Wednesday, February 18, 2015

When Will New York Run out of Jersey Numbers?


When the news broke that the New York Yankees would be retiring three more numbers this season, Andy Pettitte’s #46, Bernie Williams #51 and Jorge Posada’s #20, the jokes immediately started on Twitter and around the Yankees blog-o-sphere. When will the Yankees start using triple digits they would say or when would they start using letters or fractions others would say. Look, I get it, the retiring of the numbers thing has become a bit watered down over the years and honestly New York will eventually run out of numbers at this point.

Interestingly enough the USA Today did an article on when the Yankees would run out of numbers using some sort of mathematical equation and the results were a little surprising. New York already has the numbers of 16 players retired (remember that Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey shared the #8) and the numbers of two managers in Joe Torre and Casey Stengel already retired. That is before you consider the team’s unwillingness to hand out the #21 Paul O'Neill jersey and before Derek Jeter gets his day in Monument Park with his #2 jersey.


The Yankees, according to the USA Today article, established their franchise in 1903 so in 112 years the team would have retired 20 jersey numbers. Doing the math the team is retiring .178 numbers per year and would really start making things interesting in the year 2225. By 2442 the Yankees will be completely out of double digit numbers at the rate they are going according to the article. What, oh what, is the team going to do then?

5 comments:

  1. Earlier this week, somebody made the comment that retired jersey numbers were getting watered down. That's true to a point. What people need to take into consideration is that Williams, Posada, Rivera, Pettite, and Jeter were the core of a team that won 5 World Series and was considered a Yankee dynasty. So in reality, no it's not watered down.

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    1. I agree. They aren't watered down, it's just a sign of the times. Those guys deserve it.

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    2. I also agree in part but, 5 WS victories in 20 years is not a Dynasty. Any way you cut it the core 4+1 were all a great part of bringing the team back from the "Yankees, who?"! We also had help from a few other great players along the way.

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  2. We'll run out of jersey numbers when world class hall of fame players stop playing for us. By the way, true blue Yankees fan since 1968.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)