Baseball Number Retirement-Criteria?

[Mitchell]

www.pinstripealley.com.

An interesting article was posted in this publication about the Yankees, and their retirement of numbers.

It has been announced that former Yankees Players Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, and Andy Petitte will have their numbers retired.

Which brings the question, according to this article, what should be the criteria for a team to retire someone's number?

In the case of the team I follow.. the Braves..

All of the numbers that the Braves have retired.. except for one.. Dale Murphy.. are of players/managers.. who are/will be in the Hall of Fame.

In recent years.

Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Bobby Cox, and Chipper Jones have all had their numbers retired.

Maddux,Glavine, and Cox are already in the Hall of Fame. Smoltz will be inducted this year, and Chipper Jones, with his 303 lifetime average, 468 homers, and 2700 plus hits, will very likely make the Hall of Fame at some point.

The only Brave, to have his number retired.. who is not/wont be in the Hall of Fame, is long time Brave Dale Murphy.

In Murph's case, he was the one superstar of the Braves "Down years" in the 70s, and 80s. He might well have made the Hall of Fame, had he played on better Braves teams, or had he not experienced the dramatic decline.. been injured late in his career.

Thoughts on this article. Can a team "overdo" it, with retiring numbers?

 

[Barbershopman]

I don't know, but if the Yankees retire too many more numbers, they might have to go to triple digit numbers!

Granted, they're long storied history has produced some great players and some iconic legends. However, this recent crop of players to have their numbers retired does pose the question. Posada, Williams and Pettite, while being great players did nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary. They just happened to be on the team that won the last Yankee World Series. Who next Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblach, Jason Giambi, how about Mark Teixeira?

My Royals have only retired three numbers: George Brett- the face of the franchise since its inception and Hall of Famer, Dick Howser- the manager of the only Royals team to win the World Series gone much to soon, and Frank White- eight time gold glove winner (should have been 9 IMHO).

Maybe the Yankees have different criteria on what constitutes having your number retired, who knows?

Barbershopman

 

[Mitchell]

What you said, Barbershopman, is exactly my point, and I thank you.

In the case of your Royals.

The people whose numbers your Royals retired, are definitely Most Deserving of the honors.

Brett.. an excellent player, and Hall of Famer.

Dick Howser.. a wonderful manager, World Series winner, and as you said, and I most agree with, Mr Howser was gone much too soon.

Frank White was a wonderful player. I remember when I used to collect baseball cards as a kid, there was one year, when I needed only
Frank White's All Star card to complete my All Star card collection for that year. I bought, pack after pack, until one day, while going through the cards.. I finally found his All Star card for the particular year.

We seem to be in agreement that the Yankees are retiring too many numbers.

 

[rdhd]

As a sometimes Braves fan - Hank Aaron's number isn't retired (I don't really follow these stats...I could be wrong)? He only had the H.R. record for a few years; maybe he wasn't too great in the other stats? And, he is .... uh... not white. Just sayin.

As for retiring numbers.... yes, if a team goes to too many retired numbers, they'll need to add new ones. I suggest decimals...

 

[Mitchell]

rdhd, Hank Aaron's number is definitely retired. Mr Aaron wore number 44 during his career with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves,and there is a number 44 on the stands at Turner Field in Atlanta. I believe the Braves retired his number many years agi.

 

[rdhd]

Mitch - thanks for proving me wrong....thought I remembered seeing his number at the stadium....show's how much I've been there myself.

I still think start using decimals for player numbers.

 

[Mitchell]

YW, rd.

I've only been to see the Braves at home one time, when they played in the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, and in the days they were terrible. I went there for three days in July 1987, for a series against the Mets.

I hope to get there sometime in the next two years, so I can see Turner Field before they move into the new stadium in 2017.

 

[Barbershopman]

As for retiring numbers.... yes, if a team goes to too many retired numbers, they'll need to add new ones. I suggest decimals...

St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck had 3'7" Eddie Gaedel go to bat wearing the number 1/8. Maybe the Yankees could do that, go to fractions not hire small ball players!

Barbershopman