Derek Jeter No. 2 Retirement Ceremony
Mother’s Day, May 14, 2017
Yankee Stadium
Photo by Associated Press
Well, Derek Jeter’s Number 2 just got retired this Mother’s Day 2017, exhausting the last of the New York Yankee single digit options for further use by any other present or future club players. Sooner, rather than later too, the New York Yankees also are likely to become the first MLB club to have retired all two-digit uniform numbers, as well, throwing the door open to three-digit layer identities as the new cool brand for all future marketing – at least – until those options get used up too.
Here’s what the Yankees have done, so far:
| # | Player | Date/Year Retired |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billy Martin | August 10th, 1986 |
| 2 | Derek Jeter | May 14, 2017 |
| 3 | Babe Ruth | June 13th, 1948 |
| 4 | Lou Gehrig | July 4th, 1939** |
| 5 | Joe DiMaggio | April 18th, 1952 |
| 6 | Joe Torre | August 23, 2014 |
| 7 | Mickey Mantle | June 8th, 1969 |
| 8 | Yogi Berra | July 22nd, 1972 |
| 8 | Bill Dickey | July 22nd, 1972 |
| 9 | Roger Maris | July 22nd, 1984* |
| 10 | Phil Rizzuto | August 4th, 1985 |
| 15 | Thurman Munson | September 20th, 1980 |
| 16 | Whitey Ford | August 3rd, 1974 |
| 20 | Jorge Posada | August 22nd, 2015 |
| 23 | Don Mattingly | August 31st, 1997 |
| 32 | Elston Howard | July 22nd, 1984* |
| 37 | Casey Stengel | August 8th, 1970 |
| 42 | Mariano Rivera | September 22, 2013 |
| 44 | Reggie Jackson | August 14th, 1993 |
| 46 | Andy Pettitte | August 23rd, 2015 |
| 49 | Ron Guidry | August 23rd, 2003 |
| 51 | Bernie Williams | May 24th, 2015 |
Who knows? Maybe the Yankees will someday sign a franchise great whose name just happens to be “James Bond.” In case anyone still remembers Agent 007 by that time, he will have a great three-digit number waiting for him, will he not? At any rate, a franchise really needs to be a World Series winner over time to garner widespread respect for retiring numbers outside the city a club represents. And the Yankees have done that better than any club. Ever. Or forever. However you choose to slice it.
If the entire modern history of World Series Baseball could be symbolized as one Kentucky Derby field race, the Yankees are still the only horse that made the stretch run – and, way back there, we can see the horse and jockey decked in red, just taking aim at the far turn. Those Cardinals never give up. Everybody else is pretty much lost in the blur of the far-back-there pack. Retire all the numbers you want from use by the jocks and horses of those rare to never showed entrants. Nobody out-of-town is going to notice or remember much about them anyway – at least, until the franchise mass moves forcefully and sustainably to pass on mediocrity and settle for nothing less than victory.
Speaking of same, it’s going to the bottom of the 5th in Game Two – Astros leading the Yankees 9-0, as we write. – Keep it up. Astros! You guys are playing as though you all hope to have your uniform numbers retired and placed on display with our other Houston great ones. – Keep it up and we fans will back up that idea all the way. You guys are making Astros baseball into something that could become the hottest sports ticket that ever hit this town. And we are just waiting for the football/basketball people to figure that out in time to bandwagon their ways over to Minute Maid Park and the ROOTS Channel for the rest of this story.
____________________
Bill McCurdy
Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
May 15, 2017 at 5:33 am |
If you watched baseball games in the 1950s, you noticed that the third base coach for the New York Yankees was Frankie Crosetti, who wore number “2”.
According to the New York Times, “Crosetti earned a major league record 23 World Series paychecks (17 of them winners’ shares) totaling $142,989.30. He played on 9 World Series teams and coached for 14 others.” All between 1932 and 1968.
As an eye witness to the famous called shot in the 1932 World Series, he maintained that Babe Ruth was not pointing to center field in Wrigley Field, but to the Cubs dugout.
May 20, 2017 at 4:33 pm |
I’m pretty sure Ruth did point towards the Cubs dugout, and likely more than once during that at-bat. However, memory is a tricky thing, and since the Candle and Warp film footage of the event has been discovered, we have clear visual evidence of Ruth also pointing in a straight line right out to center field, while Charlie Root’s back is turned towards him. With the pitcher so obviously not yet set to throw, it’s entirely possible that Crosetti momentarily cast his glance elsewhere while Ruth was pointing, thereby missing the sacred moment.
May 20, 2017 at 4:35 pm |
The Yankees were 17-6 in the World Series in which Crosetti worked. That is just amazing.