and so far i've shown the 8s, 7s, 6s, 3s, and 2s. this post will be all about the 1s.

1961 topps #350

ernie banks failed to win his third mvp in a row in 1960, but he did lead the national league in home runs. i haven't shown the 9s yet, but this is banks' second turn at number 350 in three years. 

1971 topps #350 

billy williams makes it back-to-back cubs a decade apart. williams was second in the nl mvp voting in 1970, and led the league in runs and hits. as the card back notes, his consecutive game streak ended at 1,117 games and would stand as the league record until steve garvey passed him in 1983.

1981 topps #350

jr richard was as dominant of a starter as you will see. it seemed like he always shut the dodgers down, and the abrupt end to his 1980 season and career was startling and tragic. i believe the astros would have made an appearance in the fall classic in 1980 had richard still been pitching.

1991 topps #350

glenn davis brings us back-to-back 'stros! he was one of those semi-stars in the late 1980's that commanded some attention but not enough to get too excited about. he was a big part of the 1986 astros' success and wound up finishing in second place in the mvp voting that year. unfortunately, he was in decline by the time this card was issued, and had actually joined the orioles for the 1991 season.

2001 topps #350

bruce bochy drew the lucky straw in 2001 when topps decided to start the manager cards at #322 and run them altogether. i stop short of calling this a subset, however. bochy took over the reins for the padres following the 1994 strike, and led them to the pennant in 1998. he later won three world series titles with the giants, so he will probably be inducted in to the hall of fame at some point.

2011 topps #350

francisco liriano stormed out of the gate in 2006 as the card back says, and finally returned to a similar form in 2010. again, the card back tells the tale of him winning the comeback player of the year in 2010 which is sort of strange given that he pitched in a similar number of games in 2009, and the award usually goes to guys who missed much of the previous season. anyway, liriano was probably more deserving of 350 in 2007 (he got number 449).

2021 topps #350

d.j. lemahieu won his second batting title in 2020, making him the second player ever to lead each league in that category, just like the card back states. he was a decent choice for 350 this year, especially given how topps has once again been using card number 1 for standout stars the last few years.

i am tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now through two posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 1 (kris bryant)

number of reigning mvps: 2 (frank robinson, robin yount)

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 2 (keith hernandez, joe carter)

number of reigning pennant winners: 7 (frank robinson, steve garvey, robin yount, jack clark, keith hernandez, joe carter, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 10 (ernie banks - home runs; mel stottlemyre - complete games; billy williams - runs, hits; robin yount - hits, doubles; keith hernandez - walks; kenny lofton - sb; chase utley - runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era; dj lemahieu - batting average)

subset types: 2 (all-time all-stars, postseason highlights (2))

number of repeat players: 0

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (4), astros (4), cubs (3), mets (3), twins (3), dodgers (2), braves (2), a's (2), reds (2), brewers (2), yankees (2), white sox, giants, indians, phillies, red sox, blue jays, angels, rangers, orioles, rays, padres

i will have another post with another run of cards soon - stay tuned!

orel, historian

yesterday morning i saw an article on mlb.com that referenced orel hershiser's 1994 topps stadium club card. 

my first thought was that, for some reason, this card was the latest to be commanding ridiculous prices on the market.  however, when i read the article, the author noted that the card could be had for $0.99 on ebay. whew.

later in the day i was thinking that i wanted to post some hershiser cards that represent his run as my favorite dodger from "my favorite dodger through the years" mini-collection. i thought that the article and the story that he shared explaining the reason behind the appearance of sod in a shopping cart on a baseball card would make a nice lead-in for those cards.

i started typing the post in the early afternoon, and was surprised to find that in the 12+ years i've been blogging, i've apparently never scanned that card. so, i went to ebay to steal an image. of course, i then found out that there was a run on the card, and one copy had sold earlier in the day for $19.99.  i went downstairs and pulled a dupe from my sportlots inventory to scan. in the time that it took me to do that, the sportlots inventory for the card had gone from over 30 to just 21. 

anyway, once steve sax left the dodgers after the 1988 world series, orel became my new favorite dodger, and remained so until early in the 1994 season when he was supplanted by raul mondesi.  here are the cards that represent his tenure in my collection.

1989: upper deck (world series)

1990: donruss baseball's best

1991: topps

1992: leaf black gold

1993: donruss diamond kings

i suppose that had my fandom extended through the 1994 season, i might have added that stadium club card to this collection. it's too late now anyway, i sold my dupe for $6 plus shipping yesterday afternoon. these are crazy times.