BASEBALL TRULY IS A NUMBERS GAME

Baseball is all about stats...numbers. No sport clings to milestones and statistics like baseball. A couple of recent events had me scrambling to BaseballReference.com to do some research about numbers of a different kind; uniform numbers. First, there is the commemorative patch the St. Louis Cardinals are wearing honoring Stan Musial. Then there is the movie "42" about Jackie Robinson's first year in the major leagues.

The 2013 Cardinals are wearing the number 6 in memory of the greatest Cardinal of them all, Stan Musial. When Musial retired in 1963 the Cardinals immediately retired his number. No other Cardinal would ever wear that number again. Musial played 22 seasons with St. Louis beginning in 1941. My thinking was that since it has been 50 years since he retired no Cardinal had wore number 6 in 73 years!  That is a long time for a number to be out of commission. However, I was surprised to learn that "the Man's" number 6 was actually worn by someone else in that time. Ironically, it is another Cardinals great that also has HIS number retired...Red Schoendienst. 

 

Red, who was Stan's roommate, wore #6 in 1945, while Stan was in the military.  (Red would later wear number 2 as a player, coach and manager for St. Louis and the Cardinals retired his number when he was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.)

 

Still, wearing a single uniform number for 22 years and having it retired for 50 years is a long time. In fact, that is a long time to have a number unavailable for use for someone else. So, I got to investigating numbers worn in the Major Leagues.

 

There have been a little over 18-thousand players to don a uniform in the history of Major League Baseball. Finding a uniform number for a new player can be tricky; especially when there are numbers that have been retired officially and NOT officially. The Reds, for example, have not officially retired Pete Rose's uniform but no Reds player has worn # 14 since he was banned from baseball while managing the team.  No Cardinals, Rockies or Astros player has worn #57 since the death of Daryl Kile.  There are other case of numbers that have been placed in "mothballs" by teams until the "right time".

 

Good luck getting a good number with the Yankees. With 25 players, a manager and a coaching staff, plus a MLB high 16 retired numbers already taken you may get a number more resembling an offensive lineman than a catcher!

 

Speaking of Yankee catchers, both Bill Dickey (15 years) and Yogi Berra (17 years) had their # 8 retired. Plus, MLB has retired the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. 545 players have worn # 42 on big league uniforms over the years. The Yankees' future Hall of Famer, Mariano Rivera who is still permitted to wear #42, has sported that number for 19 years, longer than any player in Major League history.

 

Rivera's 19 years wearing the same number may be the longest for #42 but it is not the all-time record for a number.  That honor goes to the venerable Charlie Hough who wore #49 for four different teams over a 25 year career.

 

Here is a Top-10 list by years of wearing a number in MLB history:

( Number worn-Player-Number of years)

 

   1. # 49 Charlie Hough-25 years

   2. # 25 Tommy John-24 years

       # 35 Phil Niekro--24 years

       # 47 Jesse Orosco-24 years*     

   5. #   8 Carl Yaztrzemski-23 years**

       # 20 Don Sutton-23 years     

       # 32 Steve Carlton-23 years

       # 54 Rich"Goose" Gossage-23 years      

 9.   #  6 Stan Musial-22 years

       # 24 Willie Mays-22 years

       # 44  Henry Aaron-22 years

       # 44 Willie McCovey-22 years

 10. #  8 Willie Stargell-21 years

       # 31 Greg Maddox-21 years

       # 33 Eddie Murray-21 years

       # 36 Jim Kaat-21 years

       # 36 Gaylord Perry-21 years

       # 43 Dennis Eckerley-21 years

*Wore #47 with 8 different teams

**Holds the record for wearing number with one team.

 

Is your head swimming yet?  You have to a pretty good player to last that long in the Major Leagues, much less keep the same uniform number all those years.  Of the 18 players listed above, 13 are in the Hall of Fame. Greg Maddox would appear to be a lock when he become eligible and some argue that Jim Kaat should be.

 

MORE FUN WITH NUMBERS

 

Nine teams have retired number 5; which is the most.  Will the Cardinals someday make Albert Pujols number 5 the 10th to be retired?

 

The number worn by more MLB players is: 22.  There have been 834 player who have worn that number. Only Jim Palmer has had it retired. The Orioles did so after his 19 seasons.

 

The next most popular numbers are:

  #27 (813 players)

  #26 (801)

  #24 (781)

  #21 (777)

  #17 (771)

  #23 (768)

 

Uniform numbers are certainly as much a part of the game of baseball as batting averages and earned run averages.  Most kids, who played the game at any level, try to get the same number for their uniform as their favorite player.  For me, the numbers on the back of a big league uniform were as impactful as the "S" on Superman's chest.  # 45 will always be Bob Gibson,  20 is Lou Brock,  14 is Ernie Banks, 24 Willie Mays, 44 will forever be Hank Aaron and Willie McCovey.  All, "super-heros" to baseball fans! 

 

They say you can't tell the players without a scorecard but there are some players who never needed one...you just knew!

 

Thanks for reading!