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
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.
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!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Mattingly managed the Dodgers for 5 years. I include manager cards.