Numbers are very important to the New York Yankees. They were the second team in Major League Baseball to add numbers to their uniforms, and would have been the first if their opening day game in 1929 hadn’t been rained out.

Players’ numbers are linked to their legacies, and the Yankees have often been quick to protect those legacies by retiring numbers after a player leaves the team. The Yankees have officially retired: 1 (Billy Martin), 3 (Babe Ruth), 4 (Lou Gehrig), 5 (Joe Dimaggio), 7 (Mickey Mantle), 8(Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey), 9 (Roger Maris), 10 (Phil Rizzuto), 15 (Thurmon Munson), 16 (Whitey Ford), 23 (Don Mattingly), 32 (Elston Howard), 37 (Casey Stengel), 42 (Jackie Robinson and Mariano Rivera), 44 (Reggie Jackson), and 49 Ron (Guidry).

The Yankees have also unofficially retired a few numbers out of respect for certain players by not assigning them after a player has left. Those numbers are: 6 (Joe Torre), 20 (Jorge Posada), 21* (Paul O’Neill), and 51 (Bernie Williams). The asterisk for O’Neill’s number is because it was briefly assigned in 2008 to relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins. Hawkins found out the hard way> that Yankees fans don’t want anybody wearing O’Neill’s number 21, as fans changed “Paul O’Neill” in protest, and he changed it within a week.

It appears that that level of respect was not given, even for a day to former Yankees Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes who all left via free agency this off season.

Mark Feinsand, Yankees’ reporter for the NY Daily News tweeted the news yesterday:

Scott Sizemore was assigned No. 24, previously worn by Robinson Cano. — Mark Feinsand (@FeinsandNYDN) February 14, 2014

Robert Coello was assigned Joba Chamberlain’s No. 62, while Zoilo Almonte was given Phil Hughes’ No. 65. — Mark Feinsand (@FeinsandNYDN) February 14, 2014

This isn’t that unprecedented, as these players all left due to free agency and are now Yankees’ competition. I also don’t feel that any of these three did enough in a Yankee uniform to warrant the respect and honor that having your number officially or unofficially retired. Cano would be the only one that is even close, but he’s not there and now that he’ll be a Mariner for the next 10 years, he never will be.

The fact that numbers have been assigned, and pitchers and catchers have reported is a great thing. Baseball is back everybody!

Nicholas Persichilli

Reading Between the Seams

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