They were originally known as the Highlanders, and finished second three times in their first 10 seasons. In 1913, the team changed its name to the New York Yankees. In 1918, Miller Huggins became the team manager and on January 3, 1920 they purchased Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. They won their first AL pennant in 1921, their first World Series in 1923. The rest is history, lots and lots of it.

The Yankees began the modern practise of putting numbers on the backs of uniforms, although they weren't the first team to experiment with it. But after the 1929 Yankees assigned everyone uniform numbers based on no more than their usual position in the batting order, the practise quickly spread to every major league team.

The Yankees numbers actually followed batting order spots for the next few years - Tony Lazzerri's number changed almost every season. Pitchers numbers were also shuffled from season to season, presumably as staff roles changed. There was always an emphasis on using the lowest numbers available. The numbers above 35 were not used at all until the 1940s, and then assigned to bench players afterwards. However, this historical preference has run up against George Steinbrenner's often sentimental view of Yankees history. The Yankees have now retired 16 numbers, more than half of them during the Steinbrenner era. Of the numbers 1-16, only five are still in circulation.

1 - Steinbrenner retired this in honour of Billy Martin, who managed Steinbrenner's first WS winner, the 1977 team. Martin was also a decent 2B in the early 1950s, but he's probably the fifth best player to wear the number in team history. Frankie Crosetti wore this during his best seasons, at SS on the great 1930 teams. Snuffy Stirnweiss preceded Martin at 2B, and was a similar player, just at a higher level. Bobby Richardson replaced Martin; while he wasn't much of a hitter, he was a superb defensive player. Bobby Murcer took on the impossible task of replacing Mickey Mantle, in the heart of the order and in CF - he wasn't up to that, but he was a very fine player. Finally, Earle Combs, the first man to wear #1, is in the Hall of Fame. Combs was the CF and leadoff hitter for the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees. He was a Mickey Rivers-Juan Pierre type player, except better. His career was short but impressive. He had 8 straight seasons scoring more than 100 runs - of course when you're lifetime OBP is .397 and you're hitting in front of Babe Ruth, you're going to score a few runs. The number was last worn by Chuck Knoblauch in 1999.

2 - Bobby Murcer wore this during his second Yankees tour in the late 1970s, and Frankie Crosetti wore it during his final seasons as a player and during his two decade run as a coach. Red Rolfe is almost forgotten now - Rolfe was an outstanding player for a few years playing 3B on Joe McCarthy's great teams of the late 1930s. Rolfe was a line drive hitter who drew walks and hit .300 - he scored 143 runs in 1937, 132 the next year. But Derek Jeter will surely be the last man to wear this number in New York. Jeter worship in certain media circles has been widespread enough to create an actual backlash. But he is nevertheless an outstanding player, the heart of one of the greatest Yankees teams ever, an obvious Hall of Famer. He is very likely going to finish up with more than 3000 hits, and he might score as many as 1800 runs. He probably should have the 1999 MVP on his resume as well, but... he wuz robbed, folks.

3 - The man who wore this number longer than any Yankee was Huntsville's own, George Selkirk. Selkirk was the man who replaced Babe Ruth in the New York lineup. Babe Ruth is still the measure everyone who plays the game is judged by, the measure no one has yet been able to meet. We're not going to sum up anything about Babe Ruth in a paragraph, and it would be silly of me to even try. This is the one man who might have been bigger than the game itself. As for the number, it stayed in circulation until Ruth died. The last man to wear it was Cliff Mapes in 1948.

4 - The Yankees gave this number to their cleanup hitter in 1929, Lou Gehrig. He wore it for the next ten years, and when he took himself out of the lineup in 1939, the team did not reassign the number, as they had with Ruth. No one has worn it since - I believe this may prove to be the only instance when a number has only been worn by one man, ever (leaving out the high and silly numbers, and the expansion teams.) As everyone knows, Gehrig was as great a player and as admirable and attractive a man as the game has ever seen. The streak is a little phony, compared to Ripken's - but there is no arguing the quality of his play. He is still the greatest first baseman who ever lived; he is still the standard, that Foxx and Greenberg and McCovey and McGwire and Thomas and Bagwell have been unable to match.

5 - Bob Meusel, Tony Lazzeri, and Frankie Crosetti wore this during the first four years it was in use. Crosetti kept it for a while, but gave it up in 1937 to a second year outfielder named Joe DiMaggio, who had worn number 9 as a rookie. When DiMaggio went off to World War II, Nick Etten wore his number 5 until he came back. Doesn't that seem weird? It sure does to me. Joltin' Joe DiMaggio. The Yankee Clipper. There was always something mythic about DiMaggio. He had an aloof, reserved personality - he was a man who kept the world at a distance. On the field, he did remarkable, astonishing things - things no one else thought possible - and made them look utterly routine and effortless. He never showed any emotion, he barely even seemed to break a sweat. He hit for average, hit for power, played a brilliant CF, threw out baserunners, could run like hell. He could do everything, he had no weaknesses. And as great as he was, which was very, very great indeed, he surely would have been even greater at almost any other time (the war robbed him of his age 28-30 seasons) or almost any other place (the left field power alley in Yankee Stadium was 460 feet away.) His career was short, but it was awesome.

6 - Joe Torre wears it now - he has managed the last four Yankees champions, and will probably end up in the Hall of Fame. Tony Lazzeri, who wore it first, is already a Hall of Famer, and he wore it for four seasons, including his outstanding 1929 campaign. Joe Gordon isn't in the Hall of Fame - his career was a little short, he lost two seasons to the war, and it might as well have been three because it took him a year after returning to get his bat going again. He beat out DiMaggio and Williams for the 1942 MVP, and he had several seasons better than that one. Clete Boyer was a brilliant third baseman and a decent hitter, especially once he got out of Yankee Stadium. Finally, Roy White switched to this number after Boyer left, and wore it longer than anyone else. White was a criminally under-rated player, who did nothing spectacular but everything well, and was still around for the late 1970s champions. Only five men played more games in a Yankee uniform than White.

7 - Leo Durocher had it first, and Tony Lazzeri had it for a year. It was Tommy Henrich's number before he went off to war. In 1951, the Yankees gave it to the 19 year old kid from Oklahoma who would replace the aging DiMaggio in CF the next season. So many discussions still swirl around Mickey Mantle - was he better than Mays, his New York rival and contemporary? Was he better than DiMaggio, the man who preceded him? How great might he have been, if not for the knee problems and his own wild lifestyle? The might-have-beens are endlessly interesting, in Mantle's case. But know this - Mantle was the greatest player on the most dominant team ever - his Yankees won more often than Ruth's Yankees, or Gehrig's, or even DiMaggio's. The only players who can match Mantle's peak, in the mid 1950s, were guys named Ruth and Wagner. Not Mays. Not DiMaggio. Not Gehrig. Not Cobb. Not even Bonds. He won 3 MVPs and deserved many more, including the two his team mate Maris won. No player, during the last 75 years, has risen to the heights Mantle scaled at his peak. Played more games in a Yankee uniform than anyone.

8 - Johnny Grabowski was the number eight hitter, so he was the first. But the Yankees soon came up with someone better. Bill Dickey was at one time regarded as the best catcher in the history of the game, a judgement that was always a little extravagant. Dickey was a LH line drive hitter who suddenly became a power and RBI source at age 29. He put together four superb seasons before his production and playing time fell off. He passed the catching baton to Yogi Berra, who is a much better candidate as the greatest catcher who ever lived. Forget all the funny things he said - and he said lots of them - the man was a great player. Berra didn't have Johnny Bench's spectacular defensive skills, but Yogi knew what he was doing back there and knew how to handle a pitching staff. He kept getting world championship performances out of a bunch of guys who were often never any good except when they were working with him. With the stick, Berra never rose to Bench's heights, but he was the most consistent hitting catcher the game has ever seen, on the AL leader boards in multiple offensive categories year after year after year. He never coughed up one of those 15 HR, .234 seasons that most catchers, even Bench, so often fall prey to. One of a handful of men to win three MVP awards.

9 - Benny Bengough, Grabowski's backup, had it first, and Joe DiMaggio wore it as a rookie. Charlie Keller was a legitimately great player, but between the war and injuries, his career consists of just five full seasons. Hank Bauer came out of the Marines to play twelve productive years in Stengel's outfield, before being part of a trade that brought Roger Maris to New York. Maris still holds the AL record for HRs in a season, won back-to-back MVP awards, and was a fine defensive player as well. The number has been retired for Maris, but I think the best player was actually Graig Nettles, who spent 11 years playing 3B for the Bombers. Nettles won only two Gold Gloves, because Brooks Robinson was still active, but Nettles actually deserved quite a few of those. His glove single-handledly turned around the 1978 World Series, and he could hit a little too. He led the AL in homers in 1976, was second the following year, and ended up with 390 lifetime.

10 - Bill Dickey wore this in 1929, and passed it off to RP George Pipgras for a couple of years. In 1941, it was assigned to a little wee shortstop from Brooklyn that the Dodgers had passed on. Phil Rizzuto had an odd career. He made the Yankees at age 23 and had two fine seasons - then he went off to war for three years. His glove was always terrific - Bill James believes that he was the best shortstop on the double play ever - but he seemed to have lost a little something with the bat while he was away. Then in 1950, he had an amazing season, winning and deserving the MVP while establishing career bests in just about everything. He was 32, and he returned to his normal level the next year. Tony Kubek succeeded Rizzuto at short - he was also a very fine two-way player, although his career was shortened by injuries. Both Rizzuto and Kubek would have lengthy careers as broadcasters. Chris Chambliss, a fine first baseman, hit the series winning HR against Kansas City in the 1976 LCS. The number was last worn by former Blue Jay Rick Cerone in 1984 - it's been retired to honour Rizzuto..

11 - Gary Sheffield, who has it now, is the first hitter of any consequence to wear this number. It's always been a pitcher's number in New York, from Herb Pennock who had it first, up through Dwight Gooden. Waite Hoyt succeeded Pennock as part of the early flip-flopping of numbers. The great pitching coach, Johnny Sain, wore it when he was pitching for Stengel in the 1950s. Before him, it belonged to the LH relief ace Joe Page. But # 11 was worn for 11 years by Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez - his name was Vernon, and he was also known as "Goofy." Gomez led the AL in wins, ERA, and strikeouts twice - he went 87-31 in his first four full seasons in the rotation. And he told as many funny stories as anybody in the history of the game. Some of my favourite Gomez quips:

"I'd rather be lucky than good."

"The secret of my success was clean living and a fast outfield."

"I talked to the ball a lot of times in my career. I yelled, "Go foul. Go foul."

"I'm throwing as hard as I ever did, but the ball is just not getting there as fast."

12 - Waite Hoyt had it first, and it passed among him, George Pipgras, and Herb Pennock as the number played musical chairs. Charlie Keller wore it when he came back from the war, and Billy Martin wore it as a rookie. This was the number worn by Ron Blomberg, who never did become the great New York Jewish superstar, but was the very first designated hitter, ever. And this was the number both Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens first adopted when they came to New York from Boston. We're going to overlook the three Hall of Famers, and Clemens who will make it four, and Keller, who was definitely that quality a player. We're going to honour a utility infielder. Except Gil McDougald wasn't really a utility infielder - he was an everday player, he just played all over the infield. He was an outstanding defensive player at 2b, SS, and 3B. Yankee Stadium cut his career homers in half, and he retired young. But he was a constant and a key to Stengel's 1950s dynasty.

13 - Mike Pagliarulo hit 94 HRs in four years as the Yanks' third baseman, and Jim Leyritz hit 8 HRs in 61 post season at bats. But "Slappy" Alex Rodriguez is one of the greatest players of our time.

14 - George Pipgras had it first, and it was Bump Hadley's number when he ended Mickey Cochrane's career. Gene Woodling and Bill Skowron were both All-Stars and part of multiple champions during the Stengel years. Woodling was a LH corner outfielder, and Skowron was a slugging first baseman, who was hurt enormously by the dimensions of Yankee Stadium. Finally, Lou Piniella had a long run as a corner outfielder, and later as manager - Piniella was a corner outfielder who didn't walk, couldn't run, and never hit more than 12 HRs - these things notwithstanding, he was actually quite a player. Really.

15 - This number was retired when Thurman Munson died in 1979. The 1976 MVP, and first Yankees captain since Gehrig, Munson was pretty special. He drove in 100 runs three times, hit .300 five times, and was even better in the post-season - .357 with 22 RBI in 30 games. Like Munson, Tom Tresh was a Rookie-of-the-Year. Tresh played shortstop as a rookie - Tony Kubek was away in the army. He moved to LF when Kubek returned and had several more fine seasons before he suddenly stopped hitting. Tommy Henrich wore this number when he returned from the war. It's hard to pass over Munson, but Red Ruffing anchored the Yankee staff for thirteen seasons. He came over from Boston (of course!) in early 1930, sporting a 39-96 career record. But in pinstripes, he would win 231 games and lose just 124. The war probably cost him a chance to win 300 games.

16 - Tom Zachary, who gave up the Babe's 60th HR in 1927, was the first Yankee to wear this. He was followed by Hall of Famer Herb Pennock, who was nearing the end of the line, and Monte Pearson, who went 63-27 for McCarthy's great teams in the late 1930s. But the Chairman of the Board, Whitey Ford, holds almost every Yankee pitching record - most wins, starts, innings, strikeouts. He had a good fastball, a better curve, a broad assortment of highly illegal pitches, and absolute command and composure on the mound. He was a cold, emotionless, tight-lipped killer out there - and this is a guy who was actually fairly famous for his love of a good time. He only won 20 games twice, but that was largely because of how Stengel ran his rotation. Ford started more than 30 games only once during Stengel's tenure. But no LH pitcher, ever, has a higher winning percentage. He won 10 of his 22 World Series starts, threw three consecutive series shutouts, and his 33.2 consecutive scoreless WS innings broke Babe Ruth's 1918 record, and still stands.

17 - First worn by Fred Heimach, a forgotten LH pitcher. One of the more memorable recent players was Oscar Gamble - certainly, no one will ever forget his hair. Mickey Rivers played CF and led off for the 1977-78 champions - Rivers was a good player and enormous fun to watch, with his crippled old man walk and bizarre throws from the outfield. And this was Enos Slaughter's number as an aging pinch-hitter with Stengel's 1950s teams. The best of the bunch was Vic Raschi, the Springfield Rifle. His career got off to a late start - he was 28 before he got his shot in the Yankees rotation, in July 1947. From then through 1953, he won 118 games and lost 50. He was 5-3, 2.24 in 8 World Series starts - that includes a 2 hit shutout to open the 1950 series, and a 2-0, 1.59 performance that probably made him the MVP of the 1952 series.

18 - Wilcy Moore was a one-year wonder, and by 1929 was making the journey back to mediocrity. Red Ruffing wore this when he first came to New York. Johnny Allen went 50-19 in his first four seasons, but the Yankees kept finishing second and they traded him to Cleveland. More recently, this was worn by Scott Brosius, and before him a promising young shortstop named Andre Robertson who was never the same player after a serious car accident. The most notorious player might have been Mike Kekich of the family swap, and the longest tenure belonged to a slighty portly RH reliever named Hal Reniff. But the greatest achievement, taking the honours here, was turned in by Don Larsen on October 8, 1956. His perfect game is still the only post-season no-hitter ever. He was a journeyman, a hard thrower with control issues - the Yankees traded for him after he had gone 3-21 for Baltimore in 1954. His lifetime record was 81-91, and his 11-5 season in 1956 was his biggest single season. But for that one afternoon... well, he was perfect.

19 - Ed Wells (who?) had it first - Vic Raschi and Whitey Ford both wore it as rookies, before finding the numbers that they would make their own. Bullet Bob Turley won the Cy Young and World Series MVP in 1958, before arm problems destroyed his career. Fritz Peterson was a LH finesse pitcher who won 109 games for the bad teams of the late 1960s. Then he and fellow LH Mike Kekich swapped families - wives, kids, dogs and everything - which got them both traded away ASAP. Grandma Johnny Murphy was one of the very first true relief aces for Joe McCarthy's 1930s teams - he used to work about 40 games a year, with about 10 saves. Dave Righetti was a classic modern relief ace. Righetti may have been the first truly good young starting pitcher who was moved to the bullpen - the role of relief ace had never before been regarded as that important. Righetti was the 1981 Rookie of the Year as a starter, he pitched a 4th of July no-hitter at the Stadium against Boston. He would never have been moved to the bullpen at any earlier time in baseball history. He was a good reliever, but still... He was 14-8, 3.44 in his last year in the rotation. Would you make that move?

20 - Myles Thomas was an extra arm on the 1929 team. Tiny Bonham was a big guy who had a few good seasons during the war. Horace Clarke was a decent player, who had the bad fortune to arrive just when the team was going down the toilet. Bucky Dent was a similar player to Clarke, but his Yankees were better, and Dent got very hot in October 1978 (World Series MVP, and a famous homer in Fenway.) The best player is clearly the man who has it now - Jorge Posada doesn't quite measure up to Berra, Dickey, maybe not even Munson. But he is a worthy inheritor of that legacy. He's not the world's greatest defensive catcher, but he's been a very dangerous hitter from both sides of the plate.

21 - First worn by Gordon Rhodes in 1929, it hasn't been retired. Still, no one has worn it since Paul O'Neill finished his Yankee tenure. O'Neill, as intense and irritating a player as I've ever seen, was the emotional leader of a team that won four world championships. This was also worn by Jack Clark, Steve Kemp, and Jose Cruz near the end of their careers; and Dan Pasqua at the beginning of his. And with all due respect to O'Neill, the man who must be singled out is Spud Chandler. He was 29 before he pitched his first game in the majors; an injury later cost him a full season and change, and the war took away two more years. He still managed to go 109-43 and win the 1943 MVP. His lifetime winning percentage of .717 is the best of any pitcher since the mound was moved to 60 feet.

22 - Jimmy Key and Roger Clemens both wore this after coming from Toronto, and both were pretty successful in the Bronx. Lefty Gomez had it as a rookie, and Red Ruffing wore it when he came back from the war. But one of the keys to Stengel's great teams was Allie Reynolds. The Super Chief threw very, very hard and didn't have much control - he regularly walked 100 batters a year, and several times walked more guys than he struck out. But he was Stengel's best starter and ace reliever as well - he had 41 saves in 86 relief appearances as a Yankee. In the World Series, he was sensational - he worked in 15 games, 9 of them starts. He went 7-2 with 4 saves, a 2.79 ERA and pitched a pair of shutouts.

23 - Tony Lazzeri wore it for a year. Ralph Terry gave up a walk-off HR to lose the 1960 series, but got the final out in the 1962 series. But the obvious man here is current Yankees hitting coach, Don Mattingly. He was a small singles-hitting outfielder when he arrived in the early 1980s. They moved him to 1B, and he came up with a power stroke. Mattingly had a four year run as a truly great player - back injuries took away most of his power after that. Didn't make it to the post-season until his final year and never played in a World Series.

24 - First worn by Lyn Lary, the longest tenure for this number belonged to a LH flame-thrower named Al Downing, one of just 8 men to strike out 1000 batters as a Yankee. But with all respect to Tino Martinez, Rickey Henderson is one of the greatest players of all time, and he was at his absolute peak during his Yankee years in the late 1980s. The 146 runs he scored for the 1985 Yankees is the highest total in the AL in the last 50 years.

25 - Ben Paschal, a utility outfielder, was the first back in 1929. Since then it's been worn by a number of good players, including Hank Bauer, Don Baylor, Jim Abbott, and Jason Giambi. Joe Pepitone had it the longest, and Joe had a lot of talent even if he didn't do all that much with it. The best Yankee, perhaps surprisingly, has been Tommy John. He was 36 when he came to New York, but he put up back-to-back 20 win seasons and won 91 games for the Yankees before finally calling it quits, just after his 46th birthday.

26 - Ryne Duren only had two decent seasons, but he was the original Ricky Vaughn (without the experience in the California Penal League). He was a flame throwing RH, who used to come out of the bullpen, squint through thick glasses in the general area of home plate, and fire a few warm-up pitches over the backstop. In his last full season in New York, he struck out 67 and walked 49 in 49 IP. But El Duque, Orlando Hernandez, is both a good story and a good pitcher. The Cuban refugee, of indeterminate age, throws everything but the kitchen sink at hitters, and has been one of the greatest post-season pitchers of our time.

27 - First worn by Sammy Byrd in 1929; Byrd's job was to replace the aging Babe Ruth in RF late in the game. Johnny Lindell had one good year during the war; otherwise he was a fourth outfielder. Which leaves Butch Wynegar, who at least played regularly for a couple of years, and one of them was pretty good. Now Milwaukee's hitting coach.

28 - Liz Funk was the first. Atley Donald went 65-33 in eight years as a useful spot starter for McCarthy's teams. Tommy Byrne was a LH with no control at all - he walked 339 batters in 399 IP during his first two years in Stengel's rotation. He somehow won 15 both seasons. In his career, he walked 1037 in 1362 IP. He led the league in hit batters five times. The best Yankee was stolen from the Red Sox (who else?) in exchange for an aging singles-hitting first baseman named Danny Cater. Sparky Lyle anchored the bullpen for seven seasons. He won the 1977 Cy Young and pitched brilliantly in that post-season. He saved 141 games as a Yankee, and co-authored the defintive book on the 1977-78 champs: "The Bronx Zoo."

29 - Lou McEvoy had it first in 1930, and coach Art Fletcher wore it for much of the next decade. Charlie Silvera wore it as Yogi Berra's backup, and in recent days it's adorned outfielders Gerald Williams and Jesse Barfield, as well as LOOGYs Bob Shirley and Mike Stanton. The most memorable was baseball's first big free agent, Catfish Hunter. Charles Finley failed to live up to all the terms of Hunter's contract, and an arbitrator ruled that the 28 year old Cy Young winner was free to negotiate with anyone. The Yankees signed him for $3.5 million over five years: jaws dropped everywhere at the amount of money involved. Hunter pitched 328 IP and won 23 games in his first season in pinstripes, and then began to break down - he went 17-15, 9-9 over the next two years. By the end of July 1978, he was 3-4 with a 6.51 ERA, and he was having trouble lifting his pitching arm. A "shoulder manipulation" somehow restored him - he went 9-1, 1.71 over his next 11 starts as the Yankees stormed back to steal the AL East. He wrapped it up by winning the deciding game in the World Series. It was a wonderful last hurrah for one of the game's good people, a man who died much too young, at 53, of Lou Gehrig's disease.

30 - Gordon Rhodes and Bots Nekola both wore it in 1929, and it was passed among a number of coaches for a while. Ed Lopat was a soft-tossing LH who won 113 games for Casey Stengel, who once said that "every time he pitches, fans come out of the stands asking for contracts." Lopat really didn't look like much - he struck out just 859 men in more than 2400 IP in the majors. Bobby Shantz, the tiny LH who was the 1952 MVP with the A's, also passed through New York. And in 1964, just before the team crumbled, they came up with one last gem. Mel Stottlemyre went 9-3, 2.06 as the 1964 team rallied for one last pennant before the collapse. For the next few years, Stottlemyre, a skinny RH sinkerballer, was about all that was worth watching - he won 20 games three times for some very bad teams. Lifetime he was 164-139, 2.97, all with the Yankees. But just as they were becoming a contender, his shoulder went bad. So they gave his number to a young second baseman the Yankees had just liberated from Pittsburgh in exchange for Doc Medich. Willie Randolph was a wonderful, dependable player for 13 seasons in New York. He had no power whatsoever, but he could do everything else - he played a fine second base, hit for a good average, drew lots of walks, stole some bases. Only eight Yankees scored more runs in pinstripes, and only one (Rickey Henderson) stole more bases.

31 - After Roy Sherid tried it on in 1929, this number was worn exclusively by coaches for the next 45 years. The most notable of these were pitching coaches Jim Turner (18 seasons in New York) and Johnny Sain. Ed Figueroa took it back onto the field. Figueroa came over from the Angels along with Mickey Rivers for Bobby Bonds. He was a RH finesse pitcher who had just four good ML seasons, but the Yankees got three of them, in which he went 55-30. In 1978, he and Ron Guidry held the staff together by themselves for half a season - that year Figueroa became the first Puerto Rican to win 20 games. But the man we must single out here was one of the most celebrated free agent signings ever. The ten year contract Dave Winfield signed in 1981 boggled the mind when it happened. Within five years, it was obviously a bargain. I imagine Winfield is pretty fondly remembered by most of you, and with good reason. But the Blue Jays had him when he was 40 - ten years earlier, he was really special. A wonderful, all-around player - a dangerous, slashing hitter, a superb RF with a great arm, an exciting and aggressive baserunner.

32 - Art Jorgens wore it first, and then it was passed amongst the backup catchers. Ralph Houk wore it when he was backing up Berra, and then it was given to Elston Howard. Howard was too good to stay on the bench, and he played some 1B and OF while waiting for Yogi to get old. Howard was 31 when he finally pushed Berra out from behind the plate into LF. He was a quick and active catcher and a powerful RH hitter (although, like so many others, the Stadium ate into his numbers big-time.) He had a four year run as a great player, winning the 1963 MVP, before time caught up with him. No one has worn the number since; it's been retired for Howard, who spent 11 years as a Yankee coach before dying in 1980 at age 51.

33 - This is another number that was pretty much reserved for the coaching staff, most notably John Schulte and Bill Dickey, until the mid 1970s. The best hitter to wear it was Ken Griffey, who had a decent run in New York, although his prime was ten years earlier. And, the claims of Melido Perez notwithstanding, the best pitcher has been the Boomer, David Wells. In his four seasons with the Yankees, Wells went 68-28 - he also won all 4 of his post-season starts for the 1998 champs, tossed a perfect game, and ate a lot of doughnuts.

34 - This number has been worn with more distinction by coaches than by players. The late Dick Howser was a Yankee coach for 10 years and two championships; current occupant Mel Stottlemyre is in his 10th year as the pitching coach, and has four rings to show for it. The most memorable player, believe it or not, was utility infielder Phil Linz, who filled in for the oft-injured Kubek. He is best remembered for playing his harmonica on the team bus after a loss in 1964. An enraged manager Yogi Berra had a meltdown on the spot. Strangely enough, the team then got red-hot and came charging out of the pack to grab the 1964 pennant.

35 - Ralph Houk wore this as a coach and a manager, which kept it off the field for a long time. Phil Niekro put in two good seasons and won his 300th game as a Yankee (in Toronto, over John Cerutti.) Only two players have worn 35 for five seasons. One of them was Lee Guetterman, a very tall LH. The other is the man who has it now, Mike Mussina. The Moose is a hard player to like, but there's no debating his ability. As a Yankee, he's gone 64-38 in four years. He's probably going to end up in the Hall of Fame, and while it's a long shot, he might even make it to 300 wins.

36 - First given to Mel Queen (not the former Blue Jays coach) in 1942, this seemed reserved for bench players and back of the rotation guys for half a century. The great Johnny Mize was the most noteworthy of these. But in 1995, the Yankees traded a prospect named Marty Janzen to Toronto for David Cone. The hired gun found a home in the Bronx. He won more games for the Mets than he did for the Yankees - he won his Cy Young in Kansas City - he won his first World Series in Toronto. But he won several more rings in New York, pitched a perfect game, and will probably be best remembered as a Yankee.

37 - Gus Niarhos was given this number in 1946, and he is the only player who ever has, or ever will, wear it. For some inexplicable reason, in 1949 the Yankees tapped Casey Stengel to manage the team. What were they thinking? Stengel had managed 9 years in the NL, for two teams, and managed exactly one .500 season, a fifth place finish with the 1938 Boston Braves. Prior to that, he had been a pretty decent LH outfielder, although Casey himself would say "I had many years that I was not so successful as a ballplayer, as it is a game of skill." Well, who knew? Stengel's time in New York was the most successful run any manager has ever had. Twelve seasons, ten pennants, seven world championships. Eleven times, they came in above .600 with more than 90 wins in a 154 game schedule. You could look it up.

38 - They gave it to Hank Borowy in 1942 - he's best remembered for pitching the Cubs to their last NL pennant. The Yankees had a big 24 year old RH named Steve Kline who went 16-9 for them in 1972. But in 236 IP, he struck out just 58 batters. Yes - it was a fluke. He won another 9 games in his career. Which leaves two LH catchers who couldn't really catch but could hit a little. First, there was Johnny Blanchard, who was sensational in 1961 but it was really his only good year; and then there was Matt Nokes, who at least had back-to-back 20 HR seasons.

39 - Mike Chartak got into five games in 1942 - he went 0-5 as a pinch-hitter. After that, a few mildly interesting relievers passed through. There was Jim (the Undertaker) Coates, a tall skinny RH who had four useful seasons. He was followed by Steve Hamilton, who was even taller (6-7) and even skinnier. Hamilton spent parts of 8 seasons in New York as one of the first LOOGYs, working 50-60 IP a season. After him comes Ron Davis, also historically interesting as the first true set-up guy. It was his job to get the ball from the starter to Gossage. Anyway, after this fascinating stuff, the Yankees came up with a fine CF from Panama named Roberto Kelly. He was more like a RH Mickey Rivers than Mantle or DiMaggio, but he covered CF well and slashed lots of line drives. Ask Dave Stieb. In what looked at the time to be a truly bone-headed move, they traded the 27 year old Kelly to the Reds for an older, slower OF named Paul O'Neill. Which worked out pretty well, as it happened. But Kelly was a fine player, and certainly helped the Yankees more than Darryl Strawberry, who wore it at the end of the 1990s.

40 - This has only been in use since 1946, and coaches have had it a third of the time. The only players of any interest are Andy Hawkins, your basic generic fourth starter, and Lindy McDaniel, one of the first great career relievers. He was 32 when he came to New York, but stayed for 6 years, and saved 29 games with a 2.01 ERA for the 1970 team.

41 - After Dickey came Berra. After Berra came Howard. After Howard came Munson... well, not quite. Jake Gibbs got in there for a while. Gibbs spent parts of 10 seasons in New York, hitting .233 lifetime with 25 career HRs. He just doesn't fit in that royal line of catchers, does he? So let's acknowledge Joe Collins, the lefty hitting 1B from the early 1950s. His usage suggests a platoon arrangement, which is strange, because the other 1B on the team were also LH batters. Oh well, Casey probably knew what he was doing.

42 - Jerry Coleman has gained everlasting immortality as the Padres broadcaster. But once upon a time, he was a pretty decent 2B. After three years as the regular, he went into military service for two years. During that time, Billy Martin took his job and Coleman forgot how to hit. But he came back to put in a few seasons as a utility IF before finding his true calling. After a number of forgettable players tried it on, the Yankees gave it to a hard throwing but otherwise marginal RH starting pitcher. Mariano Rivera went 5-3, 5.51 in 1995 and the next year Joe Torre made him a reliever. The rest is history - the rest is historic. The Sandman spent one year setting up John Wetteland, before taking over as the bullpen ace. There is an argument to be made that Mariano Rivera is the greatest relief pitcher ever. In the past eight seasons, he has gone 36-25 with 331 saves and a 2.13 ERA. In the post-season, he has been breath-taking. In 70 games, he is 8-1 with 32 saves and a 0.75 ERA. Rivera has been so good in the post-season that every baseball fan can probably each of his four blown saves in the post-season, in the same way that one remembers earthquakes or other shocking and cataclysmic events. He has pitched more games for the Yankees than anyone. He is also a gentleman of class and dignity, and it is entirely fitting that such a great player will be the last man in the major leagues to ever wear this number.

43 - Slim pickings, here. Rudy May wore this during his first tour with the Yankees. He didn't lead the league in ERA but he went 14-12 before being part of a ten-player trade with the Orioles. It saves me from having to highlight Jeff Nelson, who is: a) a setup guy, and b) someone who just irritates the hell out of me.

44 - The Yankees never gave numbers like this to their stars - they gave it to guys like Frank Verdi, who first wore it in 1953. But when Reggie Jackson came to New York, his own #9 was being worn by Graig Nettles. So he put on the number of the greatest home run hitter of all time. It's Show Time! Mr October, and why not? In 27 World Series games, he hit .357 with 10 HR and 24 RBI. Any Reggie Jackson at bat in the World Series was as exciting as anything I've ever seen in baseball, whatever the result. The man had presence. Reggie was a great hitter, probably even better than his numbers indicate - he spent most of his career in the two best pitcher's parks in the AL. He was a relentless self-promoter, which was probably why Billy Martin couldn't stand him - Billy always wanted to be the star himself. Whereas his previous manager, Earl Weaver, who didn't care about that stuff, loved having Reggie on his team.

45 - This was the number Rudy May wore when he returned to the Yankees and led the AL in ERA. It would be bad if we had to give him two numbers. Luckily, Stan Bahnsen was the 1968 Rookie of the Year, going 17-12, 2.05 for a fifth place team. Bahnsen wasn't quite that good, but he went 55-52 as a Yankee, and had a 16 year career in the majors.

46 - This was the preserve of bench players and late-season call-ups until Andy Pettitte came along in 1995. The Yankees do not win without LH pitching - never have, maybe never will. The winningest pitcher in Yankees history is a LH, Whitey Ford. Lefty Gomez is 3rd, Ron Guidry is 4th, Herb Pennock is 7th and Andy Pettite is 9th. Pettitte was part of four champions. The big Texan went 149-78 in his Yankees career.

47 - Not a lot to choose from. Tom Sturdivant had back-to-back 16 win seasons in the mid 1950s. Shane Spencer had a spectacular run as a late season call-up. And Luis Arroyo had one of those amazing out-of-the-blue seasons in 1961. He was a little LH from Puerto Rico who threw a screwball, and he took over as the relief ace when the Yankees got tired of Ryne Duren's act. In 1961, at age 34, Arroyo went 15-5 with 29 saves and a 2.19 ERA. He had never done anything remotely like it before, and was given an enormous amount of credit for Whitey Ford's 25-4 Cy Young season. (Ford actually worked 283 IP and threw 11 CG - he wasn't a total wuss.) Anyway, the Yankees were so delighted with Arroyo that they ordered him not to play winter ball anymore. So he sat around the house getting fat, and was never any good again.

48 - Seriously, the best choice here is Jim Hegan, who coached the Yankees catchers for many years. He helped turn Elston Howard, Thurman Munson, and Rick Dempsey into major league catchers. If you insist on a player - we got problems. All there is to choose from are former Blue Jays relievers. Dale Murray is the guy they traded away Fred McGriff to get, and Murray did not pitch well in New York. And after just one year in New York, Paul Quantrill is showing signs of being done. At least Q was pretty decent last year.

49 - No one interesting wore this until it was given to a skinny little LH from Lafayette Louisiana named Ron Guidry. The Gator was 5-11 and weighed 162 pounds, and he was a power pitcher, with a hard darting fastball and an evil slider. He arrived in 1977 with a 16-7, 2.82 season. But no one was prepared for what he did in 1978 - winning his first 13 decisions, carrying the team on his tiny back until they finally got going in August, winning the epic sudden-death playoff at Fenway. He finished up 25-3, 1.74 with 9 shutouts, and they gave the MVP to someone else. Fools! You have no perception. Guidry's career started a little late and ended a little early, which is the only reason he's not in the Hall of Fame. He went 154-67 during his nine year peak, winning 20 three times. He was John Cerutti's idol, and he was great fun to watch.

50 - Nothing to see here, move along. I mean it. Bill Burbach went 6-8 for the 1969 team. I'm serious.

51 - Not much more here for the longest time. Pete Mikkelsen was a sidearming reliever who went 7-4 with 12 saves for the 1964 team. Luckily, Bernie Williams shows up in 1991, and keeps this silly number. Bernie looks like he's just about done these days, but he has been a wonderfully complete and productive player for a very long time, and has a very good Hall of Fame case. This is the year he passes Don Mattingly and Joe DiMaggio on the Yankees all-time list for most hits, career. The man moves in impressive company. He has hit more post-season homers than anyone (of course he had lots more opportunity - but still.)

52 - Nothing whatsoever to see here. Nothing. Jose Contreras? Yes. I'm not kidding. Go away.

53 - Huh? The Yankees actually let someone useful wear number 53? They did - his name was Johnny Kucks and he went 18-9 for the 1956 champs. He then tossed a 3 hit shutout in the seventh game of the World Series, which is about as useful as you could possibly want. He was a 22 year old RH who didn't strike out people, so he wasn't bound for glory. He went 28-40 over the next four years and was done, at 26.

54 - There's only been one guy who was any good, but at least he was really good, and for a long time too. Rich Gossage came to New York as a free agent signing after 1977, and promptly made the AL's reigning Cy Young winner redundant. He was that dominant. He was this hulking guy with a weird, horrible looking Fu Manchu, who just heaved the ball as hard as he could. He was fearsome, a fire-breathing dragon, snorting and stomping around out there. Nobody dared to dig in against the Goose. He was terrifying.

55 - Naturally the pickings are slim here. Bob Grim was a RH swing man who went 20-6 for one of Stengel's second place teams; Ramiro Mendoza had a nice run, also as a swing man, during the late 1990s. Hideki Matsui is clearly the best of the lot, even if the team sometimes seems to be crumbling around him.

The Yankees have historically been reluctant to use the numbers above 30, let alone the strange ones. Steve Howe, of course, wore 57 between suspensions. The old Bulldog, Jim Bouton, was number 56 - Bouton was a very good pitcher in 1963-64, winning 21 and 18 games and pitching very well in the World Series both years. Then his arm fell apart, and the rest is... legend. The man who needs to be recognized here, is a man who wore a uniform without a number. I don't know why. It wasn't because he pre-dated the numbers - he joined the Yankees in 1931 and stayed until 1946. His name was Joe McCarthy and he may very well have been the greatest manager who ever lived. Unlike Stengel or Torre, McCarthy was a winner in his other managerial stops as well. He never had a losing season, anywhere - he won seven world championships in New York, and only four men in major league history managed their team to more victories.

There aren't very many Yankees to single out for special attention from the era before numbers: Bob Meusel and the fine pitchers from the Ruth-Gehrig teams - Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Bob Shawkey - all stayed around long enough to wear something at least once. Hal Chase was a talented player, who probably holds the all-time record for games fixed. Until Derek Jeter came along, Roger Peckinpaugh was the greatest shortstop in Yankee history. Wee Willie Keeler played seven years for the Highlanders on the downside of his career. Wally Pipp was a fine player who is best remembered for the headache that gave Lou Gehrig the chance to take his job. Urban Shocker was a Hall of Fame quality pitcher who gave his best years to the St Louis Browns, and then died at age 36 after three seasons with the Yankees, coming off an 18-6 season. Finally, Happy Jack Chesbro went 41-12 in 454 innings for the 1904 team.

There's something else one notices about the Yankees. Look at all the Lifers, guys who never played anywhere else. It's truly impressive. There are the obvious ones that everyone knows, the Hall of Famers and stars: Gehrig, Combs, Dickey, DiMaggio, Rizzuto, Mantle, Munson, Guidry, Mattingly, Williams, Jeter, Posada, Rivera. But there are many others as well: Red Rolfe, Frankie Crosetti, Spud Chandler, Tommy Henrich, Joe Collins, Gil McDougald, Jerry Coleman, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Mel Stottlemyre, Jake Gibbs, Roy White. There's doubtless others I'm forgetting; Mick has doubtless been watching my Every Move here, and may think of a few more.

Next... from the Sublime to the Ridiculous. Yes, it's the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. This shouldn't take long...