Baseball by the Numbers: 1

Uniform Number 1

Read about the Project

1

Welcome back! Now things are starting to get difficult. Uniform number 1 has five hundred players to choose from. Many more than 00 (twenty-one players) and 0 (forty-five players). It was quite a challenge. There were twenty-three players who wore number 1 for ten years or more and another fifty-six who wore it over five years. There were eighteen players who had a career WAR over 40 and eleven Hall of Famers. There were some really cool nicknames too; Rabbit, Snuffy, Granny, Sparky, Kiddo, Bubba and Sibby. There will be a nice group of honorably mentioned players at the end. So, without further ado (I’ve always wanted to say that!), here are my top seven players for uniform number 1.

All seven choices wore uniform number 1 for well over five years, in fact, they all wore it over ten years, and all of them had career WAR over 40.

Number 1

Ozzie Smith, 1986 Topps, #730

“The Wizard of Oz”. What an amazing nickname for an amazing player. I always loved the 1986 Topps cards. It’s one of my favorite sets, probably more for nostalgic reasons than aesthetics, but this Ozzie Smith one is sweet. I was so happy to see his uniform…