MLB Number 25s

The journey to find the most substantial Major League Baseball players that wore the number 25 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:

• George Wright
• Jim O'Rourke
• Kiki Cuyler
• Al Kaline
• Harmon Killebrew
• Enos Slaughter
• Hoyt Wilhelm
• Larry Doby
• George Brett
• Orlando Cepeda
• Rickey Henderson
• Frank Thomas
• Mike Piazza

Another telling clue to find the best is to see who has the MLB number 25 retired by their respective teams. This list of retired number 25s includes:

• José Cruz had the Houston Astros put away his number 25 uniform on October 3, 1992
• Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants  celebrated the retirement of his Jersey 25 on August 11, 2018
• Jim Thome's Number 25 was put in a place of honor by the Cleveland Indians back on August 18, 2018

Jim Thome

Born August 27, 1970, in Peoria, Illinois, Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Jim Thome. The big man played in Major League Baseball for 22 seasons (1991–2012). Jim played for six different teams throughout his career, most notably the Cleveland Indians. A prolific power hitter, Thome hit 612 home runs during his career—the eighth-most all time—along with 2,328 hits, 1,699 runs batted in, and a .276 batting average. He was a member of five All-Star teams and won a Silver Slugger Award in 1996. Thome won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2002 as a roster member of the Cleveland Indians and was the 2003 National League HR leader 2003 while part of of the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

More Information

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Okay, now it is time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 25 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. Andruw Jones
2. Barry Bonds
3. Al Kaline
4. Jim Edmonds
5. Devon White
6. Buddy Bell
7. Mark Teixeira
8. Rafael Palmeiro
9. Bobby Bonds
10. Derrek Lee
11. Rickey Henderson
12. Mike Cameron
13. Amos Otis
14. George Brett

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 1955 Bowman baseball card of Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers #23. published by Bowman. 

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.