Uniform number (Major League Baseball)

In baseball, the uniform number is a number worn on the uniform of each player and coach. Numbers are used for the purpose of easily identifying each person on the field as no two people from the same team can wear the same number.^[a] Although designed for identification purposes only, numbers have become the source of superstition, emotional attachment, and honor (in the form of a number retirement). In Major League Baseball, player and manager numbers are always located on the back of the jersey. A smaller number is often found on the front of the jersey, while umpires wear their numbers on the uniform shirt sleeve.

According to common tradition, single-digit numbers are worn by position players but rarely by pitchers, and numbers 60 and higher are rarely worn at all.^[1] Higher numbers are worn during spring training by players whose eventual place on the team is uncertain; they are also sometimes worn during the regular season by players recently called up from the minor leagues. However, such players usually change to a more traditional number once it becomes clear that they will stay with the team.^[1] These traditions are not enforced by any rule,^[2] and exceptions are common. Examples of star players wearing numbers higher than 60 include Carlton Fisk (72),^[b] Kenley Jansen (74), and Aaron Judge (99).^[1] In 2018, Blake Snell became the first pitcher wearing a single-digit number (4) to appear in the All-Star Game and the first to win the Cy Young Award.^[3]

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