Baseball players might be some of the most superstitious people on the planet.  We have all heard stories about Jason Giambi refusing to shave his “porn stache” cause he was on a hot hitting streak, rumors of gold thongs being passed around the locker room for good luck, and so much more.  The thing that players might be the most superstitious about, however, are their baseball jerseys.

Growing up, I played baseball…a lot of baseball.  I had rituals for how I put my socks on, my pants on, my cleats on, etc, but the last thing to go on was always my jersey.  I put it on inside out, took it off, and put it back on again, every time.  I was also pretty particular about which number I got.  I went to a small school so it was basically a free for all whenever the baseball jerseys were handed out.  Seniors had the first pick and then it went down from there.  All through high school, I was lucky enough to keep my same number for 4 straight years.  When I graduated, the dirty, ripped, stained # 11 was unofficially retired and hung in the entrance to the gym.

When baseball first started, players were assigned uniform numbers based on their positions, much like in football.  As time progressed however, players began to choose their own numbers.  As a general rule, baseball jersey numbers are typically low, never getting much higher than the 30’s.  There have been some notable high numbers on uniforms, not only in the past, but currently as well.

• Manny Ramirez – Los Angeles Dodgers #99
• Barry Zito – San Francisco Giants # 75

Many times players switch to obscure numbers because the teams they sign with or get traded to do not have their old number available.  This can be because either a teammate currently is wearing it, or it has been retired by the team or league.  Many individual teams have retired numbers, but only one number has been retired league-wide and that is Jackie Robinson’s # 42 jersey which was retired in 1997.  The only player who still wears #42 on their baseball jersey is Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees.  He is still able to wear it because he was in possession of the number before the league-wide retirement and promised to wear it in honor of Jackie Robinson.

Some famous retired uniform numbers include:

• Babe Ruth – New York Yankees #3
• George Brett – Kansas City Royals #5
• Joe DiMaggio – New York Yankees #5
• Ted Williams – Boston Red Sox #9

There were also a few players who played the game before numbers were commonly appearing on the backs of jerseys including Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.  Carlton Fisk, Nolan Ryan, and Hank Aaron are part of an exclusive list who have had their numbers retired with more than one team.

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