Uniform number (Major League Baseball)

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. Uniform numbers are placed behind baseball uniforms and sometimes on the both, the backs and fronts of uniforms.

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 Baseball 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.

High profile players with high numbers

Notable exceptions to this rule include So Taguchi, the former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder who wore #99, and Manny Ramírez, who started wearing #99 after being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008. The number he wanted, #24, belonged to Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston and was retired by the Dodgers; his second choice, #34, belonged to Fernando Valenzuela and is unofficially retired by the Dodgers [cite web| title =Ramirez sports new attitude, new number with LA| publisher = Yahoo.com| url = http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080802/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_dodgers_ramirez;_ylt=Aqmv7qgbhVwN1SZPAbaULu9I2ocA| accessdate = 2008-08-02] . Former Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Cliff Johnson wore #99, and former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Mitch Williams also wore #99. (Number 99 is currently worn in Philadelphia by the aforementioned So Taguchi.) 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.

Longtime Major League infielder Rene Gonzales wore #88 throughout his entire career. Bill Voiselle wore 96 in honour of his hometown, Ninety Six, South Carolina.

Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants wears #75.

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.

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 Canó, 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. [ [http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070123&content_id=1784336&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy The Official Site of The New York Yankees: News: Cano changes number, just in case ] ]

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.

Junior Ortiz wore a single 0 as a member of the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians, a reference to his last name beginning with O. Al Oliver also wore number 0.

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. Another notable example was Randy Johnson when he played for the Yankees. He wore number 51 as a member of the Seattle Mariners, and when he joined the Yankees, the number wasn't available and he couldn't reverse the digits to number 15 because it was retired for the late catcher Thurman Munson, so therefore he chose 41 because he was 41 years old at the time he joined the Yankees. Johnson has since returned to 51 since pitching for the Diamondbacks his second time doing so.

From his debut until June 20, 2008, Blue Jays reliever Jesse Carlson wore the number 43, but on that day, he had to switch his number because Cito Gaston who came back to manage the Jays on that day, wore 43 as a player and as manager during his last managing term and the current one. Carlson now wears number 39.

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.

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. Wayne Gomes wore the number 2 when he pitched for the San Francisco Giants in 2001.

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. The Los Angeles Dodgers themselves, with whom Robinson played for, had already retired the number in 1972 after Robinson's death.

However, the number 42 would be worn by a number of players other than Rivera in 2007, which marked the 60th anniversary of Robinson's first appearance in Major League Baseball (the event that broke the sport's 20th-century color line). Before the season, Cincinnati Reds star Ken Griffey, Jr. asked Robinson's widow Rachel Robinson and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to wear 42 on April 15, the anniversary date of Robinson's historic game. Both gave their approval, and Selig later ruled that any player who wished to wear 42 on that date could do so. Three teams and several individual players on other teams wore #42 on that date; three other teams whose plans to wear #42 collectively were postponed due to rain on that date did so later in the month.

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. Number 21 is retired by Clemente's team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and was worn by Sammy Sosa throughout his career as a tribute to his childhood hero.

References

External links

[http://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.