This night card features the number 13 more prominently than any other card in my collection. For this reason alone, it should go in the night card binder. But I'll determine that in a minute.
I wrote about players wearing the No. 13 in a post previously. And true to the superstition, the post was a jinx. The Dodgers, on a record-setting run at the time of 13 straight wins at home to start the season, lost after my post was published and Manny Ramirez was busted for PEDs.
I haven't learned my lesson and I'm going to write about 13 a little more since today is July 13th.
Valentin wore No. 13 for awhile. I knew there were others who wore it longer, but I didn't know how many. I knew Concepcion, Vizquel and Guillen had to be up there. Billy Wagner, too. So I thought it'd be interesting to see which players have worn the No. 13 the longest. Fortunately, baseball-reference.com made this a much too easy task.
Here is the list of longest No. 13-jersey wearers:
1. Omar Vizquel, 21 years
2. Dave Concepcion, 19
3. Lance Parrish, 18
4. Ozzie Guillen, 16
5. Billy Wagner, 16
6. Joe Ferguson, 14
7. John "Blue Moon" Odom 13
8. Edgardo Alfonzo, 11
9. Jeff Fassero, 11
10. Antonio Osuna, 11
11. Carl Crawford, 10
12. Roy Howell, 10
13. Claude Passeau, 10
14. John Valentin, 10
15. Jose Lind, 9
16. Mike Pagliarulo, 9
17. Alex Rodriguez, 9
18. Steve Barber, 8
19. Ralph Branca, 8
20. Alex Cora, 8
21. Jim Leyritz, 8
22. Bill Tuttle, 8
23. Asdrubal Cabrera, 7
24. Ernie Camacho, 7
25. Mort Cooper, 7
26. Kirby Higbe, 7
27. Turk Wendell, 7
Active players are in bold. Oft-injured Carl Crawford is the active player who has worn the number the longest, although he wears No. 25 for the Dodgers now. Hanley Ramirez wears 13. Alex Rodriguez, unless he changes his number, will have worn the number the longest among active players when he returns to the Yankees.
There are seven players on that list associated with the Dodgers (Ferguson, Crawford, Osuna, Branca, Cora, Leyritz, Higbe). Eight, if you want to count Valentin's last five years as a coach in the Dodgers minor league system (Nine if you want to count Parrish's stay with L.A. in the minors in '93).
I don't know what that says and I don't want to theorize.
Because I don't want to jinx anything.
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Night Card Binder candidate: John Valentin, 1996 Collector's Choice, #471
Does it make the binder?: Why not? Let's voodoo up the night card binder.
Comments
I wore 13 for almost a decade, until last year when I started wearing 1/11. I guess that's all I was getting at. Enjoying that Valentin., though. I kind of miss Collector's Choice (dodges bricks.)