All this talk about which Yankees deserve to get their uniform numbers retired leads me to ask: Who are the best baseball players to wear each number?
It reminds me of a list that Rick Reilly made in Sports Illustrated in 1989, calling it "The Heavenly Hundred." He stretched things a bit, giving Number 1 to Jack Nicklaus, since the leader of the Masters "wears" it; 1A to Secretariat, his number in the 1973 Preakness; 41 to Roger Bannister, the number he was wearing when he became the first man to break the 4-minute mile; and said, "This space available" for 93, as it was before Doug Gilmour became a big star.
He also gave 18 to Jackie Robinson, as he wore it as a basketball player at UCLA. Jackie's number on their football team was 28, which Reilly gave to 1950s Detroit Lion Yale Lary. 42? He gave that to Sid Luckman, who, to be fair, was a very important football player; along with Sammy Baugh, 1 of the NFL's 1st 2 great quarterbacks.
I'll do these for the other major sports as well.
These are my picks for baseball.
0 Al Oliver, because the zero reminded him of an O. Previously, usually wore 16. Also wearing it, because either their first or last names began with an O, were Oscar Gamble, Oddibe McDowell, Junior Ortiz, Rey Ordonez, Adam Ottavino and Omar Quintanilla.
00 Jeffrey Leonard. Usually wore 30. Other notable players who wore it have been Bobo Newsom (1940s Senators), John Mayberry ('68 Astros), Don Baylor ('88 A's), Jack Clark ('90 Padres), and Jose Canseco ('98 Jays).
1 Richie Ashburn. Don't tell me Ozzie Smith: With a few exceptions, he couldn't hit well enough for his glove to cancel out his bad bat. Also ahead of Billy Martin.
2 Derek Jeter. Ahead of his fellow University of Michigan man Charlie Gehringer.
3 Babe Ruth. Ahead of Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane and Harmon Killebrew.
4 Lou Gehrig. Ahead of Mel Ott, Ralph Kiner, Duke Snider and the incredibly underrated Paul Molitor. Buck Leonard wore it in he Negro Leagues, but we never got to see him play regularly against major league-caliber pitching -- the best Negro Leaguers could certainly have played in the majors, but the average player might not have -- so we can only guess about him.
5 Joe DiMaggio. Ahead of Hank Greenberg, Brooks Robinson, Johnny Bench, George Brett and Albert Pujols.
6 Stan Musial. Ahead of Al Kaline.
7 Mickey Mantle. Ahead of Al Simmons and Craig Biggio.
8 Yogi Berra. Ahead of Carl Yastrzemski, Willie Stargell, Joe Morgan and Cal Ripken.
9 Ted Williams. Ahead of Bill Mazeroski, Roger Maris, and Reggie Jackson in his Oakland days.
10 Lefty Grove. Ahead of Phil Rizzuto, Ron Santo and Larry Wayne Jones Jr. Gary Sheffield is ineligible, and you know why -- and wouldn't be ahead of Grove, anyway. And, for impact on a single team, wouldn't be ahead of any of the others, either.
11 Carl Hubbell. A tough call ahead of Paul Waner and Luis Aparicio. Also ahead of Barry Larkin.
12 Wade Boggs. Another tough call, since he wore 26 with the Red Sox a lot longer than he wore 12 with the Yankees and Devil Rays. But who else would you give this one to? Roberto Alomar? Jeff Kent?
13 Omar Vizquel. Another tough call, but the only other options are Dave Concepcion and Billy Wagner. Alex Rodriguez? Ineligible, and you know why.
14 Ernie Banks. Ahead of Gil Hodges, Pete Rose and Paul Konerko.
15 Jim Edmonds. Ahead of Johnny Mize (with the Giants, where he had his best seasons), Dick Allen, Thurman Munson and Carlos Beltran.
16 Whitey Ford. Ahead of Ted Lyons.
17 Dizzy Dean. Ahead of Keith Hernandez and Mark Grace.
18 Johnny Damon. Ahead of Mel Harder.
19 Bob Feller. Ahead of Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn and Joey Votto. That's a lot of hits to be ahead of, but Feller was the greatest pitcher of his generation.
20 Frank Robinson. Ahead of Mike Schmidt, who grew up as a Reds fan in Dayton, Ohio, and wore 20 in Frank's honor -- as far as I know, the first player ever to get his number retired after wearing it in honor of someone else who had it retired. Also ahead of Lou Brock, Don Sutton and Jorge Posada. Josh Gibson wore it in the Negro Leagues.
21 Roberto Clemente. A tough call ahead of Warren Spahn. Roger Clemens could also be considered -- by the strictest of definitions, he is eligible -- but why would you want to list him here? Sammy Sosa is ineligible, and you know why -- and wouldn't be ahead of those 3, anyway. Also ahead of Paul O'Neill.
22 Jim Palmer. Pickings are slim here, unless you want to go with Jack Clark, or Will Clark, or Clemens as a Yankee and an Astro, or think about what Clayton Kershaw might go on to do.
23 Ryne Sandberg. Ahead of Don Mattingly.
24 Willie Mays. Ahead of Early Wynn, Rickey Henderson, and Ken Griffey Jr. Manny Ramirez is ineligible, and you know why -- and wouldn't be ahead of those 4, anyway. In a few years, he might not even be ahead of Miguel Cabrera. If he hadn't cheated, he'd at least be ahead of Tino Martinez.
25 Jim Thome. Ahead of Tommy John and Andruw Jones. Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds are ineligible, and you know why. Ty Cobb played before uniform numbers were worn, and wore it in an old-timers' game, but that doesn't count. Had he worn it as a manager or a coach, then it would count. Buck O'Neil wore it in the Negro Leagues. As for Tony Conigliaro, we'll just never know.
26 Billy Williams. Not seriously challenged, unless you want to count Dave Kingman, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, or Chase Utley.
27 Juan Marichal. Ahead of Carlton Fisk in Boston, and Catfish Hunter in Oakland.
28 Walter Johnson. Played before uniform numbers were worn, but wore it as Senators manager in 1932. Ahead of Bert Blyleven; Bert may have struck out more batters than the Big Train, and shouldn't have had to wait to get into the Hall of Fame as long as he did, but he wasn't a better pitcher.
29 Rod Carew. Ahead of Mickey Lolich, Catfish Hunter as a Yankee, Joe Carter, Fred McGriff and John Smoltz. I once saw footage of Cy Young wearing it in an old-timers' game, but that doesn't count. It was the number most commonly worn by Satchel Paige, at least in the major leagues, but by the time he got there, while still very good -- he helped the Indians win the '48 Series and went 12-10 at age 45 for the awful '52 Browns -- he wasn't what he was in the Negro Leagues, where he wore several numbers.
30 Nolan Ryan, as an Angel. He wore 34 as an Astro and a Ranger, but was better as an Angel. Ahead of Orlando Cepeda and Tim Raines.
31 Greg Maddux. Ahead of Dave Winfield: Perhaps the best athlete to play baseball in my lifetime, he was also drafted by teams in the NBA, the ABA, and the NFL -- even though he never played football past high school, although he played both baseball and basketball at the University of Minnesota. And he did hit 465 home runs and collect over 3,000 hits. But Maddux is the winningest living pitcher. Both are ahead of Ferguson Jenkins and Mike Piazza (who, for the moment, is still eligible).
32 Sandy Koufax. Ahead of Elston Howard, Steve Carlton and Josh Hamilton. Also ahead of Eddie Collins, who played before uniform numbers were worn, but wore it as an A's coach.
33 Honus Wagner. Wore it as a Pirates coach. Ahead of Eddie Murray and Larry Walker. Jose Canseco is ineligible, and you know why -- and wouldn't be ahead of those 3, anyway.
34 Rollie Fingers. Ahead of Fernando Valenzuela and Kirby Puckett. David Ortiz is ineligible, and you know why -- and wouldn't be ahead of those 3, anyway. What about Bryce Harper, is he a serious challenger yet? That's a clown question, bro.
35 Phil Niekro. Ahead of Frank Thomas, Mike Mussina and Justin Verlander.
36 Robin Roberts. Up there with Lyons, Marichal and Blyleven as a criminally underrated pitcher. Ahead of Don Newcombe. Gaylord Perry. and David Cone as a Yankee.
37 Casey Stengel. If you have to select a player, there aren't many to choose from. Do you want to go with Kenny Rogers? I don't. How about Dan Plesac? How about the still mostly-unproven Stephen Strasburg? Your best bet may just be Keith Hernandez as a Cardinal.
38 Curt Schilling. I don't want to give it to him, but who else could I give it to? Eric Gagne is ineligible, and you know why, and wouldn't be ahead of Schilling anyway. Nor would Rick Aguilera. And it's way too soon to put Brian Wilson here. So, until evidence comes forward that Schilling cheated, he gets the nod. Ray Dandridge wore it in the Negro Leagues.
39 Roy Campanella. Not much competition, except for Dave Parker. An intriguing pair, whose careers can be divided into threes. Due to the color ban, Campy didn't reach the majors until he was 27; due to his car crash, he last played at 36; so he probably missed 5 or 6 years at the beginning, and maybe as many at the end. As for Parker, he got off to a great start, then tailed off due to his drug habit, but had some very good seasons after he kicked it. Campy is in the Hall; had the Cobra not used cocaine and kept up his pace, he'd be in it, too.
40 Troy Percival. It's easy to forget how good a reliever he was. Ahead of Rick Sutcliffe. Madison Bumgarner may be on his way to taking this number, but he's not there yet.
41 Tom Seaver. Ahead of Eddie Mathews.
42 Mariano Rivera. If it's "most important," it's Jackie Robinson. The only player who can touch Jackie for importance, unless you want to go back to the founders of the game, is Babe Ruth. But it's not "most important," it's "best"; while Jackie was one of the best players of his time, and 1 of the top 5 or 6 2nd basemen ever, Mo was the best relief pitcher ever. Also worth mentioning is Bruce Sutter; aside from Jackie and Mo, he's the only player to have the number retired by any team.
43 Tris Speaker. Wore it as a coach with the late 1940s Indians, and his 3,514 hits, including a record 792 doubles, and his recognition as the best-fielding center fielder ever before DiMaggio, puts him ahead of Dennis Eckersley, who nonetheless must be recognized as a very good starting pitcher who became one of the best relievers ever -- maybe the best until Rivera.
44 Hank Aaron. Ahead of his fellow Mobile, Alabama native Willie McCovey, and Reggie Jackson, who wore it as a Yankee and an Angel in tribute to Hank. (He couldn't keep wearing 9 because Graig Nettles had it, and couldn't have his 2nd choice, Jackie Robinson's 42, because a Yankee coach had it.) Also ahead of Adam Dunn, who's now just 219 strikeouts away from breaking Reggie's career record for strikeouts, and he's only 35.
45 Bob Gibson. Ahead of Pedro Martinez, who tried to be Bob Gibson (especially with the headhunting), but never could be (Gibson sometimes got better after 100 pitches).
46 Andy Pettitte. Not much competition here, unless you want to go with Craig Kimbrel.
47 Tom Glavine. Ahead of Jack Morris and Lee Smith.
48 Torii Hunter. Ahead of Pablo Sandoval. It's a bit odd that this number is usually considered a pitcher's number, yet my top 2 choices are both hitters.
49 Hoyt Wilhelm. It pains me to not put Ron Guidry here, but Louisiana Lightning can't match the old knuckleballer's career.
50 J.R. Richard. A tough choice, considering he had only half a career. But who else are you going to pick? Pete Vuckovich and Sid Fernandez were good pitchers, sometimes great, but Richard was the closest thing we've had to Bob Gibson since Gibson -- even closer than Clemens, Pedro and the next man on this list.
51 Randy Johnson. Ahead of Bernie Williams, Trevor Hoffman and Ichiro Suzuki.
52 CC Sabathia. Now, we get into territory where there aren't a whole lot of choices.
53 Don Drysdale. Ahead of Bobby Abreu. Melky Cabrera is ineligible, and you know why -- and wouldn't be ahead of Big D, anyway.
54 Rich "Goose" Gossage. It's hard to believe that the Goose played 23 seasons, for so many teams, and yet never once wore another number.
55 Orel Hershiser. Ahead of Tim Lincecum (unless "The Freak" has a career renaissance after age 30).
56 Mark Buehrle. For overall impact, it's Jim Bouton, due to writing Ball Four. But Bouton's chance at keeping this one beyond the 2005 World Series ended when he blew out his elbow and became a knuckleballing reliever. Or else he almost certainly never would have written the book.
57 Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez. Ahead of Johan Santana. Sorry/not sorry, Met fans, but as crazy as K-Rod drove you, in Anaheim, he was one of the top relievers in the game, and holds the record for most saves in a season. And that tops everything Santana did with the Twins, and his 1-hitter for you. (Don't tell me it was a no-hitter: Beltran's drive was a fair ball, and you damn well know it.)
58 Jonathan Papelbon. The bum.
59 Jim Thome. Wore it in his rookie season with the Indians. Afterward, usually wore 25. If you want a player who wore it regularly, there's 1990s reliever Todd Jones.
60 Dick Allen. Wore it in his last season, with the A's. Previously, usually wore 15. The player who wore it the longest? Scott Schoenweiss.
61 Livan Hernandez.
62 Joba Chamberlain.
63 Ryan Madson.
64 Dwight Gooden. Only wore it in his first spring training with the Mets. The player who's worn it the most is Michael Bowden.
65 Phil Hughes. Another place where he finishes ahead of The Great Johan Santana.
66 Juan Guzman. Remember? The 1992 and '93 World Champion Blue Jays? Yasiel Puig has a ways to go to match him. Honorable Mention to Don Zimmer: By the time he was coaching with the expansion Colorado Rockies, he began increasing his number by 1 every season, to match the number of years in which he'd been employed in professional baseball. When he died, still a special assistant to the Rays, he was wearing 66.
67 Francisco Cordova. You might remember him pitching the 1st 9 innings of a 10-inning no-hitter for the '97 Pirates.
68 Dellin Betances.
69 Alan Mills. A 1990 Yankee call-up. The only player to wear it in more than one season was Bronson Arroyo, and he's ineligible, and you know why.
70 Joe Maddon.
71 Scott Linebrink, with the 2008-10 White Sox.
72 Carlton Fisk, with the White Sox.
73 Tony Phillips. A decent player who wore several numbers (was at his best while wearing 2 with the Bash Brothers A's), and wore 73 with the '97 Angels and White Sox. The only player who wore it for more than 3 seasons was Ricardo Rincon.
74 Ugueth Urbina. He may be the O.J. Simpson of baseball -- with considerably less talent -- but who else wore this number as well? Only 4 other players have ever worn it, and only 1 of those, Kenly Jansen, wore it for more than 1 season.
75 Barry Zito.
76 Mike Koplove, '05 Diamondbacks.
77 Joe Medwick. Wore it when he was acquired by the Dodgers in 1940 and '41, as Pete Reiser was already wearing 7. Ivan Rodriguez (also usually a 7) wore it with the '09 Astros, but he's ineligible, and you know why.
78 Blaine Boyer, '06 Braves.
79 Jose Abreu, with last year's White Sox.
80 Never worn. Mascots and batboys sometimes wear uniform numbers with the last 2 digits of the year on them, but that doesn't count.
81 Eddie Guardado, with the '06 and '07 Reds. Usually wore 18.
82 Johnny Lazor, 1943 Red Sox.
83 Justin Turner. Eric Gagne wore it with the most cheat-ridden team in history, the '07 Red Sox, and he was 1 of only 2 members of that team to show up in the Mitchell Report, so he's ineligible.
84 Prince Fielder, with last year's Rangers. Previously wore 28.
85 Lastings Milledge, with the '09 Nationals and Pirates. Wore 44 with the Mets.
86 Never worn.
87 Dan Otero, with the 2012 World Champion Giants.
88 Rene Gonzalez. Not really a better player than Albert Belle, who wore it with the Orioles at the end of his career, 10 years after Gonzalez wore it with them.
89 Never worn.
90 Never worn.
91 Alfredo Aceves, with several teams, including the 2009 World Champion Yankees.
92 Never worn.
93 Never worn.
94 Jose Mesa, who reversed his usual 49 while with the '07 Tigers. The only other player who's ever worn it is Felix Heredia, who wore it with the '01 Cubs. You might remember his horrible relief pitching with the Yankees, a substitution who served up "meatballs," which led me to nickname him "the Meatball Sub." And I still say his name sounds like an embarrassing skin condition. Buck O'Neil wore it as a publicity stunt in an "independent" minor-league game, because that was his age (and drew a walk... and died within weeks, so maybe even that overexerted him), but it wasn't in the majors, so it doesn't count.
95 Takahito Nomura, '02 Brewers.
96 Bill Voiselle. The pitcher wore it in honor of his hometown, Ninety-Six, South Carolina. (The photo of him, at the top of this post, comes from the town's official website.) He won 21 games for the '44 Giants, and when the '48 Braves won the Pennant, Boston Post sportswriter Gerald Hern coined the phrase "Spahn and Sain and two days of rain" -- later altered to be, "Spain and Sain and pray for rain." But Voiselle and Vern Bickford (24) won 24 games between them, as many as Johnny Sain (33), and both had a better ERA that year than Warren Spahn. (In 1999, to reflect the Red Sox rotation, Dan Shaughnessy of the Globe suggested, "Pedro and Lowe and three days of snow.")
97 Joe Beimel, with several teams, including last year's Mariners.
98 Onelki Garcia, '13 Dodgers.
99 So Taguchi. Mitch Williams, who dumped 28 in honor of 99 because he was compared to Charlie Sheen's 99-wearing Ricky Vaughn in Major League, and was even given the character's "Wild Thing" nickname, is better known for wearing it, But Taguchi wore it on 2 World Championship teams, the '06 Cardinals and the '08 Phillies. That's right: Unlike "Mitchie-Poo" (Harry Kalas' nickname for him), Taguchi wore it on a Phillies team that won the Series. This number has actually been worn by 14 different major leaguers, including Yankees Charlie Keller (who usually wore 9, but wore 99 in a brief 1952 comeback) and Brian Bruney (2009 World Champions). Turk Wendell wore it with the Mets from 1997 to 2001, and ex-Met Tod Hundley wore it with the '01 Cubs. And, of course, Manny Ramirez wore it in his "Mannywood" tenure in L.A., but, as I've said, he's not eligible.
In spite of the jokes about what might happen if the Yankees retire any more numbers, there has never been a triple-digit uniform number in Major League Baseball.