Ranking greatest athletes of all time by jersey numbers

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EDITOR’S NOTE: While RBJ sports columnist Scott Pitoniak is away this week, we offer this oldie-but-goodie column he wrote on Oct. 17, 2018.

History is a little sketchy here, but Australians claim this tradition of wearing numbers in team sports can be traced to a rugby match in the Land Down Under just before the start of the 20^th century. It took we Americans awhile to copy the Aussies’ idea. Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians began wearing numbers on their sleeves 102 years ago but removed them the following year. The National Football League started donning numbers at its inception in 1920, and baseball didn’t really follow suit until the New York Yankees announced they would become the first team to wear digits on their backs, starting in 1929. It wasn’t long before every other team joined them.

Over time, certain numbers and athletes came to be synonymous. No. 3 automatically means Babe Ruth. No. 23 is Michael Jordan. No. 99 forever belongs to the Great One, Wayne Gretzky – though young sports fans might mistakenly think it was made famous by Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.

Because I know how passionate sports fans are about jersey numbers, I thought I’d stir the pot a bit by offering my choices for the greatest athlete by number.  Let the debates begin.

00 – Jim Otto.

0 – Russell Westbrook.

1 – Oscar Robertson.

2 – Secretariat. Sorry Derek Jeter fans, but Big Red was the best thoroughbred race horse of all-time.

3 – Babe Ruth.

4 – Lou Gehrig by a sliver over Bobby Orr.

5 – Joe DiMaggio.

6 – Bill Russell, with special mention to Stan “the Man” Musial and Julius Erving, basketball’s “Dr. J.”

7 – Mickey Mantle by a drag bunt over John Elway and a tape-measure homer over David “Bend it Like” Beckham.

8 – Cal Ripken Jr. over Kobe Bryant and Yogi Berra.

9 – Ted Williams by a splendid splinter over Gordie Howe, Mia Hamm and fictional baseball slugger Roy “The Best There Ever Was” Hobbs.

10 – Pele, the soccer superduperstar whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

11 – Mark Messier.

12 – Tom Brady.

13 – Wilt Chamberlain.

14 – Pete Rose.

15 – Bart Starr.

16 – Joe Montana.

17 – John Havlicek.

18 – Peyton Manning.

19 – Johnny Unitas.

20 – Abby Wambach by a header over Barry Sanders.

21 – Jim Thorpe and Roberto Clemente (tie).

22 – Emmitt Smith.

23 – Michael Jordan by a jumper (and three championship rings) over LeBron James.

24 – Willie Mays.

25 – Barry Bonds.

26 – Rod Woodson.

27 – Mike Trout.

28 – Marshall Faulk.

29 – Satchel Paige.

30 – Nolan Ryan over Steph Curry.

31 – Greg Maddux.

32 – Jim Brown over Magic Johnson and Sandy Koufax.

33 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

34 – Walter Payton over Shaquille O’Neal.

35 – Kevin Durant.

36 – Jerome Bettis.

37 – Casey Stengel over Doak Walker.

38 – Curt Schilling.

39 – Dominik Hasek over Larry Csonka.

40 – Gale Sayers.

41 – Tom Seaver.

42 – Jackie Robinson, with special mention to Mariano Rivera.

43 – Richard Petty.

44 – Hank Aaron over Jerry West.

45 – Bob Gibson.

46 – Andy Pettitte.

47 – Mel Blount.

48 – Jimmie Johnson, the race-car driver, not the football coach.

49 – Ron Guidry.

50 – David Robinson.

51 – Dick Butkus.

52 – Ray Lewis.

53 – Don Drysdale.

54 – Randy White.

55 – Junior Seau.

56 – Lawrence Taylor.

57 – Dwight Stephenson.

58 – Jack Lambert.

59 – Jack Ham.

60 – Otto Graham.

61 – Curley Culp.

62 – Jim Langer.

63 – Gene Upshaw.

64 – Jerry Kramer.

65 – Elvin Bethea.

66 – Mario Lemieux over Ray Nitschke.

67 – Reggie McKenzie.

68 – Jaromir Jagr over Albert Pujols and Joe DeLamielleure.

69 – Tim Krumrie.

70 – Sam Huff.

71 – Alex Karras.

72 – Carlton Fisk.

73 – John Hannah.

74 – Bob Lilly.

75 – Deacon Jones.

76 – Rosey Grier.

77 – Red Grange.

78 – Bruce Smith.

79 – Roosevelt Brown.

80 – Jerry Rice.

81 – Terrell Owens.

82 – Raymond Berry.

83 – Andre Reed.

84 – Randy Moss.

85 – Antonio Gates.

86 – Buck Buchanan.

87 – Sidney Crosby.

88 – John Mackey.

89 – Mike Ditka.

90 – Jevon Kearse.

91 – Sergei Federov.

92 – Reggie White.

93 – Doug Gilmour.

94 – Bill Elliott.

95 – Bubba Smith.

96 – Pavel Bure.

97 – Kurt Busch.

98 – Tom Harmon.

99 – Wayne Gretzky, who wore this number in double honor of his boyhood idol, Howe.

261 – Kathrine Switzer, who wore this bib number while becoming the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, a seminal moment for women’s sports.

8222 – Number of shareholders who purchased stock to save the Rochester Red Wings in the late 1950s. As far as I know, it’s the highest number ever retired by a sports team.

Best-selling author and nationally honored journalist Scott Pitoniak is the Rochester Business Journal sports columnist.