{"id":18267,"date":"2022-02-06T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-02-06T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=18267"},"modified":"2022-01-19T11:25:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T17:25:21","slug":"by-the-numbers-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/by-the-numbers-22\/","title":{"rendered":"By The Numbers \u2013 22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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 #22.\u00a0 76 different players have donned #22 while playing in Chicago, 26 for the White Sox and 50 for the Cubs.<\/p>\n

\"\"Acquired from the Dodgers, along with Ivan DeJesus, in exchange for Rick Monday and Mike Garman, Bill Buckner joined the Cubs, wearing #22, in 1977.\u00a0 A staph infection in his ankle the previous year caused the Cubs to move the former outfielder to first base, a position he would man for the rest of his career.\u00a0 Appearing in 122 games, he hit .284 with 11 home runs and 27 doubles.\u00a0 He improved in 1978, raising his average to .323 and placed 17th in MVP voting.\u00a0 1979 was another steady year for Buckner.\u00a0 On May 17th, in the infamous slugfest where the Cubs lost 23-22 to the\u00a0Phillies, he\u00a0went 4\u2013for\u20137 with a\u00a0grand slam\u00a0and a career-high seven RBIs.<\/sup>\u00a0 He finished the year hitting .284 with 14 home runs and 34 doubles, but was also described as “nuts” when manager\u00a0Herman Franks\u00a0resigned late in the season.<\/sup><\/p>\n

In 1980, Buckner won a batting title, hitting .324 while striking out only 18 times, earning him a 14th place finish in MVP voting.\u00a0\u00a0In the\u00a0strike-shortened 1981 season, he was the lone Cub representative for the All Star game and batted .311 while tying Cecil Cooper\u00a0for the major league lead with 35 doubles.\u00a0 1982 saw Buckner hit over .300 for the fourth time as a Cub while racking up career highs in hits, with 201, RBIs, with 105,\u00a0and assists at first base, setting a major league record with 159.<\/p>\n

In 1983, Buckner again led the NL with 38 doubles, but saw his batting average drop to .280, his lowest finish as a Cub.\u00a0 With the acquisition of Gary Matthews in 1984 pushing Leon Durham to first base, Buckner found himself the odd man out.\u00a0 Appearing mostly as a pinch hitter, Buckner hit a paltry .209 through the end of May, when he was traded to the Red Sox, ending his Cub tenure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott Podsednik was acquired by the White Sox from the Brewers for Carlos Lee on December 13, 2004.\u00a0 Wearing #22, he moved in to the leadoff spot and, after putting up a .294 average with 44 steals in the first half, he earned his first All Star game nod.\u00a0 While injuries slowed him in the second half, he was back to full strength when the regular season came to an end and the White Sox embarked on their first post-season appearance in 5 years.\u00a0 After going the entire regular season without a home run, Podsednik went deep against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALDS, helping the White Sox to a 14-2 victory on their way to a 3 game sweep of the defending champions. \u00a0Podsednik continued his steady play during the ALCS, hitting .294 with a triple and 3 stolen bases in the 5 game series. \u00a0The shining moment of his career came in Game 2 of the World Series, thanks to a walkoff home run against Brad Lidge in the 9th inning, giving the White Sox a 2-0 lead on their way to a sweep and their first world championship in 88 years. \u00a0For his efforts, Podsednik finished in 12th place for MVP voting.<\/p>\n

As the White Sox looked to repeat in 2006, Podsednik found it difficult to duplicate his efforts from the year before. \u00a0His average was down 29 points, to .261, and his stolen base total was off by 19.\u00a0 Injuries limited Podsednik to 62 games in 2007. \u00a0His offensive production continued to be lacking and, after the White Sox fell completely out of contention for the first time in years, the team decided to change their approach and gave Podsednik his release.\u00a0 He returned to the White Sox organization in 2009, signing a minor league deal. \u00a0Injuries to Brian Anderson, Dewayne Wise, and Carlos Quentin gave him plenty of opportunity with the big league club, and he responded by hitting .304, his highest total since 2003. \u00a0Following the season, he became a free agent.<\/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":[5205,78,2790,2180,1481,121,3335,2314,9852,120,3252,116,2061,9851,115,9835,9733,9850,79,254,258,9849,657,134,49,51],"class_list":["post-18267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-1981-strike","tag-2005-world-series","tag-alcs","tag-alds","tag-bill-buckner","tag-brewers","tag-brian-anderson","tag-carlos-lee","tag-cecil-cooper","tag-cubs","tag-dewayne-wise","tag-dodgers","tag-gary-matthews","tag-herman-franks","tag-indians","tag-ivan-dejesus","tag-leon-durham","tag-mike-garman","tag-mvp","tag-phillies","tag-red-sox","tag-rick-monday","tag-scott-podsednik","tag-the-carlos-quentin","tag-white-sox","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18337,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18267\/revisions\/18337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}