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More totaling

 

I decided to go a little deeper into my calculating of which players have the most cards in my collection.

I wanted to further illustrate how dominant the late '90s/early '00s are when you're totaling up something like this. I also wanted to see who the top five non-Dodgers are in my collection, going beyond Nolan Ryan and George Brett.

When you look deeper into numbers, that's when you catch mistakes. It turns out George Brett doesn't have the second-highest number of cards in my collection among players who haven't played for the Dodgers.

 
I somehow overlooked Reggie Jackson, who, of course, should have a lot of cards in my collection. I have 106 Reggie Jacksons, which is more than the 98 George Bretts.
 
The other mistake was in mentioning that Ron Cey was 37th on the list. He's actually 38th. I missed Roy Campanella.


He appears in 143 cards in my collection, three more than Cey. Much like Jackie Robinson, precious few of the Campanellas in my collection are from when he played. Six (or maybe 7, if you count the cards from '59 Topps) out of the 143 were issued during his playing days.

OK, so this is the more in-depth list. It only goes to 75 names because that's how long it took for me to find five non-Dodgers in my totals.

From the start:

1. Clayton Kershaw - 761 cards
2. Mike Piazza - 587
3. Hideo Nomo - 532
4. Shawn Green - 440
5. Matt Kemp - 427
6. Eric Karros - 424
7. Raul Mondesi - 309
8. Adrian Beltre - 334
9. Jackie Robinson - 304
10. Orel Hershiser - 293

11. Andre Ethier - 288
12. Kevin Brown - 269
13. Chan Ho Park - 263
14. Russell Martin - 246
15. Ramon Martinez - 245
      Gary Sheffield - 245
17. Eric Gagne - 221
18. Sandy Koufax - 220
19. Chad Billingsley - 205
      Corey Seager - 205

21. Adrian Gonzalez - 203
22. Yasiel Puig - 199
23. Duke Snider - 187
24. Brett Butler - 185
25. Cody Bellinger - 182
26. Jeff Kent - 179
27. Fernando Valenzuela - 168
28. Paul LoDuca - 167
      Manny Ramirez - 167
30. Rafael Furcal - 157
 
31. Todd Hollandsworth - 155
      Kaz Ishii - 155
33. James Loney - 154
34. Kenley Jansen - 153
35. Steve Garvey - 150
36. Darryl Strawberry - 149
37. Roy Campanella - 143
38. Ron Cey - 140
39. Joc Pederson - 139
40. Eddie Murray - 135
 
41. Hanley Ramirez - 134
42. Kirk Gibson - 129
43. Paul Konerko - 127
      Brad Penny - 127
      Pee Wee Reese - 127
      Don Sutton - 127
47. Mike Scioscia - 123
48. Ismael Valdes - 122
49. Zach Greinke - 119
50. Nolan Ryan - 118
 
51. Jose Offerman - 115
      Hyun-Jin Ryu - 115
53. Pedro Guerrero - 111
54. Dee Gordon - 109
55. Tom Candiotti - 108
      J.D. Drew - 108
57. Reggie Jackson - 106
      Justin Turner - 106
59. Rickey Henderson - 103
60. Walker Buehler - 99
       Tim Wallach - 99

62. George Brett - 98
63. Delino DeShields - 97
       Steve Sax - 97
65. Gary Carter - 94
66. Mike Schmidt - 92
67. Derek Lowe - 91
68. Darren Dreifort - 90
69. Todd Worrell - 88
70. Don Drysdale - 87
      Tom Lasorda - 87
72. Don Mattingly - 86
73. Carlton Fisk - 85
      Karim Garcia - 85
      Nomar Garciaparra - 85
 
So, did you spot the non-Dodgers?
 
Ryan is at No. 50. Jackson is at 57.
 



Brett comes in at No. 62, Mike Schmidt at 66 and Carlton Fisk at 73.

Those are the top 5 non-Dodgers. Finishing just off the list is Albert Pujols with 83 cards. Don't ask me how I accumulated those. After that it's Cal Ripken Jr. (76), Dwight Gooden (74), Tom Seaver, Robin Yount and Dave Winfield (all 73), Wade Boggs and Pete Rose (72), and Ozzie Smith (71).

Like I said on the earlier post, many of the Dodgers from the late '90s/early '00s that are on the list I never specifically tried to acquire. They simply arrived in my pursuit of Dodgers in general. People like J.D Drew and Ismael Valdes, it's still absurd to me that I have more cards of them than I do of someone I appreciate a lot more like Davey Lopes (71) or Dusty Baker (66).

I'm probably going to fill in the rest of the numbers until I have my top 100 and then I'll keep that list and add to it when I get one of those cards (I've already updated a few guys above from the list I published on Monday).

Will this make me a player collector? No. It's just for reference.
 
It's interesting to know that I have 20 more cards of Roger Cedeno than I do of Johnny Bench. Even if it's downright weird.

Comments

Does that include cards that you have in sets? Or just cards from your presumably separate collection of players by name. Do you keep these in boxes or binders or both? Sorry to ask so many questions. I don't know how you---or anyone---keeps track of so many historical players & their cards. For the guys that played on more than the Dodgers, like Strawberry, is your total just Dodgers cards or do you include Mets, Yankees and Giants? Happy Thanksgiving.
night owl said…
Totals are complete totals, regardless of who they played for. I don't keep separate player collections.

Whatever I have of that player -- whether it's in a binder, box, hanging from the rear view mirror in the car -- it counts in the grand total for that player.
I've liked that Brett card ever since I first found it in a pack 40 years ago. The 1980 design, All-Star banner, the profile shot, the intense look on Brett's face, the powder blue Royals uniform, the facsimile autograph -- all with Old Comiskey Park serving as a backdrop -- that's a great card.

Your mention of Drew and Valdes made me wonder: Who's the player you have the most cards of, who was neither a Dodger nor a baseball icon?

Maybe there's an idea for a future post!

Fuji said…
The only person in your Top 75 list that I'm not familiar with is Darren Dreifort. After looking up his cards on COMC, it looks like he played in the 90's... which is kind of surprising, because I opened up a lot of those products he's in back then.
Nick Vossbrink said…
Quite a few guys on that list who I didn't realize played for the Dodgers.
bryan was here said…
I probably have about that many Tom Candiotti cards too. He was one of my favourites when he pitched for the Indians. It's been said Phil Niekro taught him the knuckleball when they were teammates on the Indians in '86-87. Candiotti even said something like it was like learning about light bulbs from Thomas Edison.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
GTT said…
Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks like your counting Don Mattingly as a Dodger. Go Yankees! :)
CinciCuse Bill said…
Didn’t know R. Henderson was a Dodger! Happy Thanksgiving all!
night owl said…
@GTT ~

Mattingly managed the Dodgers for 5 years. I include manager cards.
Chris said…
Thanks for this look at your personal leaderboard. It's really interesting to me considering you're such a team collector. I've cataloged all of my cards on TCDB and I occasionally glance at my top players, but the numbers aren't as impressive or interesting. Except my football collection, since that's one sport where I'm more of a team collector than a set collector.