i forgot the 1989 topps steve garvey card that should have been

a few days ago when i posted the don sutton and rick rhoden cards that were left out of the 1989 topps and 1989 topps traded sets, respectively, i overlooked another card that should have been, featuring a member of the 1978 topps dodgers.  i use the phrase 'should have been' very loosely here, as there really was no way this card was even a thought back then, whereas i would like to think that the folks at topps at least considered sutton and rhoden.  this is a season highlight card commemorating the retirement of steve garvey's number by the san diego padres.

it's modeled after the record breaker subset in 1989 topps - here's the orel hershiser card from the set

with dodger stadium as the backdrop even though the card celebrates the achievement of 59 consecutive scoreless innings, which the bulldog reached in san diego.  and, san diego is where the number retirement took place on april 16, 1988.  here's the back with all the details:

if you look closely at the photo i used for the card, there is a giant reproduction of garvey's 1982 donruss diamond kings card behind him.  the actual display showed up on ebay a while back, with the seller asking for $1000 or some such.

garvey was the first player to have his number retired by the padres, although he has since been joined by randy jones, dave winfield, tony gwynn, and trevor hoffman.  the dodgers held garvey's number out of circulation for 20 years (from the time garvey left the club in 1983 until his hall of fame balloting days were almost through in 2003), and then jolbert cabrera was allowed to wear it, as you can see on this 2003 upper deck 40 man card.

i don't recall hearing about the number retirement back when it happened, but i do recall being pleasantly surprised to see his number up on the outfield wall at jack murphy stadium the first time i visited, probably in 1990 or 91.  somewhere i have a photo from that game of the number 6 in front of some palm trees that were planted behind the fence.

it is highly unlikely that garvey will make the hall of fame (he's been on a couple committee ballots and failed in recent years), and so the padres will be the only franchise to have retired his number.  at least i have a card to remember it by.