Retired Uniform Numbers

[jtur88]

What players should / should not have their uniform numbers retired?

For example, the Red Sox have just retired Johnny Pesky's number, but will not retire Jim Rice's number until he is elected to the HOF, and greats like Dom Dimaggio aren't even under consideration. Pesky, although a .300 slap-hitter, played only 7 yeas in Boston and was in his time about the equivalent of Johnny Temple, Granny Hamner, Alvin Dark and Julian Javier. Pesky was, in fact, the Bill Buckner of the 1946 WS. Since he hit only 6 HR in Fenway Park, he probably hit only one near Pesky's Pole, and I'm not sure even that one is authrnticated.

Pesky played 460 games at 3B, and hit only 6 HRs in those seasons, so a case could be made that Pesky holds the post-1920 record for fewest HRs per game by a third-baseman. Even Bobby Cox hit 7 in his 132-game season as a 3B. (Yes, Bobby, not Billy.)

[Nat]

I think Anaheim retired Don Baylor's number. That's a bit of a stretch.

[Steve Avery]

Originally Posted by jtur88

What players should / should not have their uniform numbers retired?

For starters, the DUMBEST retirement of them all had to be the politically correct retiring of Jackie Robinson's number across the big leagues. If the Dodgers wanted to do so then fine. But that sent a political message that baseball really had no business sending.

There is now a drive to retire Clemente's number. And why not? I saw Wade Boggs saying that such a move would open a Pandora's Box, which is correct, but it's already been opened. After all - what has Robinson got that Clemente ain't? Robinson wasn't even (despite the hype) the FIRST black major league player. True, he was the first to break the imposed color barrier, but he wasn't the first.

And the guy wasn't even close to the greatest baseball player of all-time, which was Babe Ruth. He also wasn't even the best black baseball player of all-time who was (take your pick) Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, whoemver.

And Tampa retiring Wade Boggs' number itself is rather stupid. What did Boggs do for the Rays? He played two years for them - five less than Pesky for the Sox.

[Nat]

Alot of it has to do with a club trying to create a history for itself in order to sell their product. The Angels retiring Baylor, and Jackson & Ryan (when the team was a forgettable 'tweener stop for the latter two) is a good example, and now that they actually have a World Championship and yearly competitive teams, it will look silly in retrospect.

#42 was a good move by MLB. It recognized a man who basically sacrificed himself for the game. It also symbolizes all the great major leaguers who never were, due to the league's (and country's) stupidity over racial nonsense at the time.