my retired number collection - 31

this is the 31st 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 31 has been retired:

dave winfield (retired by the padres in 2001) 1975 topps

dave winfield spent the first 8 seasons of his major league career with the padres, hitting .284 with 154 homers and 626 rbi during that time, while racking up 1,154 hits. he actually spent more time (1 more season) with the yankees, but san diego is where he was a league leader for the only time in his career (1979 rbis), and he decided to wear a san diego cap on his hall of fame plaque, so it makes sense that the team retired his number, doing so on april 14, 2001 just a few months before winfield was inducted into cooperstown.

winfield's 1975 topps card is his second year card, and it gives a nice view of the number which was last worn on the field by matt clement in 2000. even after being gone from the franchise for over 40 years, winfield still remains high on the club's all-time offensive category leader boards - he is second in rbi and runs scored, fourth in home runs, and third in hits and plate appearances. he was definitely an all-time great for the padres. 

fergie jenkins (retired by the cubs in 2009) 1994 upper deck all-time heroes

jenkins had two stints with the cubs, spending most of eight seasons with them early in his career and then returning to close out his hall of fame career with two seasons in the early 1980's. during his first run with the club, jenkins had four seasons in which he finished in the top 3 in cy young award voting, and he won the award in 1971 when his 24 wins were tops in the national league. in all, jenkins posted six straight years with 20 or more wins and he won a total of 167 games as a cub - the most of any modern era cub - and his 2,038 strikeouts as a cub are the most in franchise history regardless of era.

jenkins was voted into the hall of fame in 1991, but the cubs didn't retire his number (which is mostly visible on his 1994 upper deck all-time heroes card) until may 3, 2009 when they also recognized another all-time great pitcher who wore the number after jenkins had retired.

greg maddux (retired by the cubs in 2009) 1988 topps

ray fontenot wore number 31 for the cubs immediately after jenkins retired, but at some point in 1986, greg maddux took the number and eventually became the last cub to wear it on the field, and the number shows up nicely on maddux's 1988 topps card. the cubs retired the number for both jenkins and maddux on the same day - the aforementioned may 3, 2009 - which came shortly after maddux announced his retirement.

like jenkins, maddux had two separate tenures with the cubs. and, like jenkins, maddux won the cy young award as a cub, taking home the trophy in 1992. in his time with the franchise (8 seasons plus two partial seasons), maddux won 133 games and struck out 1,305 batters. he is sixth all-time in strikeouts for the cubs, and fifth in games started. 

greg maddux (retired by the braves in 2009) 1997 topps

greg maddux's 1997 topps card is very similar to his 1988 topps card, and i appreciate having these two similar looking cards representing maddux in this collection. the braves retiring maddux's number - they did so on july 17, 2009 - was a no-brainer. he had his best seasons in atlanta, winning four consecutive cy young awards as well as the 1995 world series title.

maddux won 194 games as a brave and struck out 1,828 batters in his 11-year tenure with the club. those numbers place him among other brave hall of fame pitchers on the franchise all-time leader board, but those pitchers - spahn, niekro, glavine, and smoltz - all spent many more seasons as braves. maddux was the last brave to wear number 31, and he was inducted into the hall of fame in 2014 on his first ballot.

mike piazza (retired by the mets in 2016) 2000 upper deck

the mets kept number 31 out of circulation after piazza left the club as a free agent following the 2005 season, and then retired number it for piazza on july 30, 2016, a few days after his hall of fame induction took place in cooperstown. i like seeing an upper deck flagship card representing piazza, as his career took place entirely within, and almost the entire span of, the upper deck baseball era. the 2000 upper deck card shows his number on the black alternate jerseys that i believe the mets planned on bringing back this season, but there has been a supplier delay as i understand it. seems like fanatics is doing well with uniforms this year.

it's worth noting that john franco, himself a met icon and probably worthy of a number retirement, wore number 31 until piazza showed up. franco switched to 45 so piazza could keep wearing 31 as he had done for the vast majority of his career previously as a dodger and marlin. as a met, piazza hit 220 home runs and batted .296 over seven-plus seasons. he led the mets to the 2000 pennant and cemented himself as a no-doubt hall of famer, although it took him four ballots to get in. 

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

retired numbers by team (through the 31 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, 27, 30, 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, 27, 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, 31, 42

astros - 5, 7, 24, 25, 42

mets - 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 31, 42

orioles - 4, 5, 8, 20, 22, 42

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

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)

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): 129

running total of non-hall of famers: 44

my retired number collection - 42

this is the 25th 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.

i am skipping ahead a bit here, with jackie robinson day coming on monday. so, without further ado, here are the three people for whom number 42 has been retired:

jackie robinson (retired by the dodgers in 1972) 2008 topps stadium club

the dodgers retired number 42 for robinson on june 4, 1972 in a ceremony that also saw numbers 32 and 39 retired for sandy koufax and roy campanella, respectively. the trio were the first to be honored by the franchise, and i like to think that jackie was the first number retired of the three as he was the first to be enshrined in cooperstown, with his induction taking place in 1962. oddly enough, the dodgers, who had held his number out of rotation since robinson retired, issued the number briefly to ray lamb in 1969.

robinson's 2008 topps stadium club card is a good looking card except for the fact that it is miscut (i don't think i've seen one without the white "border" at the bottom). it gives a good look at his number, and so is appropriate for the collection. as for his career, robinson was the 1947 rookie of the year and the 1949 mvp of the national league. he helped the dodgers get their first world series championship in 1955 and retired after the 1956 season with a .313 lifetime batting average.

jackie robinson (retired by mlb in 1997) 2015 topps the jackie robinson story

in honor of jackie robinson's contribution to the game of baseball as the first black man allowed to play in the major leagues, number 42 was retired across the entire league on april 15, 1997 - the fiftieth anniversary of his debut for the dodgers. active players who were wearing 42 at the time could continue to wear it, but clubs were not allowed to issue it to new players.  here's a list of each team's last player to wear 42 on the field, according to baseball reference:

dodgers: ray lamb (1969)

diamondbacks: franchise began play in 1998 

braves: armando reynoso (1992)

orioles: lenny webster (1999)

red sox: mo vaughn (1998)

cubs: glenallen hill (1993)

white sox: scott ruffcorn (1996)

reds: roger salkeld (1996)

guardians: michael jackson (1997)

rockies: armando reynoso (1996)

tigers: jose lima (2002)

astros: jose lima (2001)

royals: tom goodwin (1997)

angels: mo vaughn (2000)

marlins: dennis cook (1997)

brewers: scott karl (1999)

twins: michael jackson (2002)

expos: kirk reuter (1996)

mets: mo vaughn (2003)

yankees: mariano rivera (2013)

a's: buddy groom (1997)

phillies: toby borland (1996)

pirates: jason schmidt (1997)

padres: pedro martinez (1994)

giants: kirk rueter (1997)

mariners: butch huskey (1999)

cardinals: jose oliva (1995)

rays: franchise began play in 1998 

rangers: marc sagmoen (1997)

blue jays: xavier hernandez (1999)

nationals: franchise began play in 2005

i am not 100% sure about sagmoen for the rangers. he made his big league debut on april 15, 1997 and i would find it surprising that the team would give him number 42 to wear on the night it was being retired. the practice of players wearing 42 on jackie robinson day didn't take hold until later.

bruce sutter (retired by the cardinals in 2006) 1982 fleer

we already know that sutter wasn't the last cardinal to wear number 42, but the team retired it in his honor on september 17, 2006 after being inducted into the hall of fame the month prior. sutter pitched for the cardinals for only four seasons, but he led the league in saves in three of them and was a top-5 cy young award vote getter in those same three seasons.

using his 1982 fleer card here is appropriate as 1982 was the year that sutter helped the cardinals beat the brewers in the world series. he saved two of the cardinals' four wins in the series, and notched the win in a third.

mariano rivera (retired by the yankees in 2013) 1997 topps

rivera was the last yankee and the last player to wear number 42. he was also the only (to date) player to be unanimously inducted into the hall of fame, receiving 100% of the writers' vote in 2019. the yankees, however, had already retired 42 in his honor on september 22, 2013 - just a few days before he made the final appearance of his career. 

rivera is the game's all-time leader in saves with 652. he also saved 42 postseason games as a part of the yankees' resurgence that uncoincidentally coincided with rivera's career which lasted from 1995 through 2013. he was a big part of their five world championship teams during that span, winning the 1999 world series mvp award along the way.

i originally used rivera's 2010 topps card 

for this collection, but moved that card to my name/number on the back collection after i pulled his 1997 topps card from my sportlots inventory.

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, 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, 42

royals - 5, 10, 20, 42

padres - 6, 19, 42

athletics - 9, 24, 42

angels - 11, 42

expos - 8, 10, 42

rangers - 7, 10, 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 (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)

25 - 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): 113

running total of non-hall of famers: 42

my retired numbers collection - lucky number 7

this is the eighth 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 the number 7 has been retired:

7 mickey mantle (retired by the yankees in 1969) 2008 topps chrome

mickey mantle announced his retirement on march 1, 1969, and thankfully topps kept him in the set that year. they noted his retirement announcement on the back of the card, along with the fact that he retired with baseball's third highest home run total of all time. his other achievements include a triple crown in 1956, three mvp trophies, and seven world series titles. he was a yankee lifer, and the club retired his number a few months after his announcement, on june 8 to be exact, making mantle the last yankee to wear 7. he was inducted into the hall of fame in 1974 on the first ballot as you would expect from an icon such as mantle.

i like the fact that topps started including him in sets once they secured the rights. having number 7 missing from flagship sets was a bit weird. the 2008 topps chrome card i've used for this collection is a great card in my opinion. the angle of the photo suggests that the photographer was in the stands rather than a photographer's well. i may have to track down the refractor version of this card at some point.

7 craig biggio (retired by the astros in 2008) 2002 donruss originals

i really was a fan of this set when it was issued, perhaps in response to topps' heritage release the previous year. donruss, however, skipped 1981 altogether. anway, the 1984 design that they used for this card of craig biggio shows his number 7 pretty clearly and so it was the card that i chose. biggio's number was retired by the franchise on august 17, 2008. biggio had hung up his spikes at the end of the 2007 season with more than 3,000 hits and 400 stolen bases and so was the last astro to wear number 7.

biggio, who only suited up for the astros during his career, was voted in to the hall of fame in 2015, his third year on the ballot. i used to think that 3,000 hits or strikeouts was an automatic stamp, but that has been disproven time and time again. still, i am glad that biggio was enshrined as i followed his career fairly closely once he moved to second base.

7 ivan rodriguez (retired by the rangers in 2017) 1997 topps

the rangers retired number 7 for irod on august 12, 2017 following his induction in the hall of fame. he spent most of his career in texas over two separate tenures, and when he left the club each time, his number was put back in to rotation. as a result, delino deshields (the son of the delino deshields who was traded by the expos to the dodgers for pedro martinez - sigh) was the last ranger to wear number 7 on the field.

rodriguez had his best years in a ranger uniform, winning the 1999 mvp, although his best postseason success came as a tiger and a marlin. he appeared in the world series with both of those franchises, winning a ring in 2003 with florida. i chose the 1997 topps card for this collection because it is hard to find a card showing his number when he is wearing the catching gear.

7 joe mauer (retired by the twins in 2019) 2011 topps chrome

the speculation was rampant that 2018 was going to be mauer's last year, and when he donned the catching gear in the last game of the season, i think it became clear that he was intending to retire. he did formally announce his retirement during the offseason, and so the twins retired his number 7 on june 15, 2019 making him the last twin to wear the number. 

mauer was the first pick in the 2001 draft, and the st. paul native played his entire career for his hometown (well, the city next door, anyway) team. 2023 is his first year on the hall of fame ballot, and my guess is that he doesn't get the votes this year. i expect to see him enshrined in cooperstown within the next five years, however, as his peak was high with three batting titles and an mvp award to his name. 

[edit - mauer was elected to the hall of fame on his first ballot! i will update the stats below accordingly]

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

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

yankees - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

giants - 3, 4

pirates - 1, 4

guardians - 3, 5

red sox - 1, 4, 6

phillies - 1

cardinals - 1, 2, 6

reds - 1, 5

braves - 3, 6

astros - 5, 7

mets

orioles - 4, 5

dodgers - 1, 2, 4

twins - 3, 6, 7

white sox - 2, 3, 4

brewers - 1, 4

tigers - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

cubs

royals - 5

padres - 6

athletics

angels

expos

rangers - 7

major league baseball

rays

diamondbacks

blue jays

rockies

mariners

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

unnumbered players - 12 players recognized by 4 teams

running total of unique hall of famers (including those without numbers): 52

running total of non-hall of famers: 7

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!

1990's represent!

sometime around the year 2000, i began putting together "sampler" sets of topps sets from 1952 through 1969. i had no intention of ever completing any of those sets, and i figured it would be a fun idea to pick up a card from each team and each subset for those older sets.

i finished the task in a few years (it was a low priority), but then decided to scrap the collection as i began putting together the 1965 and 1957 sets.  now, i've decided to put together a "representative card" mini collection that will make it easier for me to see a great card from each topps flagship set from 1952 on.

i'll show off the cards occasionally, along with a reason for choosing that particular card. i won't use a card that is in my dodger collection, or any other collection for that matter, so i should wind up with a good variety.  here are the cards that represent the 1990's in this mini collection:

1990 - bob welch

the 1990 set has grown on me over the last 30 years. when it was the current set, i couldn't stand it and i purchased very little of it - a box maybe. i eventually collected the full dodger team set and bought a complete set just to appease my inner collector. it has since grown on me, and this bob welch card is actually pretty nice.  1990 was a big year for old friend bob welch, who won 27 games for the american league champion a's while losing 6 - he only had 2 no decisions! he also took home the cy young award which perhaps offered him some consolation for being swept by the reds in the world series.

1991 - ken griffey jr

as much as i disliked the 1990 topps design, i loved 1991. ken griffey jr's card is a decent one to represent the set (i already have the carlton fisk card in my 'favorite cards of the year' mini-collection). jr was just 21 during the 1991 season, but he hit 22 homers, drove in 100 runs, and had a batting average of .327, all while making for must see tv on sportscenter.

1992 - barry bonds

i didn't mind the 1992 topps design, and it had some great looking photos in the set. tommy lasorda's card was a standout for me, but with the initial release of the gold parallels, barry bonds' card was the one i was looking for. one of the local card shops had asked me if i had pulled that particular card, as they were on the lookout and promised a decent sum for it. i never did find one, but bonds' regular card is worthy of representing the set here. he won his second mvp award that year, which was his last in a pirate uniform.

1993 - tony gwynn

i was out of college by the time the 1993 season began, and working full-time in my chosen field which wasn't a guarantee back then. i didn't make it to many games that season, but it began to dawn on me that i could get to padres games almost as easily as i could get to dodger games. i began testing that theory in 1994. meanwhile, gwynn was doing gwynn things - hitting over .300 for the 11th year in a row - and he posted the third highest batting average of his career up to that point. unfortunately for him, his .358 mark wasn't enough to win his fifth batting crown - baseball had come to colorado, and andres galarraga hit .370  (.402 at mile high stadium) on the season.

1994 - frank thomas

the strike year. many things come to mind when i recall 1994 - tony gwynn (would he have hit .400?), matt williams (would he have hit 62 homers?), the expos (would they have won the world series?), jody reed (did he regret turning down the dodgers' offer which put the wheels in motion for the pedro martinez trade as much as dodger fans came to regret it?), and so on and so forth. one of the other players who comes to mind is frank thomas. the big hurt had a big 1994 season with a 1.217 ops fueled by an obscene .487 on base percentage. it was his second straight mvp award, and his 1994 numbers weren't too far off from his 1993 stats even though he had played in 40 fewer games.

1995 - dave winfield

one of the things that gave me hope that the 1994 season would be salvaged was the indians' purchase of dave winfield's ontract from the twins in august of 1994. i figured that the move wouldn't have been made if the season weren't going to resume, given that winfield's contract was up at the end of the season. unfortunately, the season was cancelled. however, i was happy that winfield signed with the indians for the 1995 season and so got to be a part of the team that brought a pennant back to cleveland for the first time since 1954! i don't think winfield was on the postseason roster, but i was definitely rooting for his teammates, including orel hershiser, that fall.

1996 - cal ripken jr

aside from the dodgers winning the nl west for the first time since 1988 and the indians returning to the fall classic for the first time in my lifetime, the highlight of the 1995 season was cal ripken and consecutive game number 2,131. as a steve garvey fan, i learned all about lou gehrig early on, and paid close attention to ripken's streak. 1996 topps has a highlight card that focuses on that event specifically, but i keep that in my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection so i chose this card to represent 1996 instead. ripken reaching game 2,131 was a feat that really had me paying attention to baseball after the strike and loss of the 1994 postseason. i never thought about giving up on the sport, but i don't think it was hyperbole for many to believe that ripken and his streak saved baseball for a lot of people.

1997 - paul molitor

1997 was the year that i moved to minnesota. too late to see kirby puckett play, but in time to catch my one-time favorite non-dodger paul molitor. molitor had signed with his hometown twins for the 1996 season, and he had a fantastic year. in addition to batting .341, he recorded his 3,000th hit towards the end of the season. while his 1997 season was not quite as eventful, he did hit over .300 and drove in 89 runs as a 40/41 year-old. i made sure to catch some games at dodger stadium and the big a before i made my move, but only managed to catch the twins on tv over the last month or so of the season. still, 1997 will always mean minnesota to me.

1998 - mark mcgwire

who else but mark mcgwire would be best to represent 1998? sammy sosa, maybe, but it was big mac who set the season record for home runs that year. as luck would have it, the cardinals returned to minnesota in late june for the first time since the 1987 world series, and i was there for one of the games. we were sitting in left field hoping for a mcgwire home run, but the closest he came was a warning track fly ball off of bob tewksbury. i recorded the game in which mcgwire hit 62 and also the game in which he hit number 70 - i was fully on board the home run train at the time. the next year, some friends and i roadtripped to st. louis to see the dodgers play the cardinals for a weekend series, and big mac failed to homer in those games, too. just my luck, i guess.

1999 - nomar garciaparra

here's another former favorite non-dodger in the collection. the american league shortstop triumvirate of nomar, derek jeter, and alex rodriguez was dominating in the late 90's, and nomar was my favorite of the group. he won his first batting title in 1999 and helped the red sox advance to the alcs for the first time since 1990, although they lost (for the first, but not the last time) to the yankees in a postseason series.  i found myself in boston the weekend before the all-star game somewhat by chance. the red sox weren't in town, so going to a game was not an option, but i did walk past fenway for the first time and bought an all-star game t-shirt. i didn't suggest going to fanfest (we were there to visit extended family), but i was disappointed later to learn that steve garvey had been there. another opportunity lost!

 

up next, the 2000's represent! stay tuned...