MLB Number 24s

The journey to find the most substantial Major League Baseball players that wore the number 24 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:

• Paul Waner
• Early Wynn
• Earl Averill
• Willie Mays
• Lou Brock
• Tony Perez
• Rickey Henderson
• Andre Dawson
• Frank Thomas
• Ken Griffey Jr.

Another telling clue to find the best is to see who has the MLB number 24 retired by their respective teams. This list of retired number 24s includes:

• Tony Pérez had his jersey rtired by the Cincinnati Reds on May 27, 2000
• Willie Mays and his legendary Number 24 was preserved by the San Francisco Giants back on May 12, 1972
• Walter Alston had his Dodgers Uni number 24 set aside on June 5, 1977
• Ken Griffey Jr. was honored when the Seattle Mariners retired the number for the slugger on August 6, 2016
• Jimmy Wynn is remembered by the Houston Astros faithful since June 25, 2005
• Rickey Henderson had his jersey number 24 retired by the Oakland Athletics on August 1, 2009

Okay, now it is time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 24 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. Ken Griffey Jr.
2. Andre Dawson
3. Barry Bonds
4. Dwight Evans
5. Mark Langston
6. Mark Teixeira
7. Mickey Stanley
8. Rickey Henderson
9. Bret Boone
10. Charles Johnson
11. Gary Pettis
12. Willie Mays
13. Cool Papa Bell
14. Willie Davis
15. Mike Cameron

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 Numero Retirado de las Aguilas Cibaeñas by Gamachy

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.