Uniform number (Major League Baseball)
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Like in many sports, a baseball player's (or coach's) uniform number has the purpose of identifying the player. However, it has come over time to have a much more significant meaning to the player and fans. A number can be symbolic of a player's legacy, and has resulted in all kinds of superstition.
At one time, a baseball player's number was specifically related to his place in the batting lineup. The regular starting eight wore numbers 1 through 8, while the backup catcher wore number 9. Starting pitchers generally took numbers 10, 11, 12, and 14, (avoiding the superstitious #13, although some pitchers tried it, perhaps most notably the star-crossed pitcher Ralph Branca), while reserve pitchers and position players took the remaining numbers, 15 through 26.
Today, in Major League Baseball, numbers are taken by players very much indiscriminately with regards to these positions. Only pitchers often have higher numbers than other players based on the old system, and certain numbers have been held by many high-profile players in a particular position.
Even to this day, low numbers are generally associated with being an everyday player, and many players try to get one, no matter what it is. This is also due to the fact that in Spring Training, minor league players unlikely to make the roster are usually given very high numbers, and many players feel that the higher the number, the less likely you are to make the team after Spring Training.
In general, few regular players have numbers above the 50s, and most of those whose numbers are in the 50s are pitchers, though this trend has been changing in the past generation. Infielders tend to have the lowest numbers of all.
But there are some exceptions.
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[edit] High profile players with high numbers
The notable exception to this rule is So Taguchi, the former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder who wore #99. Former Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Cliff Johnson wore #99, and former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Mitch Williams also wore #99.
Albert Belle wore #88 when he played with the Baltimore Orioles 1999-2000. He had worn #8 with two teams before, but could not get it because of Cal Ripken Jr.
Some players have reversed the digits on a number they had on a previous team. Carlton Fisk wore #27 when he was a catcher with the Boston Red Sox, and upon being traded to the Chicago White Sox, switched his number to the highly-unusual baseball uniform #72. Red Sox pitcher Eric Gagné, who originally wore #38, was forced to wear #83 because #38 was not available with the Red Sox because long-time pitcher Curt Schilling had it. Upon signing with the Milwaukee Brewers, Gagne got his old number after Matt Wise was cut loose.
In 2006, J.T. Snow's final season, in which he played with the Red Sox, he wore #84, the number of his father Jack Snow in football, in his father's honor. This was the highest uniform number ever worn by a Red Sox player. Snow retired after the 2006 season.
Many regular Yankees players now have higher than usual uniform numbers because the team has retired more numbers than any other. Bobby Abreu wears #53, and Hideki Matsui wears #55.
[edit] Attachments
While some players will wear a variety of different numbers throughout their careers as they move from team to team, others have become so attached to a specific number, for whatever reason (including superstition), that try to acquire it as they join a new club.
In some cases, the number is available on a player's new club, other times, the number will already be in use by another member of that team (or sometimes retired). When this occurs, the player sometimes will ask the other to change numbers in order to surrender the beloved number to the newcomer. Some players holding a number in such a case will voluntarily make such a change; others will need to be "bribed" in order to do so. For example, when Rickey Henderson was traded to the Blue Jays in 1993, he paid new teammate Turner Ward $25,000 for the #24 that Henderson had worn through a lot of his career, and that Ward had been wearing at the time.
Some players, when they were unable to get the number they had on their previous team, will obtain a number close in succession. Roger Clemens wore #21 during the first 15 years of his career with the Red Sox and Blue Jays, and during his college days at Texas. He has since worn #22 in his successive years with the Yankees and Astros. Upon Clemens' arrival in New York, he reportedly asked tenured Yankee outfielder Paul O'Neill to surrender his #21, but O'Neill refused. Though he would eventually opt for #22, Clemens initially reversed the 2-1 and wore #12. Clemens continued to wear #22 upon signing with his hometown Houston Astros in 2004 and, upon resigning with the Yankees, Robinson Cano, owner of #22 at the beginning of the 2007 season, moved to #24 in anticipation of the Yankees possibly resigning Clemens, leaving #22 available for the Rocket.[1]
Omar Olivares requested the number 00 to represent his initials (OO) while pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals. He remains one of the last major league players to wear double zero.
Dave Winfield, who had #31 in his first 18 years, spent with the Padres and Yankees, had #32 with 3 different teams between 1990 and 1994. He once again wore #31 in 1995, the final year of his career, in which he played with the Indians.
In his first career game, Eric Davis did not have a jersey number.
A reversal of digits is another option many have taken, as in the cases of Fisk, Gagne, and briefly Clemens. Derek Lowe of the Los Angeles Dodgers wore #32 during his time with the Red Sox, but switched the digits around to #23 when he signed with the Dodgers after the 2004 season because #32 was retired in 1972 in honor of pitcher Sandy Koufax' induction into the Hall of Fame.
For some players, the uniform number plays an extension beyond the game. For example, according to the 1987 Topps card for Joaquín Andújar, he has decorated his home with his uniform #47.
[edit] Numbers of pitchers
Pitchers tend to have higher uniform numbers in general.
It is extremely rare for a pitcher to wear a single-digit number. The only active pitcher who currently does is starter Josh Towers of the Colorado Rockies, who wears #7. In 1997, Jeff Juden wore #7 when he was with the Cleveland Indians. Juden wore conventional two-digit numbers with all other teams he played with during his career. For a time during his career with the San Francisco Giants, Atlee Hammaker wore #7, although he wore #14 for most of his career, including his ill-fated appearance in the 1983 All-Star Game, when he gave up the first (and through 2007, only) grand slam in All-Star Game history to Fred Lynn.
[edit] Retirement of Numbers
The most legendary players, managers, or coaches on a team will sometimes have their uniform number retired so future players and coaches cannot wear those numbers with that team. Only the player with the retired number can wear that number if he returns as a player or coach. Generally, such retirements are reserved for the very best, who in most cases, have impacted the entire league, and are most memorable.
The first Major League Baseball player to have his number retired was Lou Gehrig (#4). The numbers 4 and 5 have each been retired by 8 teams, more than any other number. The Yankees have retired a total of 16 numbers, more than any other team. The highest player uniform number to be retired was Carlton Fisk's 72, but the Cardinals retired the #85 in honor of their former owner August Busch Jr.. Though he never wore a uniform, he was that age at the time he was given this honor.
Four players and one manager, Casey Stengel, have had their numbers retired with more than one team. Nolan Ryan had two different numbers (30 and 34) retired between three different teams.
The Toronto Blue Jays do not retire numbers, but rather have an alternative method of honoring their players.
In 1997, Major League Baseball, for the first time ever, made a major-league-wide retirement of a number, when the #42 could not be issued to any new players, having been retired in honor of Jackie Robinson, although all players who currently had the number upon the mass retirement of #42, such as Mo Vaughn were allowed to keep the number under a grandfather clause, if they were wearing the number in honor of Jackie Robinson. The only player left to wear number 42 is Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees.
Some have felt that Roberto Clemente deserves a similar honor, and that the #21 should be retired by all teams. They feel that Clemente opened the doors of Major League Baseball to Hispanics, just like Robinson did for African-Americans.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
baseball-almanac.com Baseball Almanac - Lists all the uniform numbers of all players throughout Major League Baseball history. A source for much of the information contained in this article.
