report to general washington

today is the 73rd anniversary of "the shot heard around the world". back on this day in 1951, bobby thomson hit a game ending home run to deliver the national league pennant to the new york giants at the expense of ralph branca and the brooklyn dodgers.

i have a couple of cards in my lurkers collection that capture the event - this first one is from 1991 bowman

and this second one was produced ten years later and included in 2001 topps

i sent one of those cards to thomson to sign many years ago. now, i have it in my collection due to the number of brooklyn dodgers showing up on these cards. you've got branca on the mound and rube walker behind the plate. at third base is billy cox, and pee wee reese is the shortstop.

i don't recall exactly when i first learned about this tragic event in the history of the dodger franchise, but i am sure i was confused because of the schoolhouse rock song that initially addressed the "shot heard around the world" in my memory. i don't remember all of the lyrics, but i do remember that "it was the start of the revolution" and that the minutemen were supposed to "take your powder, take your gun" and "report to general washington". that is a better earworm than "the giants win the pennant!" 

advantage, my collection

those home field advantage cards that topps has included in recent flagship and update releases are case hits, and don't show up at card shows from what i've seen. i decided to track a couple down, including one of my adopted home from 2023 topps update, even though it's carlos correa on the card

for the record, my least favorite astros, in order, are yuli gurriel, jose altuve, george springer, and then correa. jr richard used to be on the list but only because he was so great, especially against the dodgers. that was respect, not scorn. anyway, the card arrived and it's not really reflective of the twin cities at all.

the downton scene in the upper left is minneapolis (that's city hall with the green copper roof on the tower), but saint paul is nowhere to be seen. the building in the upper right is also in minneapolis (it's the minneapolis institute of art, or mia - pronounced like nomar's wife's name). it would have been pretty easy for topps to tick the saint paul box with a shot of the state capitol, but i guess they had other ideas. 

the other two images reference northern minnesota with a wolf (the international wolf center is in ely, minnesota) and the split rock lighthouse which is on the north shore between duluth and grand marais. fine towns, both.

i went and picked up freddie freeman's card from 2023 topps series 1

there's a very "hollywood" theme to this one, with the academy museum and a film reel shown. also featured are the griffith park observatory, rodeo drive street signage, and a couple of ubiquitous palm trees.

the dodgers' home field advantage cards (two of them, anyway) from 2024 topps are a little more straight forward

the first one gives us two images of clayton kershaw, palm trees, dodger stadium, and the hollywood sign. the second features two images of yoshinobu yamamoto, more palm trees, a different view of dodger stadium, the santa monica pier, and the iconic theme building at lax. i suppose it's easier to focus when there are four other teams in the state, although topps used palm trees on cards for other teams, including the padres. there is another home field advantage card featuring a dodger in 2024, but it's sandy koufax and seems to be even scarcer than the two i've managed to obtain.

these cards were first seen in 2022, and i also recently added mookie betts' card from the series 1 topps release that year

there is a lot going on there for sure! beach scene at sunset! downtown la skyline snippet! palm tree! lifeguard station! movie camera! beverly hills sign! and, what i assume is supposed to be or at least represent a california grizzly bear to boot. the california grizzly has been extinct for 100 years now.

it will be interesting to see if the home field advantage inserts continue, and if so, what other southern california landmarks might be seen on cardboard.

these cards are not to be confused with the unnecessary topps flagship parallels from the early 2000's that were "home team advantage" cards. i have some of those, with my most recent pickups being shawn green's 2000 card

chin-feng chen's 2001 card

and the dodger team card from 2002

i wonder how long topps will go with the home field advantage inserts. there are plenty of iconic landmarks to go around for most teams, and i would really like to see what the a's card looks like next year.

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

say hey

for some reason, a couple of months ago, i suddenly decided to pick up another certified willie mays autograph. i have one in my hall of famer collection, but wound up adding this one

that's a 2001 topps team topps legends autograph card that uses his classic 1952 topps card to great effect. here's the back:

fast forward a couple of days ago when i read the announcement that mays would not travel to his home state of alabama for the game at rickwood field, home of the birmingham black barons that he once took the field for. i figured things must be serious for mays if he was missing that trip. the next day, we learned that he had passed away.

is he the greatest all-around ballplayer of all-time? he just may be.

over the last year, i added a couple of his cards to my name/number on the back collection, including this 1993 upper deck baseball heroes insert

and this 2004 topps heritage flashback insert

i will always associate mays with my dad, who is, almost to the day, five years younger than the say hey kid. he was and is a dodger fan, and would talk about seeing koufax and drysdale at dodger stadium in the early to mid-1960's, but he also told us that he would often make sure the dodgers were playing the giants when he headed to chavez ravine so that he could see willie mays. and, he would, on occasion, drive north to candlestick to see mays play there, too. 

at some point in my early fandom, i became enamored of "the catch" and to this day i will add any card showing that play to my collection. i once compared a catch i made at little league practice to mays' catch, and me and my friends all messed around with his basket catch, too. i am thankful, by the way, for derrel thomas, who helped bring it to our attention in the early 1980's.

i never saw mays play in person, and if i had i wouldn't remember it anyway - i was only two when he played in his final game. however, i have read enough and seen enough during my lifetime to know that he was a blessing to the sport. 

hey.

my retired number collection - 26

this is the 26th 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 four people for whom number 26 has been retired, although only three are in my collection:

billy williams (retired by the cubs in 1987) 1972 topps

using williams' 1972 topps in action card is appropriate because not only does it show his number clearly, it also comes from the year that he led the national league with a .333 batting average. williams began wearing number 26 for the cubs in 1961, the same year that he was named the national league's rookie of the year. he never won the mvp award, but did finish as the runner up in both 1970 and 1972.

with the cubs, williams hit 392 home runs and was a six-time all-star. also during his tenure with the cubs, he set the national league record for consecutive games played (1,117) which stood until steve garvey passed him in 1983. he is among the greatest hitters the cubs have ever had, and sits near the top of the team's all-time leader boards in many offensive categories. he was elected to the hall of fame in 1987 in what was his sixth year on the ballot, and the cubs retired his number on august 13, 1987, shortly after he was formally inducted in cooperstown.

johnny oates (retired by the rangers in 2005) 2001 topps

oates, who played for tommy lasorda's dodgers (among other managers and teams) managed the orioles for four seasons in the early 1990's, took over the rangers coming out of the players' strike in 1995. he managed the club for six full seasons before giving up the reins early in 2001 after a slow start to the season. he led the rangers to three american league west titles during his tenure which gave them their first postseason berths in franchise history. oates shared the manager of the year award in 1996 with joe torre, whose yankees beat the rangers in the alds that year.

when oates stepped down, he was the second winningest manager in club history behind bobby valentine, but both have since been passed by ron washington. sadly, a few months after ending his managerial career, oates was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in 2004. the rangers retired his number on august 5, 2005 with oates being the last ranger to wear the number on the field. his 2001 topps card doesn't show the number, but my choices are limited for a card to represent oates in this collection.

wade boggs (retired by the red sox in 2016) 1992 upper deck

the red sox retired boggs' number on may 26, 2016, almost 11 years after he was inducted into the hall of fame. boggs began his career with the red sox in 1982, hitting .349 in 103 games.  he was even better in 1983, winning the american league batting title with a .361 average. it was the first of five batting titles he would win with boston to go along with six silver slugger awards and eight all-star berths.

i saw a note about ichiro a few weeks ago. it stated that his career average never dipped below .300 after his 10th big league at bat, and it made me curious about boggs, who hit for such a high average as a rookie and finished his career with a .328 average, just a hair better than rod carew. it turns out that boggs hit the .300 mark to stay with a single in his 45th at bat. i can't really argue with his 1992 upper deck card above that identifies him as the "best hitter", although tony gwynn has a case.

i mentioned up top that there are four people for whom number 26 is retired, and the fourth is gene autry. the angels retired number 26 for their owner (their "26th player") on august 3, 1982. there is an angels police card featuring autry that mentions the number retirement on the back, but i am limiting this collection to field personnel only, so the singing cowboy is out.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 25 posts so far):

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

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

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

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

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

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

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 42

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

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

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

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

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

brewers - 1, 4, 19, 42

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

cubs - 10, 14, 23, 26, 42

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 42

angels - 11, 26, 42

expos - 8, 10, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 42

major league baseball - 42

rays - 12, 42, 66

diamondbacks - 20, 42

blue jays - 42

rockies - 17, 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

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): 115

running total of non-hall of famers: 44

going for gold

the 2024 olympics are a few months away, so this post is about cards and not medals. i've picked up a few new topps flagship gold parallel cards recently and figured i would run through a full slate of these parallels now that 2024 series 1 is out.

the first gold cards showed up in 1992

i remember these being a pretty big deal, with one of my local shops offering a bounty for the barry bonds parallel. there was also a redemption offer in which you would receive these same parallels with "winner" stamped in gold above the team names. 

maybe one of the first "paraallel parallel" sets.

1993 saw a similar gold treatment

but with the addition of the "topps gold" logo

in 1994

there was only the name to make gold.

after that, topps took a break from the gold parallels. when they returned in 2001

there was full border foil, along with the names, and the cards were serial numbered (not shown) to the year of production.

the 2002 gold cards

aren't as obvious as scans because of the gold border that topps used for the base design. this was the first year that they added the "xx years of collecting", building from the "topps 50" logo on the 2001 cards. i've posted in the past about anniversaries vs. years of collecting so i won't bother to get into it again here.

in 2003

the names and borders were made gold, but topps left the remainder of the design blue.

2004

2005

and 2006

each had white border base designs that were changed to gold.

in 2007

the base design was black. there were no black parallels that year - instead topps used copper for the numbered "years of collecting" parallels

the next several years - 2008

2009

2010

2011

and 2012

had their white borders and names turned gold, but the "years of collecting" text fell off the cards in 2012

in 2013 

and 2014

topps applied the gold to the full design

after 2014, topps got more graphically creative with their flagship design. the golds were a pretty standard conversion in 2015

but in 2016 

the gold leaked into the photo as there was no border to color. same in 2017

and in 2018 it was all over the photo

partial gold borders were achieved in 2019

and 2020

and then back in full force in 2021

more of the same in 2022

but for some reason the gold cards in 2023

didn't get gold all the way around.

this year, 2024,

we are back to full bordered gold.

for my money the 2001 and 2007 gold parallels are my favorite, although i don't have  a lot of them. in fact, i've only completed the 1992 (and the 1992 "winners") dodger gold parallel team sets, although the last 1994 card i need is on its way to me. night owl just recently shared his complete 2008 dodger gold parallel team set, and i think i need to start making more progress in this regard - i mean just look how chunky the gold borders are on the 2007 topps dodger team card

my gold rush is on!

grab some bench

there is one recent card pick up i've made for my half-arsed effort at completing the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams autograph parallel set that i did not show in wednesday's post.

johnny bench certified auto! it's the second one in my collection, and the first from this set. i was a steve yeager fan but sure did appreciate the talent of bench.

i added another bench for my dodger stadium mini-collection around the same time:

that card is from 1975 tcma national league most valuable player set. i had no idea this set existed (primarily because they didn't include steve garvey) and only learned about it because this card

showed up in my mailbox. that is maury wills' card from the set, and it forced me to go to comc to find out what it was. it was there that i saw the bench with the dodger stadium pavilion roof in the background. what a great find!

the wills card was sent my way by nick of dime boxes in one of our latest card swaps. i know there will always be some great variety in a package from nick and this proved no exception. here are just a few of the cards nick sent that prove that point

2001 topps jackie robinson through the years

even though i own 1952 topps #312, i enjoy having standard sized versions, too.

1997 bowman's best mike piazza best cuts

at first glance, i figured this card was from 1996 topps laser, but i guess topps held on to the "laser" for some '97 releases, too.

2008 upper deck ultimate collection matt kemp

numbered base cards are not too common 'round these parts.

2006 upper deck first pitch jeff kent

this card could pass for a panini insert except for the dodger logo in the background.

2023 topps big league ryan pepiot

and miguel vargas

big things were expected from these two in 2023, but one was injured for the majority of the season and the other never found his groove. maybe 2024 will be their year.

i can always count on nick to send me some new double play cards for my collection, and this time he sent a 1994 bowman mariano duncan

jay bell

and greg gagne

trio. not sure how i missed these!

same goes for this 1995 select jose lind

that gives prime real estate to mr. marlin jeff conine.

i already had a 2016 topps jj hardy card in my dp collection, but now i have his rainbow foil parallel

too.

one more new dp, and it's a good one:

that's a 1998 donruss damion easley card, featuring the kid.

this 2019 topps stadium club whit merrifield card

also features a dynamic player sliding in - mookie betts. i already had this card in the dp and tattooine collection, so this one is for the lurker collection. 

nick is also a fellow collector of vladimir guerrero cards, and he improved my collection by sending this 2021 topps update 70 years of topps card

and this 2005 topps bazooka comic

that also features mike scioscia if you want to be technical about it.

always great stuff coming from the land of lincoln. thanks nick!