good golly mr. molly

this is a story that begins with junk wax but ends with a case hit. actually, i will go ahead and show the case hit in question first. it's a 2002 donruss originals paul molitor what if? 78 card

this is a key card - one of two molitor cards - i need(ed) for my insert set build, and i had forgotten that i was its owner since 2002. how i came to be reminded of that fact is what began with junk wax.

my sister in law has a good friend who i knew had a card collection. she is a yankee fan and i understood that she had some decent yankee cards from the 1960's. a few years ago, i was asked about the collection and how best to sell it. i suggested she contact one of the local card shops that i would take my cards to if i were looking to sell. fast forward a few years and i was contacted again about the collection. this time, i was asked if i wanted it.

it turns out that the collection i was being asked about was the junk wax part - not the vintage yankees part. i am guessing that she sold those but wasn't offered anything for these other cards. my sister in law sent me photos of 1989 donruss and fleer in sheets and i really wasn't too interested. she persisted, however, and i said i would take the cards. 

well, there weren't any bill ripken cards in the 1989 fleer that she had, but i did find a few cards that i needed from the rest of the junk - this 1990 fleer sticker insert

and these 1991 fleer sticker inserts

were all welcome variants that i would not have chased otherwise.

there were a few random cards from 1997 pacific crown collection mixed in, and this eddie perez card

fits within my lurker collection thanks to the appearance of rauuuuuuuul mondesi.

some other sets that were represented were classic junk wax era - 1989 score, 1989 topps, 1990 donruss, etc. there were also two boxes that touted complete sets, one of them being 1996 topps. upon closer inspection, the set was missing one card - glenn dishman of all people - but that was easy enough to remedy

his is card number 410 and there were two 418s so i am guessing that poor eyesight/small card numbers led to the omission of the padre lefty.

the other set was 1999 topps series 1. it was missing one card as well - the mark mcgwire #220. that's the card that has 70 different versions, one for each home run he hit in 1998. i thought that i might have one of these cards with my mothballed player collections, so i headed to the basement to check.

some may recall that i've mentioned having had a large number of player collections at one time. after the 2002 season, i curtailed most of them and put the cards in monster boxes. mcgwire was one of the players, but when i looked through the cards of his i had, the 1999 card was not among them. for fun, i kept digging in the row of the box that big mac was in and pulled some of my molitor cards. there, lo and behold, was the what if? card.

it makes sense to me that i had picked up that card back then, even though i don't recall doing so. molitor was my favorite non-dodger for several years, and one of my favorite players period. i just wish i had picked up his other card from the set back then. who knows how long i would have gone without moving the molitor card to my set build if it hadn't been for junk wax?!

i did pick up a version of the mcgwire card to complete the set. it's home run number 38

hit off of hall of famer billy wagner. i already had the 1999 topps set completed (both series) but couldn't let this one sit one card shy.

in other what if? news, i've made a bit more progress on the 1978 set, adding dave winfield's card

earlier this year. i also picked up a what if? 1984 rated rookie card of eric davis

how fantastic (and highly sought after) would this have been back then? i ultimately decided to purchase the card because pete rose is there in the background, making it another great addition to my lurker collection!

i suppose the lesson here is to not turn your back on junk wax.

what if i were making progress on an insert set build?

in april i mentioned that the personal significance of the 1978 season was compelling me to add the what if '78 insert set from 2002 donruss originals to my collection. i decided to do this despite only having cards from the 1980 insert set (the box i bought back in 2002 contained eddie murray's what if '80 card and i later picked up duke snider's card as well). willie stargell's '78 card was the first one i picked up as part of this effort, and i've since added over two-thirds of the set to my collection.

the first three cards in the set are "rated rookies" which first showed up in real time in 1983. however, that year the "rated rookie" designation was printed on the back. in 1984, it moved to the front and was a huge deal! anyway, thanks to brian and his set up at the recent card show, my collection currently starts with one of the three rated rookie cards!

2. alan trammell

trammell tied for fourth in the 1978 rookie of the year voting. he was behind teammate lou whitaker, paul molitor, and carney lansford and tied with rich gale. lansford and gale were ignored by topps in their 1978 set, but the other three were all featured on four-in-one rookie cards.

4. george brett

the first thing i noticed with these cards is that there are no "all-star" designations like topps had on their cards, including the 1978 topps george brett card.

5. johnny bench

bench also got the all-star shield in 1978

6. rod carew

another 1977 all-star, and he was also the 1977 american league mvp

7. carlton fisk

and another 1977 all-star

8. reggie jackson

and another guy who had the awesome all-star shield on his 1978 topps card. the card backs are pretty standard donruss

with only one year of stats. donruss did pay attention to the theme of the cards and made sure that the career stats were presented through the 1977 season. let's keep going

10. joe morgan

one more 1977 all-star

11. eddie murray

with murray's card we see that donruss did not identify top rookies from the 1977 season, either.

12. jim palmer

palmer was the american league's all-star starter in 1977.

13. tom seaver

seaver had a fantastic year in 1977, but by modern metrics such as war, rick reuschel was slightly better!

14. willie stargell

stargell missed a majority of the 1977 season due to injury. he bounced back and was the co-mvp in the national league in the magical 1979 season.

16. dave parker

parker was the 1978 national league mvp, winning his second straight batting title that season

17. mike schmidt

in 1977 schmidt hit 38 homers for the third consecutive season, but for the first time in those three years he did not lead the league. that was thanks to george foster's monster year.

18. eddie mathews

the mathews card is included due to his election to the hall of fame in 1978. this was a nice touch by donruss, i think.

19. lou brock

brock stole 30 bases for the last time in his career in 1977. one of his 35 steals that year put him ahead of ty cobb atop the all-time leader list.

20. willie mccovey

mccovey had his last big-ish year in 1977 in his return to the giants. he hit 28 homers and hit .280 in 141 games.

22. dennis eckersley

eckersley's inclusion is the only one that i might question on the checklist. he was an all-star in 1977 but was just three years into his career after the 1977 season. he was also with the indians through the 1977 season, joining the red sox via a trade in march of 1978. that was too late to update the topps set, but maybe donruss would have been on a later printing schedule and eckersley would have been included with his new team. sparky lyle was the american league cy young award winner in 1977 if you are wondering.

24. nolan ryan

always fun to see ryan with the eye black. he led the american league in strikeouts in 1977.

25. steve carlton

there's your 1977 national league cy young award winner

27. ozzie smith

this is smith's second card in the set - he's one of the rated rookies up at the top of the checklist. this card gives a glimpse of the "the rookies" release that donruss began doing in the latter part of the 1980's as a response to the topps and fleer traded and update sets.  here's the back of ozzie's card

it focuses on the 1978 season, which was his first year in the big leagues. the rated rookie cards show 1977 stats on the back, so in smith's case that would be minor league stats from his time in walla walla.

i also grabbed smith's what if? '80 card

which fits nicely into my name/number on the back collection.

so, as you can see, i am two-thirds of the way there with the 1978 set, but the remaining cards are either very scarce or command higher prices than i want to pay, or both. so for now, i am left wondering what if this is as far as it goes?

my retired number collection - 33

this is the 33rd 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 33 has been retired:

honus wagner (retired by the pirates in 1952) 2001 topps tribute

wagner played before there were numbers, but he coached for the pirates for 39 years, including serving as their hitting coach from 1933 through 1952 which is firmly within the jersey number timeline. the only footage i've seen of him coaching shows him wearing number 14, but he apparently switched to 33 at some point. in fact, wagner is the only pirate to have ever worn number 33 in any capacity as far as i can tell. i know that when i first saw his 2001 topps tribute card back in 2001, it was the first time i knew of a number being associated with him.

the pirates retired the number for him on february 16, 1952 coinciding with wagner's retirement announcement. in addition to his longtime service as a coach, wagner suited up for the pirates for 18 seasons, winning eight batting titles and amassing 2,967 hits. he is still the franchise's all-time leader in runs scored and plate appearances, as well as their highest ranked player of all-time in terms of war. he is, of course, one of the greatest players in the history of the game and was a member of the first class of the hall of fame elected in 1936.

mike scott (retired by the astros in 1992) 1986 topps

scott pitched for the astros for nine seasons, including his extraordinary 1986 campaign in which he won the cy young award and fell just three wins shy of claiming the pitching triple crown. his no-hitter against the giants in september of that year clinched the national league west title for the astros, who went on to almost beat the mets in the nlcs, with scott still winning the series mvp award even though his team did not advance.

the astros retired his number on october 3, 1992 - the same day they retired jose cruz's number. the ceremony took place about 18 months after scott last pitched in a game and about a year after he formally announced his retirement. he was the last astro to wear 33, which is mostly visible on his 1986 topps card.

eddie murray (retired by the orioles in 1998) 2002 donruss originals what if? '80

i've been looking for a way to keep this 2002 donruss originals what if? '80 insert card in my collection for the past 22 years, and with this mini-collection i've found it! murray spent the bulk of his career with the orioles (split between two stints) totaling 13 years in baltimore. he hit 383 homers as an oriole, including his 500th career jack, and amassed 2,080 hits and a .294 average. because of guys like cal ripken jr and brooks robinson, murray isn't the franchise's all-time leader in any offensive category other than intentional walks, but he does sit atop the list in some newer stat categories such as adjusted batting wins and wpa.

murray had five straight seasons with the orioles in which he placed in the top 5 of mvp voting, but the only voting award he ever won was the 1977 rookie of the year plus some gold gloves and silver sluggers. he did help the orioles to two pennants - 1979 and 1983 - and hit a pair of homers in the 1983 fall classic to help the team to the world series title. murray was the last oriole to wear number 33, which the orioles kept out of circulation in between his runs as a player. they retired the number on june 7, 1998 while murray was in his first season post-retirement. he was voted into the hall of fame in 1993, on his first ballot.

larry walker (retired by the rockies in 2021) 2002 fleer premium

number 33 was retired by the rockies for walker on september 25, 2021. he was elected to the hall of fame in 2020, but the pandemic pushed his induction to 2021, and the rockies held off on the number retirement until after the ceremony in cooperstown. as a rockie, walker won three national league batting titles and was the 1997 mvp. in 1995, his first year with the club, he led them to their first postseason appearance in franchise history, and over his nine-plus seasons in colorado, he totaled over 1300 hits and more than 250 homers.

walker is the franchise's all-time leader in batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage (and therefore ops), and his hall of fame plaque was the first to feature the rockies' interlocking "cr". the team did not recirculate his number until fellow british columbian justin morneau joined the team in 2014. with walker's permission, morneau wore the number and became the last rockie to wear 33 on the field. i think walker's 2002 fleer premium card shows the number pretty well, along with a nice throwing image of the gold glove right fielder.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 33 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, 42

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

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

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 28, 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, 31, 42

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 31, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 27, 42

angels - 11, 26, 30, 42

expos - 8, 10, 30, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 26, 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

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): 135

running total of non-hall of famers: 47

it's still 1978 somewhere

i've been paying some attention to my "1978 master set" lately (as a refresher, i featured the non-1978 flagship cards that i've included in my 1978 master set in this post). as a result, i've tracked down some more cards to add to the effort.

i had previously dismissed the reprints of nolan ryan's 1978 topps card that topps issued back in 1999 because they were reprints. however, i decided to pick up the "finest"

and "finest" refractor

versions because they offer the first glimpse of 1978 topps chrome-ified. 

similarly, i had ignored willie hernandez's 2001 topps archives reserve

and ron guidry's 2002 topps archives reserve

cards for the same reason, but relented because they, too, show chromed and refractored versions of their respective 1978 topps cards.

i then decided to pick up chrome refractor examples of at least one of the 1978 topps design cards from the 2003-2005 topps all-time fan favorites sets. from 2003 i picked up jim rice

and from 2004 it was eric gregg

joining my collection.

i was able to track down a second copy of dusty baker's 2005 topps atff refractor

to complete the three year run. these sets used different photos which was fun to see.  i also picked up a rick monday refractor

for the dodger collection, along with the gold refractor parallel

these are numbered to 25 so i probably won't be able to find one to add to the '78 master set.  also, 1978 topps looks strange with a gold border.

back to reprints, here's a 2014 topps chrome eddie murray all-time rookies insert

and i believe it is the first time that the topps chrome logo has shown up on a 1978 topps card.

in 2021, there were three new 1978 design cards to find thanks to the 70 years of topps insert sets across series 1, 2 and update. i decided to pick up at least one of the chrome versions of the cards and wound up with cal ripken's

this is the second one of these in my overall collection, as this card was also my favorite non-dodger card of the year back then.

with 2022 topps archives using the 1978 design, there were plenty of parallels to chase. i held off for quite some time, but decided to go out and pick up examples of the ones that i didn't already have (where were all but the rainbow foil). so, here's the green border

numbered to 125

the silver border

numbered to 99

the red border

numbered to 75

the blue foil

numbered to 25

the red hot foil

numbered to 50

the orange hot foil

numbered to 15

for some reason, trevor rogers and alex kiriloff were easily available in the parallels when i went looking. rogers is the player whose rainbow foil i pulled from the box i opened as well. i have a spencer torkelson design variation/color swap as well, and so i'm not too concerned about chasing down any of those. maybe someday i will find a 1/1 foil fractor though.

i also decided to add this 1988 topps card to my master '78 set

and then i went out and bought an autographed version of it from 2023 topps archives signature series

i put that card in my "meaningful and just because" collection. here's the back:

it gives a nice little recap of the 1978 regular season, which was the first one i followed wire to wire.

collecting baseball cards that year was a lot of fun, even though there was only topps. i amassed a bunch of doubles on my way to completing a set, and i suppose if other options had existed i would have bought those cards, too. so, i may eventually try to chase down the rest of the 2002 donruss originals what if? 1978 inserts - i already have pops

and i know that chasing these down will help me keep the feeling of being a new baseball fan alive.