{"id":18450,"date":"2022-03-20T06:18:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T12:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=18450"},"modified":"2022-03-10T18:21:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T00:21:32","slug":"by-the-numbers-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/by-the-numbers-17\/","title":{"rendered":"By The Numbers \u2013 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In 1929, uniform numbers appeared on the back of baseball jerseys for the first time, thanks to the Indians and the Yankees.\u00a0 By 1937, numbers finally appeared across all uniforms, both home and away, across both major leagues.\u00a0 Since that time, 81 distinct numbers have been worn by members of the White Sox, while the Cubs boast 76.<\/p>\n

Today, we continue our look at those players, picking our favorite, if not the best, player to wear each uniform number for both Chicago teams with #17.\u00a0 79 different players have donned #17 while playing in Chicago, 42 for the White Sox and 37 for the Cubs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mark Grace moved to his iconic #17 during his rookie campaign in 1988.\u00a0 He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting while hitting .296 with 7 home runs and 57 RBIs.\u00a0 In 1989, he garnered some MVP consideration as the Cubs took home a surprising NL East title.\u00a0 Grace hit .314 with 13 home runs and 79 RBIs during the regular season, before hitting .647 with a 1.799 OPS during the 5 game NLCS against the Giants.<\/p>\n

In 1990, Grace began a decade of excellence, collecting the most hits, 1,754, and doubles, 364, of any player during the decade.\u00a0 He won 4 Gold Glove awards, was named to 3 All Star teams, earned down-ballot MVP support in 3 different seasons.\u00a0 Following the 2000 season, he left the Cubs, finishing that portion of his career with 2201 hits, 456 doubles, 148 home runs, 1004 RBIs, and a .308 average.<\/p>\n

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As the White Sox made their run towards the World Series title in 2005, general manager Kenny Williams attempted to acquire Ken Griffey Jr. from the Reds, but was rebuked when Reds ownership decided to veto the deal. \u00a03 years later, with the White Sox again looking to make a run at a division title, he was finally able to acquire the aging superstar at the trade deadline in exchange for pitcher Nick Masset and second baseman Danny Richar. \u00a0At the time of the trade, the White Sox held a tenuous 1.5 game lead over the Twins.\u00a0 Wearing #17, Griffey, who had spent most of the previous few seasons in right field to lessen the strain on his body, moved back to center field for the White Sox, displacing the disappointing Nick Swisher. \u00a0Griffey appeared in 41 games for the White Sox, hitting a decent .260 with only 3 home runs and 18 RBI. \u00a0His most important contribution came defensively, during the tie-breaking game 163 between the White Sox and the Twins, when he gunned down Michael Cuddyer, who was trying to score on a fly out to center, preserving the shutout and helping the White Sox win the division and advance the playoffs.\u00a0 In the ALDS, Griffey appeared in 3 games against the Rays, garnering only 2 hits as the White Sox fell 3 games to 1. \u00a0Following the season, the White Sox declined Griffey\u2019s $16 million option for 2009, making him a free agent.<\/p>\n

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Special bonus shout out to outfielder Carlos May, who played with the White Sox from 1968-1976.\u00a0 May, who wore #17 for his entire White Sox career, is the only player in baseball history to wear his birthday, May 17th, on his jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1929, uniform numbers appeared on the back of baseball jerseys for the first time, thanks to the Indians and the Yankees.\u00a0 By 1937, numbers finally appeared across all uniforms, both home and away, across both major leagues.\u00a0 Since that time, 81 distinct numbers have been worn by members of the White Sox, while the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[78,2180,9986,120,3668,256,5693,115,2791,8823,5559,79,3667,501,1647,255,53,6580,118,49,51],"class_list":["post-18450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-2005-world-series","tag-alds","tag-carlos-may","tag-cubs","tag-danny-richar","tag-giants","tag-gold-glove","tag-indians","tag-ken-griffey-jr","tag-mark-grace","tag-michael-cuddyer","tag-mvp","tag-nick-masset","tag-nick-swisher","tag-nlcs","tag-rays","tag-reds","tag-rookie-of-the-year-award","tag-twins","tag-white-sox","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18450"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18711,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450\/revisions\/18711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}