Over the weekend, the Yankees retired a pair of numbers, their second and third this year and the 20th and 21st in franchise history. The 22nd will obviously be Derek Jeter's No. 2 within the next year or two.
A lot of Yankee haters out there like to complain that the Yankees have too many retired numbers and joke that they'll eventually have to start using triple-digits. (In fact, one of my theories for not having names on the jerseys is so that when they get a new player, they can just give him the number of the guy who just left.) Yes, they have retired a lot of numbers. The most of any team in professional sports. But if you consider the fact that they've won 27 World Series, have had numerous dynastic eras featuring multiple championships in a row, and some of the biggest names in the history of the sport have worn Yankee Pinstripes, it's really not a lot at all. I'd actually argue that there could be a few more.
When people make their comments about the number of digits on the wall (there are so many that they ran out of room and had to put the three from this year on the back of the center field wall, facing away from the field), I generally respond with a question. Who would you take off? Sure, Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio are on a different level than, say, Elston Howard, but that's why only four Yankee players have monuments.
Even the biggest Yankee Haters in the world would have no argument about Derek Jeter, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Casey Stengel or Mariano Rivera. They're obviously all-time greats. That's 10 of the 22. But there's a valid reason why each of the other 12 is on the wall. Teams establish their own criteria for retiring numbers (the Nets retired Drazen Petrovic's No. 3 after he was killed in a car crash, for example). So who are we to arbitrarily assign our own standard and say someone "doesn't deserve it" when the team itself and their fans clearly think otherwise?
The reason I'm bringing this up is because the two numbers the Yankees retired this weekend are vastly different. The second Andy Pettitte retired for the final time, everyone knew No. 46 was going on the wall. There's no debate about his place in Yankees history. Pettitte's a borderline Hall of Fame candidate based on his postseason resume alone. He probably won't make it to Cooperstown, so having his number retired by the Yankees is probably the greatest baseball honor he'll ever receive.
Some people were quick to point out that Pettitte is the first "drug cheat" to have his number retired by a team (which is not true, because the Diamondbacks retired Luis Gonzalez's number earlier this year). All that tells me, though, is that haters gonna hate. Yes, Pettitte was named in the Mitchell Report. But he was also one of the few to be upfront about it. He admitted it, said he took HGH only one time so that he'd recover from an injury more quickly, and apologized. His explanation was plausible and believable, which is why I think nobody questioned him about it further. Pettitte then resumed his career and his performance was no different. Obviously some will never forgive and always label him a "cheat," but one transgression shouldn't (and didn't) cloud his career.
Andy Pettitte wasn't just one of the greatest pitchers in franchise history, he was the ace of a dynasty. During his first nine-year stint with the Yankees from 1995-2003, they went to six World Series and won four. Most importantly, he was a part of the "Core Four," the quartet that defined that era for so many Yankees fans.
Now, the Yankee retired numbers can really be broken up into three categories. There are the all-time greats (Ruth, Gehrig) and the all-time Yankee greats. That's where Pettitte falls. Pettitte's catcher, Jorge Posada, in the third group, the borderline players that those who complain about "too many" retired numbers like to question.
Most of us only remember the Jorge Posada from the end of his career, when he was relegated to DHing and got grumpy about it during his final season. But in his prime, he was a phenomenal offensive catcher. The numbers Posada put up were ridiculous. And the fact that he was still the primary catcher on that 2009 championship team when he was 37 years old (two years after having a career year at 35 in 2007) speaks to Posada's consistency and longevity.
Posada was also a member of the "Core Four," which is probably what put him over the top in the number retirement discussion. If he wasn't a part of that group, his number retirement ceremony likely never would've happened. But the other three (Jeter, Rivera and Pettitte) were all definitely getting their numbers put on the wall. And it's not the Core Three. It's the Core Four. Posada was just as important a part of that quartet as the others. They weren't going to retire three numbers and not the fourth.
As for the "overabundance" of retired numbers recently (three this season, five in the last three years, plus five Monument Park plaques), there are several reasons behind it. First and foremost, it's an obvious ploy to sell tickets. But it's also because all of those guys are from the same era. With the exception of Goose Gossage, everybody the Yankees have honored over the past three seasons was a part of that 90s dynasty that won four championships in five years. It's just the way things have cycled. Could they have staggered them a little more so that it didn't seem like they were doing them all at once? Sure. But if they were going to do it all anyway, what difference does when make?
If it seems like a lot in a short period, it is. But after Derek Jeter Day, whether it's next year or 2017 or whenever, the Yankees aren't going to have one of these in a while. Maybe they'll decide that a 21 would look nice on the wall next to all the others from that team, but other than Paul O'Neill, is there really any viable candidates on the horizon?
It's also worth noting that until the recent surge, the Yankees had only retired a total of two numbers in the 20 years between Reggie Jackson (1993) and Mariano Rivera (2013), Don Mattingly in 1997 and Ron Guidry in 2003 (which was exactly 12 years to the day before Pettitte). And Mattingly, of course, played almost his entire career during that famous playoff lull from 1981-95. So, no, the Yankees aren't overdoing it with the retired numbers. And if you think they are, do you think the same thing about the Montreal Canadiens or Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers?
Having a permanent place in the history of any team is a special thing. Now just imagine if that team is the most famous franchise in all of sports. The Core Four's place in Yankees history was already secure. They're not going to be all together in Cooperstown. Putting all four of them together in Monument Park for eternity isn't a bad alternative, though. So, do Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada belong on the wall? Yeah, they do.
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