By the Numbers

I was 10 years old the first time I can remember choosing my number. At the time, it felt like I had hit the big time. I was playing on my cousin's fall ball team, which, since he was in the "majors" and I was just finishing two years of "minor B," seemed like I had been given a chance to prove myself on a bigger stage. I saw it as an extended tryout. Maybe the bright yellow t-shirts with tropical screen-prints on the front and our names and numbers on the back should have been a clue—it probably wasn't quite the big break I had been hoping for. But at the time, you couldn’t have convinced me otherwise. After all, in minor B my number was given to me according to my t-shirt size—the smaller the shirt, the smaller the number. I think I was #2. But, now I had been given the opportunity to choose my number. So what number does an up-and-coming, not-so-soon-to-be high school state championship role player choose in 1989 at 10 years old? 33, of course.

To explain this pick, I must make a devastating disclosure. And, if any of you choose never to return to this blog again, I will not hold it against you. I am ashamed to say it now, but in my youth, my baseball idol was… Jose Canseco. Maybe you’ve heard of him. He’s the author of the controversial expose on steroids in baseball, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. Needless to say, now that I’m older and a little wiser than my 10 year-old self, I can understand why my first hitting coach cringed when I answered that my favorite player was Canseco. But at the time, I thought he was crazy. I mean, at the time, the guy was the only person in the history of the game to hit 40+ homeruns and steal 40+ bases in a single season.

Either I moved on from Canseco, or I didn’t hit well with the number 33 on my back. Whatever the reason, the next time I was allowed to choose my number I chose the number 2. I guess I had just grown comfortable with that number. It didn’t take long, however, before I discovered a new idol, one worthy of admiration: Roberto Clemente. I wished that I could add a 1 after my 2 so that I could be 21, just like him. Unfortunately, I was stuck with 2 for a few years. Then, when I was 12 years old, it was looking like I was going to make the all-star team, but only because there was an A-team, and a B-team (I made the B-team). What my number was going to be became a healthy recess discussion with my elementary school buddies. We decided on 18, though I don’t remember why. The next season brought another B-team All-Star opportunity and I decided on 51. Ichiro and Randy Johnson are notable 51s, but I didn’t know that at the time. When I made the choice, it was because of a pitcher that was two years older than me that I “looked up to.” Had I known that he would “pants” me at my locker (which was right next to the sophomore cheerleaders) between classes my sophomore year, I probably wouldn’t have thought so highly of him. Anyway, his number was 15, but since he was left-handed, I used the opposite, 51.

When I finally cracked the A-team, I was given #1. I didn’t get to choose because they had the jerseys pre-made. The regulars got the numbers they’d always had, but I was a last-minute decision. Just happy to be there, I took what they gave me.

By the time I made the high school team I had settled on 16. A teammate, and one that was a little more productive that me, had claimed 15 years ago, so I took 16. It grew on me and the best part was, I never had to complete for that number. It was waiting for me again in junior college.

If you’ve ever played organized sports, then you probably understand how important a number can be. Growing up, everyone wanted the #23 basketball jersey because, thanks in part to Gatorade, everyone wanted to be like Mike. But, there was a time in baseball when players didn’t have numbers.

According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, numbers on the backs of players’ jerseys became permanent for the first time in 1929. The Cleveland Indians were the first to do so on April 16, and the New York Yankees jumped on the bandwagon two days later. While the Indians only used the numbers on their home jerseys, the Yankees were the first to put numbers on both the home and away uniforms. Speaking of the Yankees, I have been asked to post about how they are the “best professional sports team of all-time.” But, it will have to wait until they can at least pull themselves up to, I don’t know, at least five games over .500, unless you think that’s too much to ask.

But I digress…

Originally, numbers were assigned to players according to their position in the batting order, which is why Babe Ruth was number 3, and Lou Gehrig was number 4.

Prior to 1929, some teams had tried to implement numbers, but the players didn’t really like them. The fans seemed to enjoy the identifiers, but apparently, the players’ felt the numbers made them look like prison inmates. Funny…prison serial numbers might actually work in the NFL.