SB Nation’s own South Side Sox took a look at retired numbers this week, and discovered a number of odd facts about the practice. For example, the most commonly retired number? That would be number five, which was worn by luminaries such as George Brett, Joe DiMaggio, and more recently, Jeff Bagwell. Nine teams have retired number five.
Actually, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, And Tim Raines, We’re Going To Un-Retire Your Numbers
↵The Yankees have retired seventeen numbers, the most in baseball, while at the other end of the spectrum, five teams have only retired Jackie Robinson’s #42: Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Seattle, and Toronto.
↵Washington is an especially interesting case on this subject, because they’ve severed all ties with their Montreal heritage with regards to retired numbers. The Expos had retired four numbers (Gary Carter’s 8, Andre Dawson’s/Rusty Staub’s 10 and Tim Raines’ 30) but the Nationals have said that that’s cool, but that they’ll go ahead and use those numbers. Look, obscure outfielder Justin Maxwell (who isn’t even on the 25 man roster) has just as much right to #30 as does the memory of Tim Raines.
↵The retired Expos numbers now hang in the Bell Centre, home to the Montreal Canadiens. A fitting and symbolic abandonment of the franchise that MLB wantonly abused, then gutted, in her quest for a publicly funded stadium in Norfolk/Charlotte/Portland/Vegas/Washington. But thanks to Nationals Park, the baseball team in Washington can truly compete.
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