show me two times, baby. show me twice today.

as you might have figured from the title of the post, i like the doors. you might have also deduced that there were two card shows in the twin cities today. well, not today today, but today as in when i started writing this post (november 15).

neither show was the monthly club show, instead there was the biannual church show (put on by one of the owners of one of the local card shops) and then a "monthly" show that doesn't always happen every month. it is put on by the same folks who do the big show at the rivercentre space in downtown st. paul twice a year. i didn't plan on going to both, but when i left the first one, i figured i might as well head the few miles north to see what's what.

before i get to that, i'll share some of what i found at the church show. i purchased cards from four sellers and also received some cards from brian of highly subjective, completely arbitrary fame. the first seller has discounted boxes that have yielded some decent finds in the past, so i dug through for a bit. i started with the "half-off sticker" box that was autos, relics, and manufactured things.

i found some mookie betts cards i needed - a couple of things from 2022 topps

and one from 2023 topps

plus a 2021 panini mosaic encased gavin lux mosaic autograph

i was happy to pay the seven bucks for those.

i also added a 2022 topps stadium club chrome green refractor auto of zack short

for a buck because i liked the look of the card and his signature. it's numbered to 99, too. the other two items i took from this box were both priced at four bucks, so they were two bucks each. they were a small stack of cards in team bags - it turned out that there were 10 cards per bag. i'll do a separate post to highlight them and see if you think it was worth the gamble.

this seller also had some fifty cent boxes (or three for a dollar) as well as a quarter box (or seven for a dollar). i wound up with nine fifty cent cards, including a 2020 bowman's best cody bellinger insert

that i turned out not to need, and this 2022 topps stadium club chrome lars nootbaar card

that i will add to my retired numbers tangential collection because it shows murals for august busch and ted simmons (no photo for simmons that year). at some point i'll probably seek out the refractor of this card because shiny. and kudos to the cardinals for maintaining their murals!

to finish up, i found 21 quarter cards to take home, including a red holo parallel of keibert ruiz's 2021 panini donruss card

and a red foil parallel of eric davis' 2023 topps stadium club card

i'm still looking for an eric davis dodger auto though.

after that, i stopped at one of the bargain vintage sellers and looked through his dollar and fifty cent boxes. it was good to dig through vintage again, after not doing so for quite a while. i recently decided to revisit an old vintage project, so i wound up pulling quite a few cards. one of them was this 1962 topps elio chacon card

it is unrelated to the project i am working on - i just grabbed it for the lurker collection since i am pretty certain that is frank robinson in the background. one thing i was looking for was a 1960 topps coaches card, and i wound up buying six of them, including these three

i don't need all three for my project so let me know if you are in need of one.

i also bought a couple of vintage cards from the show organizer out of his vintage bargain tub. these two cards

do figure into my project, but i will explain later.

in between those sellers is when i saw brian and talked with him for a bit. he's still working on his venezuelan set, but has some big cards in his way. he said that he also opened a bunch of 2025-26 topps basketball and had plenty to trade, so if you are interested in those sorts of cards, look him up. we swapped cards, of course, and here is some of what he handed over to me

2025 topps max muncy diamante parallel

2022 topps finest flashbacks chris taylor gold refractor parallel

numbered to 50

2025 topps now luis arraez

apparently, arraez got his 1,000th hit on the field behind the mos eisley cantina.

the other seller i bought cards from spanned two separate purchases. they were set up on a corner, and my first pass ended before i turned and saw their second table. in my walk through at the start of the show, i noticed that they had a couple of baseball monster boxes priced at 4/$1. there was a big guy already camped out in front of the boxes so i figured i would circle back later. when i did, the guy was still there. i asked if i could start looking and you would think i had asked him to give up his seat altogether and while he was at it give me his lunch money. i assured him i was not looking to cut in front of him but that i would look through what he had already put back. he didn't make any room for me, so i quit after finding 12 cards in the first row and a half of the box he was done with.

there was quite a variety of things, as evidenced by these cards

1996 pinnacle eric karros starburst parallel

2025 topps heritage andy pages chrome parallel

2022 topps allen & ginter chrome vladimir guerrero

and a trio of 2024 panini select orange flash prizms - johnny pesky, dick williams, and jim bunning

so, when i turned the corner and saw a small box of "$1, $2, $5 autos/relics" i decided to take a peek. it's no surprise that deals like this are populated with andre jackson relics - these two 

are from 2022 panini chronicles and capstone, respectively. jackson has been pitching in japan the last couple of years with some success, and i'm happy for him.

finally, i found a 2025 panini donruss bob feller relic

in that box that is numbered to 99, and i couldn't pass up the old-timey wool swatch! i wound up with six relic cards for ten bucks and decided that was the end of the church show for me. it was still fairly early, so i headed up highway 100 to the other show.

the parking lot was pretty full, and i had immediate regret as soon as i walked in. i would say the venue was as crowded as the national - fewer people, of course, but in a smaller space. i did one and a half laps around the room and saw that is was at least 75% pokemon and those that had sportscards didn't have much in the way of bulk or bargain boxes - not that i could have bellied up to a table if they had. there were even some people there with strollers and one guy had a collapsible wagon. there was no room to maneuver any of that.

i left quickly and empty handed, so i'll show an andre jackson card that has been in my scanned folder since i pulled it from a bargain box at a show sometime in the past year. it's from 2022 topps gallery

it's a "private issue" parallel but it's nothing to be embarrassed about.

i was glad to get to a regular show again (the last show i went to was a disappointing mall show that i'll review in a future post) and i'm glad i stopped at the second show just so i know i don't have to have any fomo about missing those in the future. and, i'm happy as always to have seen brian, talked about cards, and added some to my collection.

the almost daily dodger - jim gilliam

today i want to share jim gilliam's 1962 topps card

that has been languishing in my scanned folder for a few months. i think i scanned this card back when i was starting my retired number collection. that was before i found the card that i ultimately used to represent gilliam's number 19 that the dodgers retired following his death during the1978 postseason.

gilliam has had a big impact on my fandom, primarily through his work as a coach guiding steve garvey, ron cey, bill russell, and davey lopes in the finer points of infield defense. his "clinics" were nicknamed "gilliam's island" which is a name i've used for a fantasy baseball team a couple of times. the fact that the dodgers wore a memorial patch for him in the 1978 world series also piqued my interest and curiosity about that sort of uniform enhancement which ultimately wound up with me creating a mini-collection focusing on examples of these tributes in baseball and other sports.

most recently, gilliam has become one of many players whose career stats have improved following mlb's inclusion of negro league stats in career totals. thanks to his time with the baltimore elite giants, gilliam is now credited with over 2,000 hits (2,021) and 1,250 runs (1,255). his national league totals in those categories were 1,889 and 1,163 respectively. gilliam now sits with the 150th most runs scored in history, which is around 65 spots higher than where he placed prior to this statistical update. he jumped about the same number of spots on the all-time hits list as well.

finally, i will admit that i was well into my collecting years when i finally figured out that the 1962 topps set design was based on the concept of a peeling photo/poster of the players, as if it had been applied to a fence or a wood pole.

my retired number collection - here's 2 them

this is the fourth 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 five people for whom the number 2 has been retired:

2 nellie fox (retired by the white sox in 1976) - 1962 topps

the white sox retired fox's number, visible on his sleeve on his 1962 topps card, on may 1, 1976 - just a few months after he passed away at the age of 47. after missing the writer's ballot by two votes in his final year of eligibility, he was eventually elected to the hall of fame by the veteran's committee in 1997.

fox spent 14 seasons with the white sox sandwiched between time with the philadelphia a's and houston colt .45's/astros. he was the 1959 american league mvp, leading the chisox to the world series that year against the dodgers. he is considered to be one of the better defensive second basemen in the history of the game but also finished his career with 2,663 hits (most of which were singles by far). in 1975, chet lemon became the last white sox player to wear number 2, which had been in constant use since fox's departure.

2 charlie gehringer (retired by the tigers in 1983) - 1999 upper deck century legends

no number visible on this card of gehringer, but he did wear number 2 for the tigers for the last 11 years of his 19 year career, a career spent entirely with detroit. he was the 1937 american league mvp, hitting .371 that year to lead the league. he hit .375 in the 1935 world series to help lead the tigers to their first championship in franchise history, and the following season he hit 60 doubles. you probably heard his name if you were following the dodgers the last week of the season as freddie freeman was trying to became the first player since gehringer (and joe medwick) to hit 60 doubles in a season.

he had a great nickame - the mechanical man - and finished with over 2,800 hits and a .320 batting average for his career. he joined the hall of fame in 1949 and the tigers retired his number on june 12, 1983. not sure what took them so long once they started retiring numbers in the mid-1970s. 19 different players wore number 2 for the tigers following gehringer's retirement, with the last being richie hebner in 1982.

2 red schoendienst (retired by the cardinals in 1996) - 1969 topps

when i was a kid, it was gaylord perry's cards that made me think the guy was ancient. looking at schoendienst's 1969 topps card there has me doing a double take as i realize he was probably just 45 when the photo was taken and possibly even 43 as i think there is a good chance the photo was taken during the same shoot that included the image on his 1967 topps card. i am also realizing that i assumed he was inducted in to the hall of fame as a manager, but no - he was elected by the veteran's committee as a player in 1989.

i didn't see any playing days cards of his (or modern cards showing him as a player) with the number 2 visible, although it is possible his 2001 topps tribute card is from his time as a player as the cardinals began wearing the number on the front of the card in 1962, scheondienst's penultimate season as a player. he finished his playing career with 2,449 hits and a .289 average.

schoendienst did go on the manage the cardinals over three different stints that included four decades. he was a fixture with the club even when not managing, and continued to wear the uniform even after the club retired it on may 11, 1996. the only time he wasn't wearing the number between his return to the club as a player in 1961 and his retirement from the game was in 1977 and 1978 when he was coaching for the a's. as a result, steve swisher became the last cardinal player to wear number 2, doing so during the 1978 season.

2 tommy lasorda (retired by the dodgers in 1997) - 1989 mother's cookies dodgers

this card was gifted to me by a card shop owner in costa mesa california back in the early 1990's. i was on the hunt for a box bottom card of lasorda from 1989 or 1990, and the guy gave me this instead. i was pretty stoked about it to be honest. since then i've bought the complete team set, but held on to this extra tommy, and now it gets to represent him and his retired number in my collection.

lasorda wore a couple of other numbers for the dodgers as a player in the 1950's and as a coach in the early 1970's, but settled on number 2 before beginning his first full season as the dodger skipper in 1977. ellie rodriguez was the last dodger player to wear number 2, doing so in lasorda's first four games as the dodger manager at the end of the 1976 season.

lasorda led the dodgers to the world series in each of his first two seasons, and then guided them to world championships in 1981 and 1988. he won 1,599 games as their manager, with his retirement being forced after suffering a heart attack in 1996. the team retired his number the following year on august 15, 1997 in recognition of his induction to the hall of fame a couple of weeks prior.

2 derek jeter (retired by the yankees in 2017) - 1998 upper deck

for the record, i am a fan of 1998 upper deck.

you know the yankees thought highly of jeter when they assigned him number 2, or at least i thought so, but it had been worn by mike gallego for the three years prior to jeter's arrival. still, it makes sense that he would be the last to wear it for the yankees given his status as an all-time great.

3,465 hits, a .315 career batting average, 1,923 runs scored and 1,311 rbi certainly amounts to a hall of fame career, and then you add five world series championships as well. i wasn't necessarily his biggest fan but i sure do respect the talent. jeter was voted in to the hall of fame on his first ballot in 2020 with 99.7% of the vote, but the yankees didn't wait for that honor as they retired his number on may 14, 2017.

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

retired numbers by team (shown in chronological order of their first number retirement):

yankees - 1, 2, 4

giants - 4

pirates - 1, 4

guardians 

red sox - 1, 4

phillies - 1

cardinals - 1, 2

reds - 1

braves

astros

mets

orioles - 4

dodgers - 1, 2, 4

twins

white sox - 2, 4

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2

cubs

royals

padres

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

4 - retired by 8 teams

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 30

running total of non-hall of famers: 4

the luck of the irish

last summer, when i began entering my dodger collection on tcdb, i was surprised to find out that there were a couple of the 1962 topps green tint dodgers that i was missing. i may have ignored them back when i picked up the lee walls, frank howard, and wally moon variations since they aren't as striking as those three (two of which use different photos), but if that were the case i had forgotten about my decision, and present day gcrl wasn't having it! 

i was curious to see if i had a green tint pete richert card in my dupes box, but instead found this one:

yes, the babe ruth dodger card is the other one with a green tint variation, and i actually had one stashed away in a box. with that stroke of luck, i decided to lay out a couple of bucks for the richert variation

so that i could feel complete with my dodger team set.

with st. patrick's day coming up in a couple of days, i may as well continue the green theme and show off some shawn green cards that entered my collection in 2022, and there were a few!

the newest cards come from 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary

those would be the base, xfractor, and black & white mini diamonds refractor. green looks a bit creepy on these cards, like topps put him through a de-aging cgi program.

green wasn't included in the dodgers' 2000 topps stadium club set, which is probably why i did not have his 2000 topps stadium club chrome card until last year

and the same goes for his 2000 topps stadium club chrome refractor card

the checklist i was using was just a straight copy of the non-chrome set. this is one of the things that tcdb did for me - clarify some old team sets that were cobbled together from sometimes less than reliable sources.

here's his 2000 topps stars card

which i think was among my most wanted cards for a while.

green had a second card in the 2000 bowman's best set

and he has a bunch of cards in 2000 topps tek

thanks to all the patterns involved. these four cards got me up to six different patterns, i believe.

i already had his 2003 upper deck first pitch season highlights card, but added another

since it highlights his 4 home run game in milwaukee that i had the good fortune to attend in person. in to the "cards featuring games i have seen in person" mini collection!

2004 bowman chrome

is one of the more forgettable bochro designs with the speed hump. topps wasn't trying very hard.

2004 donruss studio

gives us a shot of downtown la. i've always enjoyed being able to see downtown from dodger stadium.

2004 fleer showcase

captures green with his goatee 

2005 donruss prime patches

is called "prime patches" but this is just a big piece of blue jersey.

2005 topps gallery artist's proof

i like this impressionist rendering of green's swing.

and now for some shiny. sort of.

i have learned that 2001 bowman heritage chrome

does not scan well.

slightly better is 2003 topps heritage chrome

and better than that is 2004 topps heritage chrome

but only because the background wasn't black to start with.

not a lot of difference (besides the card design) between that 2004 heritage chrome and green's 2005 topps heritage chrome card

but the refractor really sings!

one more refractor, this one from 2005 topps chrome 

that's a lot of green, and as any competent leprechaun knows, there is always gold

at the end of the rainbow post.

have a happy and safe st. patrick's day and don't forget your green!

bad trades never die

i was looking through some vintage dodger dupes recently, and i stopped when i got to the 1965

and 1966 

topps cards of well traveled reliever bob miller.  not only does miller look like he aged several years between the times that those photos were taken, i also noticed on the back of each card, topps mentions that the dodgers acquired miller for two players. here's the back of his 1965 card:

and here's the back of his 1966 card:

it is true that the dodgers gave up two players, but i found it interesting that topps repeated that fact on cards that were issued two and three years after the deal was done. of course, they also mention miller's 74 appearances in 1964 on both cards. i also find it interesting that the 1966 card mentions saves in the cartoon even though they weren't an official stat until 1969. curious.  anyway, these are the two guys that the dodgers sent to the mets for miller:

larry burright

and tim harkness

both played for the mets in 1963 and 1964, but did not appear in the majors after that. harkness had more success than burright, but he was traded to the reds after the 1964 season for bobby klaus. klaus was later traded away for dick stuart, and in 1966, stuart was released by the mets and signed by the dodgers for whom miller was still playing.

this all means that the two players the dodgers gave up to acquire miller were no longer major leaguers when topps put that information on the backs of the two cards up top. you might be relieved to know that the two-for-one trade was not mentioned on the back of miller's 1967 topps card, although his 1964 appearances were referenced in one of the cartoons on that card - incorrectly as 71 instead of 74. regardless, at least topps was finally able to come up with some new copy for the guy.