MLB Number 39s

The journey to find the most substantial Major League Baseball players that wore the number 39 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:

• Roy Campanella
• Monte Irvin
• Hoyt Wilhelm
• Rickey Henderson
• Frank Thomas
• Pedro Martinez

Another telling clue to find the best is to see who has the MLB number 39 retired by their respective teams. This list of retired number 35s includes:

• Roy Campanella    Dodgers    June 4, 1972

Roy Campanella

Born November 19, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was Baseball Hall of Fame Catcher Roy Campanella. This legend played in the Negro Leagues and Mexican League for nine years before entering the minor leagues in 1946. In 1948, Campanella made his MLB debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers and was a mainstay with the team until a car accident in 1958 paralyzed the star catcher. During his career, he batter .276 with 242 home runs and over 850 RBIs.

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 39 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. George Scott
3. Roy Campanella
4. Dave Parker
5. Gary Gaetti
6. Rickey Henderson
7. Pedro Martinez
8. Max Scherzer
9. Hoyt Wilhelm
10. Monte Irvin
11. Frank Thomas
12. R.A. Dickey
13. Sparky Lyle
14. Larry Jackson
15. Bob Turley

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 Professional baseball player Stan Hack, contributed by W. M. C. Green

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.