34

 

The Dodgers are retiring Fernando Valenzuela's uniform number "34" tonight.

It seems like they just did the uniform-retiring thing and that's because it happened last year with Gil Hodges' "14" being retired.

Valenzuela breaks tradition as he's just the second Dodger player not in the Hall of Fame to have his number retired. The other is Jim Gilliam. Last year I wrote a post about Hodges' number being retired and boasting about how the Dodgers don't retire numbers willy-nilly like some clubs, and now, I guess, the Dodgers are going to be every other team.

But for Valenzuela it doesn't bother me much. Maybe I'm making excuses for my favorite team (you know, like every fan does) but retiring No. 34 seems right. Valenzuela's impact on the Dodgers is among the greatest of any player in team history. His legacy is felt throughout MLB and in two countries. He remained a part of the Dodgers long after his retirement.

Also maybe the Dodgers are done waiting 50 years after a former player's death to retire their number.

Hopefully, if they are going to retire any other non-Hall of Famer numbers, they'll restrict it to players like Fernando.

Anyway, this is a good reason to return to my uniform numbers post. I mentioned the last time I did this, with Gil Hodges, that I used to update this theme regularly, back before baseball-reference and others made uniform number research much more accessible. These posts don't seem quite as necessary (and probably aren't as interesting to people).

Fernando, by far, is the greatest player to wear No. 34 in Dodgers history. Nobody has worn the number since he left the Dodgers.

Other notables to wear No. 34 for L.A. are Waite Hoyt (at the end of his career), Pete Reiser (the first part of his rookie year), Eddie Miksis and Ken Brett.

Two other players wore No. 34 enough for it to appear on Dodgers cards in my collection.

Norm Sherry wore the number between 1959 and 1962, while catching his brother Larry.

Lee Lacy wore the number between 1972-78. He wore the number the longest until Valenzuela.

Valenzuela has displayed the No. 34 in a Dodger uniform on cards far more than any other Dodger player. There are lots of examples in my collection. I'll just show the seven (3+4) that feature the number most prominently.

 

1986 Topps: The rare back-of-the-uniform example. I have this card signed with the Topps logo crossed out. But I've shown it a number of times already.

 

 

 

1982 Topps Highlights: This is really the first card in his career where you can see his whole number. One of his two 1982 Fleer cards shows the top part of the number.

1991 Topps: One of my most favorite Fernando cards, the first major issue card -- believe it or not -- to show Valenzuela in action looking up as he goes into his wind-up.

1990 Donruss Best of the NL: The first of the cards where the No. 34 stands out boldly as Valenzuela goes about his work. All of the Dodgers cards in this set are sharp.

2015 Topps Baseball History insert: A clearer looking-up shot and a proper recognition of one of the happiest periods of the 1981 baseball season.

1986 Donruss: I've always liked this card (despite that terrible border). The number 34 couldn't be more prominent except ...

1991 Classic Purple: There you are. That number takes up maybe 10 percent of the entire card!

¡Felicidades Fernando!