OT - why do they have numbers?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

OK - the Board is pretty slow right now, so I thought I'd throw this out. Why do major league baseball players wear numbers? They all have their names on the back of their uniforms. I can understand football, basketball and hockey players wearing numbers, since fouls, etc. are reported by number, but there's really nothing like that in baseball. Even in the scorebook, plays are recorded by position number, not uniform number. Any comments? Yeah - I know it's tradition, but besides that?

Mark:

I believe it was in the the early 1920's that the NY Yankees became the first team to put numbers on their jersies. If my memory is correct, the players numbers corresponded to their position in the batting order. To this day, the Yankees are the only team in MLB where the players do not have their name on the back of their jersies; I do not know if this applies to their minor league teams. I think that the Kansas City Athletics (owned by Charlie Finley at the time) was the first time to put players names on the back of their jersies.

MTD, Sr.