triple crowning achievements

a couple of decades ago, as i began assembling my topps "sampler sets", i paused to admire the 1967 league leader cards. my m.o. in regards to my sampler sets was to have at least one example of a league leader card for each year, but the '67 set piqued my interest for a couple of reasons.

first, they represented sandy koufax's only appearances in the set. second, frank robinson's 1966 triple crown meant that he was in the first position on the three american league offensive leader cards. similarly, koufax ended his career with a triple crown feat of his own and was likewise placed on the national league pitching leader cards.

i made the decision back then to complete the league leader card subsets that celebrated these triple crown achievements to include in my sampler set. when i disassembled those sets around 2014 to focus on completing my topps dodger team sets from the 1950's (still working on '52 and '53) and 1960's, the koufax cards went into my dodger collection and the robinson cards languished in a monster box.

sometime last year, i made the decision to reinstate the sampler sets. having completed the 1955 bowman set and realizing that it would be the last vintage set i would complete, i wanted to have the cards from the topps sets i didn't have completed represented in my collection. so, i dusted off what i had kept from 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. when i got to the 1967 cards, i again paused at the sight of the league leader cards.

after thinking about it for a bit, i decided to complete the full league leader subset and keep it with some other subsets of cards i have completed. so, let's (finally) see some cards!

here is sandy koufax's triple crown in card form

and the backs:

i've always wondered why it was "pitching leaders" on the front and "victory leaders" on the back of these cards. anyway, sandy's line was 27 wins, a 1.73 era, and 317 strikeouts. it was a runaway triple crown, really. koufax won the cy young award unanimously, and remember, this was when there was just one award for all of major league baseball. he also received more first place votes for the national league mvp award than the winner, roberto clemente, just missing his second such accolade.

not to be undone, here is frank robinson's triple crown in card form:

and the backs:

the twins gave robby a good challenge, but he also ran away with the triple crown with a .316 average, 49 home runs, and 122 rbi. robinson unanimously won the mvp as you would have expected with a season like that, leading the orioles to the pennant to boot. and yes, i know that they won the world series, too, but that wouldn't have factored in to the mvp voting.

here are the american league pitching leader cards

and their backs

interesting to me to not see many oriole pitchers place highly in these categories.

here are the national league batting leader cards

and their backs

clemente had a great year, and so did richie allen, hank aaron, and the alou brothers. felipe alou actually received two first place votes in the mvp voting, with allen getting one of his own.

after all that, i picked up a couple more of these cards because i reinstated my sampler sets late last year. i'll have some posts up at some point this summer to share them. i've also added some more modern league leader cards to my dodger collection recently.

2023 topps national league batting leaders gold parallel

2024 topps national league batting leaders royal blue parallel

2022 topps national league pitching leaders gold star parallels

lots of dodger representation there. note that i am still a fan of a single league leader card that shows the leader for each league on the same card, but that's because i grew up on the 1978 topps set and that's how it was that year.  i'll also note that i decided not to pick up all of the league leader cards for carl yastrzemski's triple crown (nor miguel cabrera's for that matter), but i do have clayton kershaw's in my dodger team set.

a moment for jerry grote

i want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of jerry grote.  because he was a member of the 1978 topps dodgers, i was automatically a fan of his.

as i did with vic davalillo a few months ago, here's a look at grote's career in topps cards thanks to my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers collection:

grote was famously left on the cutting room floor by topps in 1977, and he didn't receive a card when he returned to the majors in 1981. i, of course, made customs for him to fill in the blanks as i did for other members of the 1978 topps dodgers. the 1977 topps test card showed grote as a met, but i showed him as a dodger in 1977

as a royal in a 1981 topps traded style card

and back as a dodger in 1982 for a final tribute

however, my favorite custom i made featuring the veteran catcher was this 1979 topps 1978 nlcs card

grote was on deck when bill russell singled to drive home ron cey and secure the pennant for the dodgers in game 4 of the 1978 nlcs, and so he was there to greet the penguin as he scored. pure joy.

grote will be best remembered as a met, as he helped the mets to two pennants and the 1969 world series title in addition to being a part of the dodgers' back-to-back pennant winning teams in the late 70's. to me, he is number 9. when i go through numbers, i associate 9 with grote because i was a dodger fan in 1978 and because gordie howe didn't play baseball.

with grote's death yesterday, seven members of the 1978 topps dodgers have now passed away, and it is a reminder that time waits for no man. rest in peace number 9!

my retired number collection - 24/7

this is the 23rd 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 seven people for whom number 24 has been retired, including one player who has been so honored by two teams:

willie mays (retired by the giants in 1972) 2020 topps heritage 20 giants seasons

mays had his number retired by the giants while he was still active, albeit with another team. on may 12, 1972, a day after the giants traded him to the mets, number 24 was retired in his honor - at least according to wikipedia. it makes sense - the mets were playing in san francisco on the 12th, and the giants would likely want to waste no time in acknowledging one of the greatest players in baseball history and ensure that no other giant would ever wear the number.

as a giant, mays hit 646 home runs and had 3,187 hits. he sits atop the franchise's leaderboard in most key offensive categories including hits, homers, runs, doubles, total bases and games played. he was a two-time mvp and won 12 gold gloves. a no-doubt hall of famer, mays was elected on the first ballot in 1979, and it is crazy that he got only 94.7% of the vote. there are a few cards that i have showing his number 24, but i like the 2020 topps heritage insert for this collection.

walt alston (retired by the dodgers in 1977) 1967 topps

alston is the only member of the los angeles dodgers to ever wear number 24, as he brought the number with him from brooklyn and it was retired by the team in the year after alston gave up his job as manager of the club. he retired during the final week of the 1976 season, and his number was retired on june 5 the following year during an old-timers game and ceremony. i sure wish i could find photos from the old-timers game i went to at dodger stadium. i don't think it would have been 1977, but i recall hank aaron playing right field for the visitors and jim campanis playing for the dodgers. maybe someday i will find the photos we took. speaking of photos, the 1967 topps card i chose for the collection show his number pretty well, which is somewhat rare for manager cards.

anyway, alston led the dodgers for 23 seasons, winning seven pennants and four world series titles, including the franchise's first championship in 1955. he won over 2,000 games as the dodgers' manager, becoming the only skipper to reach that milestone with a single franchise, and retired with the fifth most managerial wins all-time. he wasn't elected to the hall of fame until 1983, so the dodgers weren't quite as strict about their hall of fame policy as they became after retiring jim gilliam's number 19 in 1978. sadly, alston was too ill to travel to cooperstown, and passed away a couple of months after his induction. 

tony perez (retired by the reds in 2000) 1970 topps

tony perez is rocking the windbreaker under the jersey look on his 1970 topps card, and we can see his number 24 clearly thanks to his awkward looking swing follow through. perez helped the reds to four pennants during his first run with the club from 1964 through 1976, and was a two-time world champion as a result. overall, perez is second only to johnny bench on the franchise's all-time leader board for rbi, which was perez's calling card. he drove in 1,192 runs as a red in 7,630 plate apperances, and his career totals equate to an rbi/pa ratio equal to that of willie mays.

the only reds player to wear 24 after perez was traded to the expos in 1976 was dave van gorder back in 1982. when perez rejoined the club, he reclaimed 24 and no red has worn it since. the team retired the number on may 27, 2000 in recognition of his election to the hall of fame earlier that year. it was his 9th year on the ballot, and he made it in with 77.2% of the vote.

jim wynn (retired by the astros in 2005) 1971 topps

the toy cannon doesn't seem to have a card that shows his full number, but his 1971 topps card comes close, if you combine what you see on both sides of his jersey. wynn was drafted by the houston colt .45s after their inaugural 1962 season from the reds, and he debuted with the club the following year. in 1965 he became their starting centerfielder, and played for the club through the 1973 season amassing 223 home runs in that time. when he was traded, he was the franchise's all-time leader in most offensive categories, including home runs, rbi, and walks. he remained in the top spot in all three of those categories until the killer b's came along.

wynn had his number 24 retired by the astros on june 25, 2005. jason lane, who wore the number earlier in that season, switched to number 16 after it was retired. while not a national baseball hall of famer, wynn was inducted into the team's hall of fame on august 3, 2019 as part of its inaugural class. 

rickey henderson (retired by the a's in 2009) 1994 topps stadium club member's only box set

rickey henderson wore number 35 during the majority of his first stint with the a's. he switched to 24 when he joined the yankees in 1986 as phil niekro was wearing 35. when rickey returned to the a's in 1989, bob welch had 35 and rickey took 22 until he was able to come to an arrangement with ron hassey who was wearing number 24. one suit and set of golf clubs later, rickey was wearing 24, and wore that number for the remainder of his time in oakland across multiple stints.

i think the 1994 topps stadium club member's only box set card is a great one for this collection - it shows the number clearly and portrays rickey as a stealer of bases which is his primary claim to fame. elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot in 2009, rickey is the game's all-time leader in steals and runs scored, and was at one time first in walks until barry bonds passed him. he was the 1990 al mvp and a 10-time all-star who led his league in stolen bases 12 times, including a single season record of 130 swipes in 1982.

while he was an obvious hall of famer, the a's kept number 24 in circulation. kurt suzuki was the last a's player to wear the number, doing so during the 2008 season before the a's retired it on august 1, 2009.

whitey herzog (retired by the cardinals in 2010) 2022 topps allen & ginter

the cardinals were the fourth franchise for whom herzog managed (this includes a short stint in 1974 leading the angels), but he managed them longer than anyone not named schoendienst or larussa - two people who i've already covered in this series. i was happy to pull the 2023 topps allen & ginter card last year, as it was the best example i could find that showed herzog's number.

with the cardinals, herzog won three pennants and one world series title. he won 822 games during the regular season and 21 in those three postseasons. herzog was elected to the hall of fame as a manager by the veteran's committee in 2010, and the cardinals retired his number on july 31 of that same year, making rick ankiel in 2009 the last cardinal player to wear the number.

ken griffey jr (retired by the mariners in 2016) 1990 topps

not only did the mariners announce that they would retire ken griffey jr's number during a ceremony on august 16, 2016, they announced that number 24 would be retired across the entire organization. high recognition for the face of the franchise who was elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot that same year, prompting the announcement from the mariners. once griffey donned the number as a rookie in 1989, no other mariner ever wore 24. 

his 1990 topps card shows most of the number that griffey wore during both of his tenures in seattle (he wore 30 and 3 in cincinnati to honor his dad and kids, respectively, and 17 in chicago because 3 was retired and 30 was taken). i like that he reverted back to his original number when he rejoined the mariners to end his career. and what a career it was, with 417 of his 630 homers hit as a mariner, to go along with 10 consecutive gold glove awards and the 1997 al mvp that he earned during his time with the franchise.

willie mays (retired by the mets in 2022) 2022 topps heritage high numbers 1973 all-star game highlights

while willie mays only spent a season and a half with the mets, he was still willie mays! he helped the team win their second national league pennant in 1973, and was also named to the all-star team that year as the 2022 topps heritage high numbers card shows. he retired after the 1973 season, and the team's owner at the time, joan payson, promised to not reissue mays' number.

unfortunately, it was erroneously given to kevin torve in 1990. after that, rickey henderson wore it during his time with the mets, as did robinson cano up until his release early in the 2022 season. payson's promise was finally fulfilled when the mets formally retired the number on august 27, 2022 . 

i would expect the tigers to retire number 24 for miguel cabrera at some point in the near future, and it wouldn't surprise me at some point if the red sox retired it for dwight evans and manny ramirez, even though i understand why it hasn't happened yet.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 18 posts so far):

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

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

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

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

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

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20

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

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

braves - 3, 6, 10, 21

astros - 5, 7, 24

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24

orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22

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

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14

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

brewers - 1, 4, 19

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

cubs - 10, 14, 23

royals - 5, 10, 20

padres - 6, 19

athletics - 9, 24

angels - 11

expos - 8, 10

rangers - 7, 10

major league baseball

rays - 12, 66

diamondbacks - 20

blue jays

rockies - 17

mariners - 11, 24

nationals - 11

marlins

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 (includes mets who will formally retire the number in 2024)

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)

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): 109

running total of non-hall of famers: 39

card games

onelki garcia pitched in 3 games for the dodgers. that was in 2013, and it was enough for topps to include him in the 2014 flagship checklist. here's his target red parallel card

garcia wound up missing the 2014 season due to injuries (knee and elbow) and was claimed by the white sox in the rule 5 draft that november. he didn't pitch in the majors again until 2017, and that was with the royals.

preparing for this post got me wondering about other dodger pitchers who received cards of their own from topps in flagship releases while appearing in fewer than the 3 games garcia pitched in. a quick review found a couple:

most recently, there was zach lee. lee was a number one pick who pitched in one game for the dodgers in 2015 and was included by topps in series 1 of their 2016 flagship release. 

he didn't appear in the majors again until 2017, this time with the padres.

and then there is bruce brubaker. he received a card from topps in 1967. 

he had previously received a dual player rookie card in the 1965 set as a tiger, but didn't appear in the majors until he did so as a dodger in an april 1967 contest. it turned out to be brubaker's only appearance as a dodger in the majors. he made one other big league appearance - it came with the brewers in 1970, but there's no brewers card of him to be had.

as for position players, i think terrance gore takes the title for fewest games as a dodger with a flagship card, 

although he's not actually wearing a dodger uniform. that card is from 2020 topps update, and gore earned it after appearing in 2 games early in that truncated season.

this is by no means a knock on topps. with all three of the pitchers listed, the expectation would have been that they would appear in more games than they did. in fact, i am thankful for topps issuing these cards because even short-time dodgers count, and maybe we'll see a kyle hurt dodger card in '24!

a moment for vic davalillo, players from my youth, and the new dodger dh

i read last wednesday that vic davalillo passed away, and it made me pause.

thanks to his incredible, rally starting, two-out bunt in the 9th inning of game 3 of the 1977 nlcs and his inclusion in the 1978 topps set as a dodger, i got to know davalillo at the very beginning of my fandom and collecting days. he didn't play a lot, but he was a dodger and there was cardboard evidence of that fact, so he was respected and celebrated in my collection.

i have all of davalillo's major manufacturer cards (issued in the us, anyway), as his entire topps flagship run 

is encapsulated in my "evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers" mini-collection, and his 1981 fleer offering

is in my dodger collection. there are one or two venezuelan releases that i wouldn't mind adding to the collection, but i haven't ever made it a priority.

davalillo is the sixth member of the 1978 topps dodgers to pass away. preceding him were glenn burke (1995), johnny oates (2004), lance rautzhan (2016), tom lasorda (2021), and don sutton (2021). time marches on, but it is still a bit of a thing to see these players whose cardboard i coveted back then pass away.

shifting to another way of looking at the 1978 topps set, i get excited when i can complete the immaculate grid using only players who appeared in that set. it is always my goal to use as many as i can, and there was a two day stretch last week where i was able to do so:

with davalillo getting center square in saturday's grid! as of now, that second one has a score of 8, which would be my second lowest ever.

finally, i would be remiss if i didn't mention the 700 million dollar man, shohei ohtani. i feel for angel fans who will now see ohtani suit up for the dodgers, but not enough to not be excited about ohtani joining the dodgers. here are some 2018 topps update cards i have of ohtani

with the last one being the most valuable, i guess, since it's a rainbow foil parallel. the dodgers still need pitching for the 2024 season (ohtani can't help them there), but it's a good start to a longer term benefit. i suppose my team break costs for 2024 just went up. way up.

not so random grab bag

jay from card hemorrhage recently posted about 25-card grab bags that he was selling as a way of paring down his collection. one of the cards shown in his post was this 1977 topps ed goodson card signed by goodson himself!

being the collector that i am, i asked how likely it would be that my grab bag included the goodson, and jay said he would make it so. following on the heels of my recent post regarding goodson signing a 1978 topps card for me, i was very happy to add this card to my collection. i also have a signed 1976 topps card, so i have the full topps run of goodson dodger cards signed by the man himself.

the pack was fun to open and wade through, and came with vintage as advertised:

even some dodgers/orioles who would become dodgers or were previously dodgers

powell would have been a teammate of ed goodson back in 1977. the tommy davis comes from the 1976 sspc set (copyright 1975). i have called it 1975 in the past but i think someone corrected me.  jay guaranteed cards from that set, and in addition to tommy davis, i received cards of art howe and ross grimsley

i recognized grimsley but not howe.

here's a 1981 donruss paul householder card

that reminded me of my dad. he collected householder cards from 1981 through 1984 or so. someone had told him that householder was the next mickey mantle i think.

here's a 1981 topps dave bristol/giants team card.

i was not a fan of the combo manager/team cards that topps used from 1979 through 1981. my opinion was based on the 1978 set which had them separated. it wasn't until later that i realized the '78 set was the anomaly from 1975 - 1981.

greg minton hot pack! here's a 1981 topps sticker and 1989 topps card of the righthander:

sadly no 1978 topps card, although jay does use that as his avatar.

there were some more modern cards in the package, but i'll show just a couple of them. here's a 1994 topps gold parallel of tim bogar

with a joe oliver sighting.

and here's another parallel - a 2020 topps update brock holt walgreens yellow card

lots of fun cards for sure! check out jay's post and pick one up for yourself!

350 is a magic number - lucky 7s

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 kicked the posts of the collection off last week with the 8s. this time i'll feature the 7s.

1957 topps #350

eddie miksis received the inaugural number 350 as far as standard card sized topps sets go, and in no way represents this spot on the checklist as a "hero number". back then, topps was still putting the major stars up front in the set - ted williams was card number 1 in the 1957 set for example - and guys like miksis filled in the set later on. not that he was a bad ballplayer. miksis made his big league debut before his 18th birthday and backed up the likes of pee wee reese and jackie robinson while with the dodgers prior to a late-1951 trade to the cubs. for the 1957 season, miksis joined the cardinals, but didn't play for them much. he ended the season in baltimore.

1967 topps #350

joe torre was most definitely a star when this card was issued. in the team's first year in atlanta, torre maintained his status as an all-star for the fourth consecutive season. the future mvp saw his production dip in 1967, and he was dealt to the cardinals prior to the 1969 season after another similar season for the braves in 1968.

1977 topps #350 

larry dierker was past his prime in 1976, and i have to believe that if topps was fully subscribing to the idea of hero numbers, they gave this one to dierker based on his no-hitter that he threw in july of '76 against the expos. otherwise, dierker was just another starter on a bad team. he spent 1977 with the cardinals after being traded for joe ferguson before the season began, and didn't pitch in the majors after that season ended.

1987 topps #350

kieth hernandez was a reigning world champion when this card was issued, having helped the mets beat the red sox in seven games in the unforgettable 1986 fall classic. hernandez also supplanted steve garvey as the national league's starting first baseman that year, just as he had ended garvey's run of gold gloves almost a decade earlier. this card also had me thinking about #350 back when it came out. i used to look at the checklists that i pulled from packs to see who the hero numbers were each year, and seeing hernandez in this spot after jack clark was featured there in 1986 made me think that maybe there was a method to topps' checklist madness. 

1997 topps #350

kenny lofton was at the peak of his game in 1996, as he set career highs in hits, runs, doubles, and stolen bases for cleveland. unfortunately, cleveland fell in the first round of the playoffs and lofton was traded to atlanta for the 1997 season. his former teammates wound up falling to the marlins in the 1997 fall classic, with his replacement in center field (marquis grissom) was the mvp of the alcs and hit .360 in the world series. lofton was back in cleveland, replacing grissom, for the 1998 season. it is worth mentioning here that lofton's card photo is very similar to the image on chuck carr's 1998 card that also held the 350 slot.

2007 topps #350

chase utley put up a career year in 2006 to earn number 350 in the 2007 set. in addition to the 35-game hitting streak mentioned on the back of his card, he had over 100 runs, 200 hits, 30 homers, 100 rbi, and a batting average over .300. that is professional hitting at its best. he was an all-star for the first time, although the phillies finished out of the playoff picture. in 2007, utley had another strong year and helped the phillies return to october baseball for the first time since the 1993 world series.

2017 topps #350

david ortiz ended his career with the 2016 season, and his remarkable final performance earned him number 350 in the 2017 set. although the red sox were swept in the alds by cleveland in the postseason. ortiz held his own during the regular season and went out with a bang with one of the best seasons of his career.

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 mvps: 0

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 1 (keith hernandez)

number of reigning pennant winners: 3 (steve garvey, keith hernandez, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 5 (keith hernandez - walks; kenny lofton - sb; chase utley - runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era)

number of repeat players: 0

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

frequency of teams: dodgers (2), cardinals (2), astros (2), braves (2), white sox, giants, mets, indians, phillies, red sox 

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