Best Player for All 101 Uniform Numbers in MLB History

It’s hard to believe, but for the first 60 years of Major League Baseball, uniforms didn’t have numbers. Uniformed numbers didn’t become commonplace until the mid-1930s, so players like Ty Cobb and Cy Young were numberless throughout their careers. Even Babe Ruth, who debuted in 1914, spent all but the last few years of his career without a number. Thus, this list is composed of players from roughly the last 85 years of the game, which still gives us a good sample size.

There are a couple of rules to this list. One is that a player can only be listed once to include as many unique players as possible. The other rule is that selections for each number only take into account that player when he wore that number. For example, Willie Mays spent just his rookie year wearing No. 14 but spent the next 21 years of his career in No. 24. So, even though Mays may be the greatest player ever to wear No. 14, he wasn’t the greatest ever while wearing the number. 

Now that the ground rules are set, let’s see who the greatest MLB players are for all 101 uniform numbers.

Position: Outfielder/first baseman

Career: 18 seasons (1968-85)

Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays

Stats: .303 BA, 2,743 H, 219 HR, 1,326 RBI

Accolades: Seven-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger, 1971 World Series champion

Bottom line: After spending a decade with the Pirates, Oliver left the team in 1978 and changed his number to 0 with the Texas Rangers. He became the first player in MLB history to rock No. 0, and over 40 years later, he’s still the best. 

In 1982, at 35 years old, Oliver led the AL in batting average, hits and RBI for the Montreal Expos.

Honorable mention: George Scott

Position: Outfielder/first baseman

Career: 18 seasons (1975-92)

Teams: San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox

Stats: 340 HR, 1180 RBI, 1,826 H

Accolades: Four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger, three-time walks leader

Bottom line: Clark was ahead of his time with his ability to draw walks during the late 1980s and early ’90s, a time when more attention was paid to batting average than on-base percentage. 

He had 485 walks from 1987-90, which led MLB by a wide margin despite Clark missing over 100 games, and he also had the second-highest OBP during that stretch.

Honorable mention: Bobo Newsom

Position: Shortstop

Career: 19 seasons (1978-96)

Teams: San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals

Stats: 2,460 H, 580 SB, .262 BA

Accolades: 15-time All-Star, 13-time Gold Glove winner, 1982 World Series champion

Bottom line: Arguably the greatest defensive player in MLB history, Smith was a human vacuum at shortstop. He won 13 straight Gold Gloves and won them with flair, as he made defense fun and exciting. 

Smith also developed as a hitter in the second half of his career and hit .279 in his 30s as opposed to .238 in his 20s. 

Honorable mention: Lou Whitaker

Position: Shortstop

Career: 20 seasons (1995-2014)

Teams: New York Yankees

Stats: .310 BA, 3,465 H, 1,923 R, 260 HR

Accolades: Five-time World Series champion, 14-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger

Bottom line: Because of his very unfavorable defensive metrics, many label Jeter as overrated and think he only got so much attention because of who he played for. But you can’t deny his clutch play, leadership or damn-near 3,500 hits. 

He’s also the all-time leader in postseason hits, and it may take another postseason expansion for that record to be broken.

Honorable mention: Charlie Gehringer