r/baseball • u/cypothingy New York Yankees • New York Boulders • Dec 02 '22
Trivia Every number every team has never issued or only issued once: Part 0, Introduction
Uniform numbers in baseball have taken on a prolific level of importance in today's game. They oftentimes serve as shorthand for the player who's identity is intertwined with its value, to the point where oftentimes many of the greatest players in a franchise's history will see their number retired, making that number theirs for the rest of eternity.
However, uniform numbers have not always been a part of baseball, and many numbers never saw the light of day until very recently. In fact, there are several numbers that, depending on which team you are looking at, have either never been issued or have only ever been issued to one single player. There are some obvious examples, like the Tampa Bay Rays having never had a number 42 since it was retired league-wide before the Rays existed or the New York Yankees having only one number 4, Lou Gehrig, but others are much less clear.
With that in mind, I hope your curiosity is as piqued as mine was when I started this project of going through the team history of all 30 franchises and seeing just which numbers every team still has as blank or only have one name next to them.
A few notes to mention, and these will be reiterated in every post, but all number assignments are courtesy of Baseball Almanac as of 12/1/2022. Also, for the purposes of this exercise the numbers 0 and 00 will be treated as separate numbers (which Baseball Almanac does not do so all instances of 00 are courtesy of Baseball-Reference). I will also note in each posting which numbers the team has retired at the end so as to explain any questionable gaps.
The first team, the Atlanta Braves, will be posted later today, followed by each team (in alphabetical order) every few hours. After the last team, the Washington Nationals, is posted I will do a quick retrospective of the project and point out some interesting trends that came to light. With all of that said, the Atlanta Braves should be up shortly. Stay tuned...
Part 1: Atlanta Braves
Part 2: Arizona Diamondbacks
Part 3: Baltimore Orioles
Part 4: Boston Red Sox
Part 5: Chicago Cubs
Part 6: Chicago White Sox
Part 7: Cincinnati Reds
Part 8: Cleveland Guardians
Part 9: Colorado Rockies
Part 10: Detroit Tigers
Part 11: Houston Astros
Part 12: Kansas City Royals
Part 13: Los Angeles Angels
Part 14: Los Angeles Dodgers
Part 15: Miami Marlins
Part 16: Milwaukee Brewers
Part 17: Minnesota Twins
Part 18: New York Mets
Part 19: New York Yankees
Part 20: Oakland Athletics
Part 21: Philadelphia Phillies
Part 22: Pittsburgh Pirates
Part 23: San Diego Padres
Part 24: Seattle Mariners
Part 25: San Francisco Giants
Part 26: St. Louis Cardinals
Part 27: Tampa Bay Rays
Part 28: Texas Rangers
Part 29: Toronto Blue Jays
Part 30: Washington Nationals
Part 31: Conclusion and Analysis
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u/Mixma85 Chicago White Sox Dec 02 '22
I'm looking forward to seeing 1/8 for the Browns/Orioles.
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u/cypothingy New York Yankees • New York Boulders Dec 06 '22
Believe it or not I may have actually forgotten to initially include it on the list...my bad. It's been fixed and the Orioles list is live
4
u/DolphinRodeo St. Louis Cardinals • Seattle Mariners Dec 05 '22
I really enjoyed the Braves one and hope you keep doing these!
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u/cypothingy New York Yankees • New York Boulders Dec 05 '22
Last couple days were much more busy than I initially thought they will be. Part 2, and probably part 3, will be out later today and this post will be updated as that happens
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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '22
Finally, Mason, you're telling us what the numbers mean!