Talk:Uniform number (Major League Baseball)

Cliff Johnson
Cliff Johnson never wore 99. So says Baseball Almanac. I've removed this reference.99.237.62.225 (talk) 02:07, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Number Assignment
Some of the expansion teams of the 1960s had a free hand in establishing uniform numbering, and generally reserved 1-5 for the manager and coaches, 7, 8 and 9 for catchers, 10-19 for infielders, 20s for outfielders, 30s and 40s for pitchers and rarely anything higher. One could still see vestiges of that system in the years following. WHPratt (talk) 15:27, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Article contains unrelated, unencyclopedic, unreferenced and unverifiable content
The entire article should be rewritten. I'm not going to go through each point here, but I'm going to add tags to the areas that I think need a source. — X96lee15 (talk) 02:00, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Rereading the article, it's full of weasel words and unverifible claims. They SHOULD be removed until source can be found, not the other way around. However, the claims are so broad, I'm sure a source cannot be found, unless this article was cut and paste from another one (which may be the case; it has that "tone" to it). — X96lee15 (talk) 02:09, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

This is Buu Huu speaking. I don't think it says it on the article, but is it legal for a baseball player to wear a 3-digit number? Buu Huu

No number
"Detroit Tigers center fielder Gabe Kapler also played a game with a blank jersey,[4] though it that case the Tigers were playing the final game at Tiger Stadium and the players were honoring the famous Tigers in each position. In Kapler's case he was honoring Ty Cobb, who's career pre-dated uniform numbers."

The Tigers did not retire any numbers until Al Kaline retired, and the alleged reason for this was the inability to so honor Cobb, who never had a number. One sportswriter argued that Cobb's non-number had a de facto retirement, in that nobody would ever wear no number for the Tigers again.WHPratt (talk) 17:42, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Superfluous Zero
Catcher Benito Santiago wore number "09" (zero-nine) for a time. He didn't like the way that the back strap of his chest protector covered a single-digit, centered number. This raises the question; is 09 different from just plain 9? It's mathematically the same, but graphically different. Could a team have both a 9 and an 09 (or any similiarly-paired numbers) on the roster? Allowing such semi-duplication could help matters when numbers are in short supply, as in football. WHPratt (talk) 17:50, 25 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, if it's true (as stated in the article) that Al Oliver and Cliff Johnson wore 0 and 00 with the Blue Jays in 1985, then how would 9 and 09 be any different? Unless a rule prohibiting it has been written since then. LarryJeff (talk) 19:37, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I guess that's a precedent! WHPratt (talk) 00:45, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

42 all
"On Jackie Robinson Day, teams across the MLB all wear uniform number 42 to honor him. The MLB has taken this tribute so far that, on that day only, all 30 team websites' active rosters say that every player on the team is number 42."

I'd be curious as to how they handle the display of the local lineups and of the out-of-town pitchers on the scoreboard. Do they show everybody as 42 (rendering these displays rather worthless) or instead use the players' usual numbers. It might vary by ballpark. WHPratt (talk) 14:43, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Knuckleball pitcher #49
Isn't #49 mostly worn by a knuckleball pitcher? --Full steam (talk) 17:05, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * You might be able to find some examples (such as Charlie Hough and Tom Candiotti), but there are also plenty of counter-examples (such as Phil Niekro and the only current knuckleballer R.A. Dickey). Basically, unless you can cite a reliable source that notes such a connection, it should not go into a Wikipedia article.  --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 17:49, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Okay, this is probably the source you had in mind. It mentions that knuckleballers including Hough, Candiotti, and Tim Wakefield all wore #49 in honor of knuckleball patriarch Hoyt Wilhelm (who I note only wore #49 during the first five years of his career, and went on to wear six other numbers during the subsequent ten years).
 * There are all sorts of examples that could be cited of someone wearing a particular uniform number in honor of someone else, so it's not clear to me that this fact is sufficiently relevant to merit mention in this article. Others may want to chime in.  --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 19:36, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what change you're proposing to this article. 471 players have worn the number 49, so given the relatively low percentage of knuckleball pitchers in MLB, I assume your statement is not literally true. Can you clarify what edit you would like to make? isaacl (talk) 22:45, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * This is why talk-pages exist. A thought existed in the back of my mind but you've proved me wrong and the actual article shouldn't be edited. --Full steam (talk) 10:37, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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