MLB Number 26s

The journey to find the most substantial Major League Baseball players that wore the number 26 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
• Eddie Collins
• Jimmie Foxx
• Heinie Manush
• Early Wynn
• Chuck Klein
• Hoyt Wilhelm
• Billy Williams
• Nellie Fox
• Wade Boggs

Another telling clue to find the best is to see who has the MLB number 26 retired by their respective teams. This list of retired number 26s includes:

• Billy Williams has his number retired with the Chicago Cubs since August 13, 1987
• Gene Autry had the Number 26 placed away in his honor by the California Angels on August 3, 1982
• Johnny Oates found his number 26 to be forever preserved by the Texas Rangers at ceremonies on August 5, 2005
• Wade Boggs was celebrated with numeral retirement by the Red Sox on May 26, 2016

1937 All-Stars, courtesy Wikimedia. See description below inthe credits

Okay, now it is time to put our knowledge to work and pick the greatest players that wore number 26 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. Bill White
2. Nellie Fox
3. Wade Boggs
4. Charles Johnson
5. Jim Landis
6. Amos Otis
7. Joe Rudi
8. Willie Davis
9. Bobby Bonds
10. DJ LeMahieu
11. Matt Chapman
12. Earl Battey
13. Early Wynn
14. Billy Williams
15. Jimmie Foxx

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 1937 all stars crop 
Original title: "Plenty of basehits in these bats" Original description: Washington D.C., July 7. A million dollar base-ball flesh is represented in these sluggers of the two All- Star Teams which met in the 1937 game at Griffith Stadium today. Left to right: Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg, 7/7/37. Taken by Harris & Ewing

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.