MLB Number 10s

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons, 1933 Goudey baseball card of Al Simmons of the Chicago White Sox. What an awesome colorful card this is!

The journey to find the most substantial Major League Baseball players that wore the number 10 on their uniforms starts by looking at who the Baseball Hall of Fame has in their hallowed halls. Enshrined number ones of professional baseball are.

• Lefty Grove
• Carl Hubbell
• Al Simmons
• Bill Dickey
• Lloyd Waner
• Al Lopez
• Johnny Mize
• Rick Ferrell
• Red Schoendienst
• Joe Morgan
• Phil Rizzuto
• Leo Durocher
• Tony Gwynn
• Dick Williams
• Andre Dawson
• Ron Santo
• Tony La Russa
• Chipper Jones
• Harold Baines

Another telling clue to find the best is to see who has the MLB number 10 retired by their respective teams. This list of retired number 10s includes:

• Sparky Anderson had his number 10 retired by the Cincinnati Reds for his managing excellence on May 28, 2005.
• Dick Howser had his uniform number 10 as a manager for the Kansas City Royals on July 3, 1987.
• Phil Rizzuto the solid Shortstop of the New York Yankees was celebrated with the number 10 being put away on August 4, 1985.
• Rusty Staub the great out fielder who played parts of four different seasons for the Montreal Expos had his #10 placed away on May 15, 1993.
• Andre Dawson was such a pivotal ballplayer for the Montreal Expos that they retired his Number 10 too on July 6, 1997.
• Ron Santo the tough Third Baseman of the Chicago Cubs had his number preserved on September 28, 2003.
• Tony La Russa one of the All-Time great managers of baseball was celebrated by the St Louis Cardinals on May 11, 2012.
• Tom Kelly the manager of the Minnesota Twins had his number 10 in the Twin Cities displayed in a place of honor on September 8, 2012.
• Chipper Jones the long time Third Base player was celebrated by the Atlanta Braves on June 28, 2013.
• Michael Young the standout Infielder of the Texas Rangers was honored by the club with number retirement on August 31, 2019.

From the information up above, it is now time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 10 in MLB history based on performance stats. We do not have all of the players from some of the Negro Leagues in place yet but when we do we will certainly update the list so please excuse us on this. The criteria is simple we pulled stats from Baseball-Reference and Stat-Head on some important numbers. Is the player in the Hall of Fame? What were the Wins After Replacement or the team victories gained or lost after they entered the lineup versus the player they replaced? Where do they rank in the following categories in history: Home Runs, Runs Produced, Strike Outs, ERA. We mash this information up and see how many of the criteria rankings they have and then multiply that number (0-6) times the number of years they wore the particular uniform number we are discussing and then add it to bonus points if in the Hall of Fame and for earning any Gold Glove Awards and/or Cy Young Awards. We call that calculated number our Ranked Formula and use it as a basis of Comparison to give you the Top Fifteen at the uniform number.

1. Andre Dawson
2. Ron Santo
3. Jim Sundberg
4. Sherm Lollar
5. Benito Santiago
6. Rey Ordóñez
7. Lefty Grove
8. Chipper Jones
9. Johnny Mize
10. Carl Hubbell
11. Al Simmons
12. Phil Rizzuto
13. Bill Dickey
14. Lloyd Waner
15. Red Schoendienst

Here is a look at our stats, years played with the uniform number and calculations on the top 25 number 10 Major League ballplayers:

The photograph in the banner above is courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons collection of public Domain pictures. It is of the 1933 Goudey baseball card of Al Simmons of the Chicago White Sox.

Special thanks to Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com and the most wonderful book by Larry Lester and Wayne Stivers, The Negro Leagues Book, Volume 2.