MLB Number 21s

The baseball uniform of number 21 has had its share of major talent as well. Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame claims the following people are enshrined and wore the number 21.

• Dazzy Vance
• Billy Hamilton
• Burleigh Grimes
• Red Ruffing
• Joe Medwick
• Roberto Clemente
• Warren Spahn
• Bob Lemon
• Joe Sewell
• Walter Alston
• George Kell
• Juan Marichal
• Arky Vaughan
• Don Sutton

Some teams have retired the number 21 from further use in the organization due to some special people in the club's past that wore them or at least had association with the number 21. Those MLB 21s are:

• Bob Lemon    Indians    June 20, 1998
• Warren Spahn    Braves    December 11, 1965
• Roberto Clemente    Pirates    April 6, 1973

Okay, now it is time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 21 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. Jim Kaat
2. Roger Clemens
3. Bobby Shantz
4. Zack Greinke
5. Curt Flood
6. Dwayne Murphy
7. Robin Ventura
8. Charles Johnson
9. Bret Boone
10. Warren Spahn
11. Ken Caminiti
12. Roberto Clemente
13. Arky Vaughan
14. Bob Lemon
15. Michael Bourn
16. Don Sutton
17. Red Ruffing
18. Juan Marichal
19. Dazzy Vance
20. Joe Medwick
21. Joe Sewell
22. Burleigh Grimes
23. George Kell
24. Satchel Paige
25. Billy Hamilton

The stats may not be placing this group in order of importance but what it does do is identify the top 25

Here are our stats and findings:

So what do you think of our choices and selection process? We want your feed bck at PigskinDispatch@gmail.com

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of Warren Spahn's retired # 21 at Turner Field taken and contributed by Peter Bond from Chicago

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.