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

playing catch up

i've fallen behind in my trade posting, and still won't be caught up after this post. between giveaways, contests, and straight up trades, there hasn't been much of a slowdown in incoming cards during the pandemic.  here are some cards to prove it.

cards from diamond jesters

these 2019 topps holiday cards were a return for one of my "almost free stuff friday" trade bait posts, and are an appropriate trio of cards to kick off this early december post.

cards from gtt

these three cards are also part of a "almost free stuff friday" trade. the 2007 fleer ultra saito at the top reminded me that it is tough to tell the difference between hobby and retail versions of these cards. the hobby versions have rainbow foil, i believe.   a new-to-me ryne sandberg lurker card and the tatooine bobby bonilla parallel card fit right in with a couple of my mini-collections.

cards from it's like having my own card shop

daniel and i exchanged a few pwe's over the summer, and these were some of the highlights. the 2003 upper deck 40 man dave roberts card is a rainbow parallel, which is great. the rest are inserts or parallels that were new to me. i suppose i should have shown these cards in october, given the pinkness of the 2016 topps chrome trayce thompson card.  speaking of pink...

card from card hemmorrhage

i claimed this 2019 panini donruss max scherzer franchise features pink firework parallel from one of jay's giveaways.

card from cards that never were

i won this custom card from john in a giveaway. you can buy packs of customs through his blog - they look great!

card from the diamond king

i won this 1979 topps comic nolan ryan card for correctly guessing that kevin had a dupe of it.

cards from nachos grande

i claimed the 103rd trade stack. you can see all of the cards that i obtained by doing so here, but i was really in it for the 2020 topps allen & ginter gavin lux card. the 1996 leaf limited hideo nomo was the other dodger in the stack, and i thought that the 2000 pacific private stock tim hudson mini was neat enough to scan and show here.

cards from fuji

these cards are from the oldest trade that i had yet to post about - sorry about that mark! lots of great cards including the 2001 upper deck decade the 1970's willie davis relic. one of the nice things that resulted from waiting on posting these particular cards is that i can now say that all 8 of the players shown are world series champions. of course, a couple of them (rafael furcal and manny ramirez) won their rings with teams other than the dodgers, but they are champions nonetheless.

thanks to all that trade or offer cards on their blogs - it is appreciated! and, i still have a few trades to post about and will try to get caught up in the new year.  in the meantime, check out my wantlists and let's trade!

dodger stadium bonus play

it's been over four months since the world series ended, and i'm finally hitting publish a post inspired by the host stadium for games 1, 2, 6, and 7.  i was excited coming into the season as dodger stadium hosted the semi-finals and finals of the world baseball classic which resulted in some cards featuring the third oldest major league stadium in the background.  with the postseason also coming to dodger stadium, i was hoping for more 'bonus' dodger stadium cards.

there were two topps now cards in particular that i will showcase (although i did pick up pretty much all of the dodger-themed postseason topps now cards), the first of which comes from the game 1 opening ceremonies:

with a photo from the dodger dugout on the back

it's not every day that you can see the san gabriel mountains from the stadium, so thank goodness for clear (although hot) october days.

the next card is not a dodger card, although rich hill's name makes an appearance on the dodger stadium wraparound display thingamajigs.  no, this is an astros/marlins card

prior to game 2 of the world series, jose altuve and giancarlo stanton were recognized as the 2017 hank aaron award winners on the field at dodger stadium, and there was enough there behind them for me to pick up the card (on the cheap a couple of weeks after it was issued).

the 2017 postseason is not the first time that dodger stadium has been featured on cards, as there are a couple of cards in the 1964, 1967, and 1975 topps sets.  there are others, too.  here is a 2001 upper deck decade '70's card of reggie jackson

it shows mr. october during the 1977 world series.  it could be 1978, or even 1981 for all i know, but it is from a world series game.  that is because reggie only played road games in the world series as a yankee against the dodgers.

here's another world series road team - the baltimore orioles - represented by jim palmer on a 2015 leaf heroes of baseball card

palmer outpitched sandy koufax at dodger stadium in game 2 of the 1966 world series, throwing a shutout to extend the orioles' lead in the series to two games to none.

with 2018 product on the shelves, i've pulled a few more cards to add to this collection, including a nice cameron maybin card from heritage

along with a less pleasant card from the same set

hopefully just over 7 months from now, there will be some more postseason cards featuring dodger stadium in the background, only this time with the home team celebrating.