MLB Number 23s

The journey to find the most substantial Major League Baseball players that wore the number 23 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:

• Ted Simmons
• Dick Williams
• Willard Brown
• Ryne Sandberg
• Tommy Lasorda
• Tony Lazzeri
• Burleigh Grimes

Another telling clue to find the best is to see who has the MLB number 23 retired by their respective teams. This list of retired number 10s includes:

• Ryne Sandberg had his uniform number 23 retired by the Chicago Cubs on August 28, 2005
• Don Mattingly was honored with the 23 frozen from further use by the New York Yankees on August 31, 1997
• Willie Horton  had the Detroit Tigers place the digits on ice ourt of respect for his great play at July 15, 2000 festivities.
• Ted Simmons' Number 23 he wore with the St Louis Cardinals was retired on July 31, 2021

Okay, now it is time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 23 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. Ryne Sandberg
2. Don Mattingly
3. Zack Greinke
4. Robin Ventura
5. Mark Teixeira
6. Charles Johnson
7. Del Crandall
8. Bernie Williams
9. Mike Cameron
10. Tim Wallach
11. Ted Simmons
12. Tommie Agee
13. Burleigh Grimes
14. Tony Lazzeri
15. Willard Brown

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:

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of the 1933 Goudey baseball card of Burleigh Grimes of the Chicago Cubs card number 64. 

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.