JAG’s Sports Blog

There’s a movement afoot in the Latin American baseball community to get major league baseball to retire the most popular Latin player ever, Roberto Clemente’s, number 21. This brings up an interesting question of if Roberto Clemente gets his number 21 retired, who else in baseball’s glorious history, should also have their number retired. To date, only Jackie Robinson’s #42 is a retired number in the sport.

Major League Baseball retired Robinson’s number 42 because of his momentous role in breaking the color barrier, which had stood for many years as a gentleman’s agreement between the owners to not let black American players participate with the white players. It’s thought that Moses Fleetwood Walker was the first black American to play in the major leagues, but Robinson broke that barrier during a time when there was much racial prejudice and he endured a terrible beating mentally from fans and players alike that wanted to keep the races separate and not give black people a chance to prove they were equal athletically.

To retire a number means that no other player can ever wear that number in a game again. Players that wore #42 prior to the number being retired are considered ‘grandfathered’ and only they can wear that number in a game. The only current player and the last to be able to wear that number is New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera. Rivera continues to wear that number as a tribute to Robinson. This brings up another question as to should other numbers be retired and how many can reasonably be considered because of the long history of the game.

On Dan Patrick’s radio show, he wondered if Clemente’s #21 should be retired and why. What about Lou Gehrig’s #4 and his body of work and the way he died and holding the record for consecutive games played for as long as he did. What about Babe Ruth’s #3 and the fact that his name signifies greatness in baseball by all that love the game. Hank Aaron endured a brutal mental beating while chasing Babe Ruth’s career home run record, so wouldn’t he be an obvious choice to have his #44 retired.

There is no doubt that Roberto Clemente is a legend in the Latin community and he died while helping to transport supplies to the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua, prompting baseball to wave the 5-year wait rule and elect him in 1973. Clemente is considered by a host of fans and experts alike to be possibly the greatest right-fielder ever to play the game. His arm is legendary for gunning runners down that dared to run against him. The question for Clemente is that he followed Robinson and therefore didn’t endure the same level of hate that Robinson had. In addition, Cuban players had been allowed to play baseball, so he wasn’t the first Latin player to participate in baseball, although he was the first elected to the Hall of Fame. The argument becomes whether or not every player that’s considered a non-white should have their number retired as a symbol to them leading the way.

The idea was Jackie Robinson was a leader in integrating baseball, therefore his number being retired represents a landmark event in the sport’s history and part of what it has become today. It also helped to integrate the nation as a whole when people of all color and nationalities were able to participate on a level playing field. Roberto Clemente is a legend in the Latin community and probably my personal favorite player of all time, but I can’t make a strong case to retire his number because then a lot of other numbers would have to be considered for many different reasons.

I’m satisfied at this time with only having Jackie Robinson’s #42 retired, but join in this debate and give a reason good or bad why other players should be considered also. What’s been their impact on the game and does that rate honoring them by retiring their number.

[tags]retire, baseball, babe ruth, Jackie Robinson, Robinson, Hank Aaron, MLB, #42, Roberto Clemente[/tags]