OT - why do they have numbers?

[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?