Teams Need To Keep Retired Numbers Option Open
By Lew Freedman
Current Texas Rangers president Nolan Ryan, a Hall of Famer and owner of the all-time career strikeout record, had jersey numbers he wore retired by three teams. Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports
The way people talk about Mike Trout after just one season in the majors one would think he is going to be a superstar for another 15 years. And he might be. If so, if he continues to play as wonderfully as he did in 2012 as a rookie, then it is a good bet that the Los Angeles Angels will want to retire his number some day.
That’s what teams do for their all-time greats. They do it as an honor and they do it as a gesture of respect. Fans of future generations understand that if a player for their home team had his jersey number retired so that no other player could wear it, then the guy was pretty special.
Which is why something I read about the Chicago Bears football team recently seemed not only ill-advised, but somewhat flaggergasting. Just a few weeks ago the Bears announced that they are going to retire Mike Ditka’s No. 89 jersey. You would think since Ditka retired as an active player like four decades ago they would have gotten around to that by now if they were ever going to do it.
Certainly, as great a player as the Hall of Famer was, Ditka deserves this honor. And that would be true even if he never returned to the club as coach and led the Bears to their only Super Bowl triumph. However, the other part of the Bears’ announcement is what caught me off guard. The retirement of Ditka’s number makes 14 retired numbers for the Bears and the team said that after this it will no longer retire numbers.
Huh? Like no one else will ever be good enough? Sure enough, right after the Bears made that announcement linebacker Brian Urlacher, a Bears legend, announced his retirement from the NFL. It’s obvious to Bears fans that Urlacher’s No. 54 deserves to be retired, too.
Clearly, this unilateral declaration was ill-timed. It’s also a rather limiting policy. Apparently, the Bears are afraid they will one day run out of numbers to field an entire team. Granted, football team rosters are twice as large as baseball team active rosters, but I’ve never heard of a baseball team even hinting at such an action. Perhaps because baseball reveres its history and tradition more.
This new Bears policy provoked me to look up all of Major League baseball’s retired numbers. There are plenty of them, especially if you happened to play for the New York Yankees. Babe Ruth‘s No. 3, Lou Gehrig‘s No. 4, Joe DiMaggio‘s No. 5, Mickey Mantle‘s No. 7, and Yogi Berra‘s No. 8 are just some of the Yankee numbers off-limits. So is Phil Rizzuto‘s No. 10 and Thurman Munson‘s No. 15. Munson’s is the only 15 in the majors that is retired.
Interestingly, manager Casey Stengel‘s No. 37 is retired by the Yankees and the New York Mets. Unlike many superstars that play for just one team, Nolan Ryan starred long enough for three teams to have his No. 30 retired by the Angels, and No. 34 retired for him by the Astros and Rangers.
Frank Robinson‘s No. 20 is retired by both the Orioles and the Reds. Rod Carew got the same treatment from the Twins and Angles with No. 29. Hank Aaron‘s famous No. 44 is retired not only by the Braves, but the Milwaukee Brewers where he played at the end of his career in the same city where he initially became famous with the Milwaukee version of the Braves.
Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers was twice-honored, by the Brewers and Oakland A’s, with his No. 34 being set aside. Greg Maddux got the same treatment with No. 31 for both the Braves and the Chicago Cubs. However, before Maddux, Ferguson Jenkins wore 31 and that Hall of Famer was included in the retirement of the number, too.
The most famous retired jersey number is 42. Not only did the Dodgers retire that number for Jackie Robinson, Major League baseball made the retirement of the number universal, for all teams.
There are a couple of retired numbers that no one would guess about without living in the home team’s city. That would be No. 26 by the Angels for former owner Gene Autry, and No. 85 for the Cardinals, for former owner August Busch Jr. The number chosen for Autry represents the 26th man on a 25-man roster. Busch, who ran the Cardinals from 1953 to 1989, was 85 when he died.
Let’s just say that in light of the Bears development, baseball people appear to be more creative than football people when it comes to retiring numbers and taking care of their own.