The New York Yankees have retired more numbers than any team in baseball. Here is my personal ranking of the retired numbers of the Yankees:

1)      Babe Ruth, #3

2)      Joe DiMaggio, #5

3)      Lou Gehrig, #4

4)      Mickey Mantle, #7

5)      Derek Jeter, #2

6)      Whitey Ford, #16

7)      Yogi Berra, #8

8)      Bernie Williams, #51

9)      Bill Dickey, #8

10)   Phil Rizzuto, #10

11)   Andy Pettitte, #46

12)   Thurman Munson, #15

13)   Ron Guidry, #49

14)   Jorge Posada, #20

15)   Don Mattingly, #23

16)   Mariano Rivera, #42

17)   Casey Stengel, #37

18)   Joe Torre, #6

19)   Roger Maris, #9

20)   Reggie Jackson, #44

21)   Billy Martin, #1

22)   Elston Howard, #32

Most of what we see in this list would make perfect sense to most people, but there are a few things that require some explanation. I treated managers, and even relief pitchers, different than the standard players who have been honored. I didn’t feel like putting managers higher than players who spent all or most of their careers with the Yankees – or relief pitchers, but I do put them above managers. So while nobody would question that Rivera is a hall of fame relief pitcher or that Stengel is a hall of fame manager, I have them lower than several players who have questionable hall of fame candidacies. Or, maybe all the players here who are ranked higher than Rivera should someday be elected to the hall. That’s not the point that I’m making, but who knows?

The two other rankings that I’d like to explain are Maris and Jackson. Both are ranked lower simply because they had short careers in New York, and didn’t play their entire careers there. If Jackson had played his entire career with the Yankees, he would be ranked up around Jeter and Berra. If Maris played every season of his career with the Yankees, he would move up to the Pettitte and Munson area of the list. The two aren’t perfect selections for that reason.