my retired number collection - 34

this is the 34th 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 34 has been retired:

rollie fingers (retired by the brewers in 1992) 1982 fleer

rollie fingers was voted into the hall of fame in 1992 on his second ballot, and the brewers retired his number a week after his induction - on august 9 to be exact. he only spent four seasons in milwaukee, but he won both the cy young and mvp awards as a brewer in 1981, and then helped the club reach the world series for the first (and so far only) time in 1982. so, it's fitting that i've used his 1982 fleer card for this collection.

it's a different game now, however fingers is still fourth on the brewers' franchise leader board for career saves (he was the top dog when he retired following the 1985 season), even though fingers ended his career as a brewer, the number retirement wasn't as automatic as it was for hank aaron. several brewers wore 34 after fingers, with mark lee in 1991 being the last to do so.

rollie fingers (retired by the athletics in 1993) 2004 topps tribute hall of fame edition

on july 5, 1993 - just over 11 months after fingers was inducted into the hall of fame, the a's retired number 34 in his honor. i've used a 2004 topps tribute card to represent this number retirement. the fact that the card notes his hall of fame induction year is a bonus. fingers spent the first 9 years (8 seasons plus a "cup of coffee" in 1968) with the a's so it makes sense that they would retire his number.

he was a four time all-star as an athletic, finishing third in the cy young voting and fourth in the mvp voting in 1975. the previous three seasons, fingers pitched in a total of 203 games, posted 61 saves, and led the club to three consecutive world series titles. the only oakland era player to appear in more games for the franchise is dennis eckersley who will show up in one of these posts in a couple of months. eckersley is also the only athletic, regardless of era, to have more saves than fingers for the franchise. still, he left the a's early enough in his career for them to reissue his number pretty much right away. the last person to wear the number was dave stewart in 1992, and we will get to him in just a bit.

nolan ryan (retired by the rangers in 1996) 1990 topps

the rangers retired nolan ryan's number on september 15, 1996 as part of an appreciation weekend for the future hall of famer. the team kept his number out of circulation after ryan retired following the 1993 season, and he wasn't elected to the hall of fame until 1999 (on the first ballot), so i guess the rangers decided to split the difference and retire the first number in their franchise's history in '96. ryan thus became one of the few to have different numbers retired by different teams, as the angels had retired 30 in his honor back in 1992.

in his five seasons as a ranger, ryan threw his sixth and seventh no-hitters, reached 300 career wins, and passed the 5,000 strikeout milestone. using his 1990 topps card for this collection makes sense not only because it shows his number nicely, but also because 1990 was the year that topps included the career retrospective subset in recognition of the 5k strikeout milestone. 

nolan ryan (retired by the astros in 1996) 2019 topps museum collection

it took the astros two weeks after the rangers retired number 34 for ryan to do the same, marking the event on september 29, 1996. they had not reissued the number since ryan left after the 1988 season, which was his ninth year as an astro. during that time, ryan twice led the league in era and also in strikeouts. i actually had a bit of a hard time finding a ryan astros card for this collection as i recall, so i was happy to see the 2019 topps museum collection card pop up in comc's database.

ryan threw his fifth career no-hitter (against the dodgers) to claim the all-time record for himself, and also reached the 3,000 strikeout milestone as an astro. and, his 1,866 strikeouts as an astro are still the most in franchise history

kirby puckett (retired by the twins in 1997) 1986 topps

it was may 25, 1997 when the twins retired number 34 for puckett, several years before they thought they would. puckett had been forced to retire prior to the 1996 season due to glaucoma, although he didn't formally announce his retirement until july of 1996. there was no doubt that the twins would have hung 34 up eventually, as he led the club to their first two (and currently only) world series titles in 1987 and 1991, with game 6 of the '91 series being a capsulized version of puckett's value to the twins organization. puckett's 1986 topps card shows his number nicely, along with him in the baby blues that the team would retire after the '86 season.

i didn't move to minnesota until later in '97 so i wasn't there for the retirement ceremony, nor did i ever see him play in person. in fact, the retirements of puckett and ozzie smith inspired me to get to the ballpark more often to see players in person. a six time gold glover and silver slugger, puckett led the league in hits four times and batting average once. in fact, no other twin has compiled more hits than puckett in franchise history. he was the last twin to wear 34, obviously, and he was elected to the hall of fame in 2001 on the first ballot.

david ortiz (retired by the red sox in 2017) 2006 topps triple threads

ortiz was another first ballot hall of famer, getting the call in 2022. the red sox, however, had already retired his number, doing so on june 23, 2017. ortiz had retired following the 2016 season, and so became the last red sox to wear the number. i think the 2006 topps triple threads card i chose shows the number nicely.

ortiz led the red sox to their first world series in 86 years, breaking the "curse of the bambino" in 2004. for good measure, he also led them to titles in 2007 and 2013. aside from the postseason heroics, ortiz is firmly set in the upper echelon of red sox hitters. he sits behind only ted williams in terms of home runs hit by a red sox player, and is behind only williams and carl yastrzemski in rbi. 

roy halladay (retired by the phillies in 2021) 2010 topps finest

halladay continues our string of first ballot hall of famers, having been voted in by the writers in 2019. his induction was posthumous, as halladay died in a plane accident in november of 2017. although the phillies didn't immediately retire the number (they did so on august 8, 2021), they did take it out of circulation following halladay's death, making andrew knapp in 2017 the last phillie to wear the number. i appreciate the numbers on the sleeves - it makes finding cards like the 2010 topps finest card above easier.

like ryan, halladay has two different numbers retired by two different franchises. his number 32 is retired by the blue jays, but the phillies had retired that number for steve carlton, so halladay took 34 when he joined the club prior to the 2010 season. he was only a phillie for four seasons, but in that time he won the cy young award and finished second in the voting the following year, and led the club to the 2010 nlcs thanks to the second postseason no-hitter in history. of course, he also threw a perfect game during the regular season that year against the marlins. he is the only phillie pitcher to ever throw two no-hitters.

dave stewart (retired by the athletics in 2022) 1992 upper deck

i mentioned stewart earlier while addressing rollie fingers and the retirement of number 34 by the a's. by the time the number was retired, steward had been wearing it for six-plus seasons, and it is possible that the team was waiting for stewart to leave the team before retiring it for fingers. stewart wound up heading to toronto after the 1992 season, and so became the last athletic to wear the number. his 1992 upper deck card gives a good look at the number, and reminds me of my high school jerseys which were modeled after these a's unis.

with the a's, stewart posted four consecutive top four finishes in the cy young voting, although he never won the award. he led the league in wins in 1987. he helped the a's win three straight pennants from 1988 through 1990, and was the mvp of both the 1989 world series and the 1990 alcs. he returned to oakland in 1995, but wore 35 so it's clear that the a's hadn't yet decided to honor stewart with a number retirement separate from fingers. eventually, they decided to honor stewart, but the ceremony was delayed due to the pandemic. he was finally recognized in a ceremony on september 11, 2022.

fernando valenzuela (retired by the dodgers in 2023) 1986 donruss

number 34 was for all intents and purposes retired by the dodgers in 1991 when valenzuela was released by the club and they chose to never reissue it. however, their policy of retiring hall of fame numbers only (except for jim gilliam's 19) seemed to prevent them from honoring valenzuela with a formal number retirement. they made him one of the inaugural members of the "legends of dodger baseball" which seemed to be the pinnacle for non-hall of fame dodgers, but then reversed course and added 34 to their officially retired numbers on august 11, 2023. 

valenzueala won both the rookie of the year and cy young awards in 1981, the same year that he led the dodgers to their first world series title since 1965. he finished second in the cy young voting in 1986 when he won a career high 21 games and also threw 20 complete games. fittingly, his 1986 donruss card shows his number nicely. side note - both he and his former teammate stewart (who wore 48 during his time with the dodgers) threw no-hitters on the same day - june 29, 1990.

anyway, aside from fernando's statistics, he was (and still is) a cultural icon for the dodgers and their fans. "fernandomania" created a huge interest in the dodgers beyond their previous fan base and he became a true international ambassador for the game. hall of famer or not, he is absolutely the type of player that should be recognized by his franchise in this way.

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

retired numbers by team (through the 34 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, 34, 42

phillies - 1, 14, 15, 20, 32, 34, 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, 34, 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, 34, 42

twins - 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 28, 34, 42

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

brewers - 1, 4, 19, 34, 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, 34, 42

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 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

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)

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): 140

running total of non-hall of famers: 49

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

i saw what tony gwynn was talking about

proving that you should always read the backs of cards, i was happy back in 1996 to see the text on the back of this 1996 topps hideo nomo profiles insert

it features commentary from tony gwynn that focuses on the two times the padres faced nomo during his rookie of the year campaign

i don't include this card in my "cards featuring games i've seen" mini-collection, although maybe i should. i was at the game that featured nomo's second appearance against the padres, and gwynn was right - he struck out 11 batters in eight innings. he had first faced the padres the week before and only had two strikeouts in five innings. i can understand how gwynn thought they might have better luck the second time around.

anyway, that second meeting occurred on september 30, 1995 in san diego. thanks to the strike and cancelled 1994 postseason, 1995 was the first year that the wild card would be in play for the postseason. the dodgers were only a game up on the second place rockies, but because of the tiebreaker between the two teams, they could clinch the division with a win on what was the penultimate day of the strike-shortened season. here's my ticket stub from the game:

it was my first time seeing nomo pitch in person, but for me, the main attraction was still mike piazza

we were sitting along the left field line and had a good view of the dodgers during warmups. here are piazza and brett butler walking back from a sprint to center field.

you can see behind them steve garvey's retired jersey number near the spot where he hit his walk-off home run in the 1984 nlcs. here's a better shot of it:

between two palms.

once the game started, i was excited to watch nomo pitch. here's him in his windup with the first pitch:

he struck out steve finley to start the game, and then retired jody reed on a groundout. that brought up tony gwynn

who promptly tripled. note that gwynn didn't mention that on the back of the card up above. with gwynn on third

he was immediately driven in by a ken caminiti single to give the pads an early lead. in the top of the second, however, delino deshields doubled

and then scored on an error to tie the game at 1. i took that picture of deshields largely because both he and reed are in the frame, and those two guys are forever linked in dodger lore as the reason for and the return received in the pedro martinez trade.

the game remained tied for a while until raul mondesi went deep in the top of the 7th

and an inning later, mike piazza padded the lead with a two-run homer of his own

that's dustin hermanson walking dejectedly on the mound - he had been brought in to the game to face piazza.

a few outs later (here's a link to video of the last out), the dodgers were celebrating their first division title since 1988, and the celebrating began with piazza, todd worrell, and tim wallach

and then came the rest of the guys

jose offerman, who seemed to be on the outs, was the last player to reach the celebration, and he definitely took his time getting out there

finally, tommy lasorda ran out to join the players.

it was great to see the dodgers clinch a division title in person - it's just too bad that they got swept in the nlds by the reds.

on a not really related note, chris gwynn was on the dodgers' roster in 1995, and was in uniform that night but didn't appear in the game. i recently found that i had a parallel version of this 1992 upper deck card

of the gwynn brothers in my dupes box. it's a gold hologram parallel

and so now it is in my 1992 dodger team binder. i don't plan to find another for the dodger stadium collection - the regular hologram will do just fine there - but it is one of my favorite dodger stadium cards. 

while i was very happy to witness the dodgers clinch the division in '95, i would have really enjoyed to see it happen in chavez ravine.

a retired favorite

paul molitor reaches retirement age tomorrow. at least, what standard retirement age used to be: 65. i believe molitor has stated that he is, in fact, retired from managing, but with tony larussa returning to the dugout at the age of 76, who knows for sure whether or not molitor could be lured back to a uniformed position.

i followed molitor's career pretty closely from start to finish. he was a rookie in the 1978 topps set - the first set i ever saw and collected - and had enough early success that i quickly paid attention. he finished his career playing for his hometown team, and the timing of his return to minnesota pretty much coincided with my move to the land of 10,000 lakes.

once steve garvey's career ended, i anointed molitor as my favorite non-dodger. he remained so until the strike in 1994, after which i started paying attention to shawn green. here are the cards of molly that i have in my "favorite non-dodger of the year" mini-collection:

1988 score

1989 fleer

1990 donruss baseball's best

1991 topps

1992 upper deck

1993 fleer flair

1994 topps black gold

i tried for some variety amongst manufacturers to get some different designs in the collection, but there is only so much that can be done from this peak of the junk wax era. it's a little bit daunting to see people i followed as a youngster hit milestone ages, but time waits for no man. happy 65th molly!

some new final tributes for my collection

the hall of fame induction ceremony was postponed for 2020, but i figured i would go ahead and share some relevant final tributes that i added to my collection earlier this year after the ballots were counted.

first up is a trio of ted simmons career capping cards from 1989 - fleer

with almost all of his yearly stats on the back

score

which has become the sneaky late-80's go to for final tributes (steve garvey, phil niekro, don sutton, mario soto, etc). and they came through with all of the yearly stat lines on the back!

upper deck

with just five years of stats, but a huge card number.

in fact, simmons looks like he's annoyed by the card number. that was one of the tenets of upper deck's design, as one of the guys who started the card company was tired of looking at little numbers on the backs of cards.

the other hall of fame inductee that i didn't already have in my final tribute collection is larry walker. derek jeter's 2015 topps card has been in my ft binder since it was released. as for walker, i did have a pc of him back in the 90's, but i pretty much abandoned those in 2002 so i had to go through some boxes to see if i had any of his 2006 cards.  turns out, i did not. thanks to sportlots, however, i do now.  here's his 2006 upper deck first pitch card

which features most of his yearly stats on the back

here's his topps card from 2006

which provides a subtle broken bat photo on the front, and all of his stats on the back

the cartoon gives us the joy of the word "hose". i worked with a guy back in the early 1990's who was from lebanon and thought that the word hose, in some of its other uses, was just the best. he used that word as often as he could.

anyway, congrats to jeets and simmons and walker. it will be interesting to see if anyone joins them in 2021 as the first ballot crop is not strong. could it be the year for barry bonds, roger clemens, or curt schilling? i kind of hope so (for two of those guys anyway), although all three are already in my final tribute collection.

i've also added a couple more players to my final tribute collection. this is in parallel with some additions to my hall of famer collection. when i was a young fan and followed baseball religiously (especially national league baseball), i considered dale murphy and dave parker (along with steve garvey) to be locks for the hall of fame. so, i've added those three to my hall of famer collection.

garvey was already in my final tribute collection (thank you 1988 score!), but i've now added dave parker's lone final tribute card, found in the 1992 upper deck set

with his career totals but only five years worth of stat lines on the back:

it looks like the cobra returned to the donut bat weight after using a sledgehammer in the on-deck circle earlier in the 1991 season with the angels as documented on his 1991 upper deck high number card.

dale murphy tragically does not have any cards from 1994 that would fully document his two-time mvp winning career, but i did add another of my favorite players from that era to the final tribute collection. that would be my first favorite non-dodger, don baylor.  baylor received cards from upper deck,

fleer

and topps

with topps being the clear winner by showing baylor's entire year-by-year stats on the back. that is how you do a final tribute! topps didn't put stolen bases on the backs of the 1978 set, so i don't recall when it was that i discovered that baylor had stolen 52 bases in 1976. i thought of him as a slugger not a speedster, so it was cool to find out that he had been close to the 30-30 level a couple of times.

so far this year, topps has given us an ichiro final tribute (although it was a photo variation short print in series 1 and again in series 2) and a cc sabathia card in heritage. curtis granderson got a card in big league although it was an award winner and not a regular card with stats on the back. i am still not convinced that there will be a 2020 season, so i wonder if there are players who finished their careers in 2019 without necessarily realizing it at the time. albert pujols comes to mind, but he is signed through 2021, so he probably returns to the field at some point. time will tell, and in the meantime, i am really hoping for that 1974 design willie mays card to be a part of this year's archives release!