Two-Digit starters

[jtur88]

Last weekend, a couple of teams put out a staring lineup in which every player wore number 42. It is rather rare for a starting lineup to have no single-digit uniform numbers, but in recent years, the Yankees would have done so in games that Jeter did not start, since all their other one-digit numbers have been retired.

Now the question" Since the introduction of nuymbers, what was the FIRST team to start a game with all nine starters wearing a two-digit number?

[LongtimeBravesFan]

I don't know the answer, but for accuracy's sake I'll point out that the number zero has not been retired by the Yankees.

[jtur88]

Oddly, the Yankees apparently have not retired the number 6, either., but it has not been worm since 1997 (Tony Fernandez) and also recently by Steve Sax, Rick Cerone and Roy White. Anybody know the story of Yankee-6 and why it not issued these past ten years?

[LongtimeBravesFan]

I believe it is worn by Joe Torre.

[jtur88]

Duh! My bad. But now that I think of it, I cant recall ever seeing Torre without his jacket. Is there a site that lists coach's uniform numbers?

[LongtimeBravesFan]

The Braves' official team site lists their coaches' numbers, I'd imagine other team's would as well.

[all4phillysportsfan]

The Phillies will be doing it tomorrow. Every single person on the Phillies team will wear that number against the Astros in the make up game from a week ago.

[jtur88]

I'm going to offer a possibility, which may not the the correct answer. Openeng day 1938, the Cincinnat Reds took the field with Ernie Lombardi wearing the lowest number of any player, 35. In 1937, the Reds had normal number distributions, and then in 1939, began a tradition lasting two decades, of issuing numbers by position---catchers got all the single-digit numbers. So the correct answer wold have to be no later than 1938.

However, the previous year (1937) it was still the practice on all teams to issue the low numbers every spring to the starting lineup. The St. Louis Browns were the only team with a single-digit pticher that year (rookie Bill Trotter), but no catcher lower than Rollie Hemsley's 11. So I think it is highly likely that the '38 Reds would be the first.