Retired Uniforms by Division: American League Central

by J-Doug on Apr 22, 2011 4:00 PM EDT in Visuals Above Replacement

When it comes to retired uniforms in the AL Central, the White Sox and Tigers* are in a dead heat for the top spot in total team performance. The Indians and Twins are likewise neck-and-neck for third, while the lowly Royals trail (sorry as always, Kansas City fans).

*The Tigers' numbers include Ty Cobb, who of course never wore a number, but whose "uniform" the Tigers honor alongside less numerically challenged Detroit greats.

Detroit is also the most selective of the AL Central teams: the average team rWAR for a Tigers player so honored is 76.8, while the other teams maintain a standard between 40 45 and 50 60 rWAR. ~~None of the AL Central teams have retired numbers of individuals other than players.~~ In addition to George Brett and Frank White, the Kansas City Royals retired former manager Dick Howser's #10.

Also of note is the odd case of the Cleveland Indians' retired #455, in honor of their streak of consecutive games sold out at Progressive (née Jacobs) Field.

As this number does not represent an individual—and as retiring a triple digit number that has never and will never appear on a Cleveland Indians uniform is just plain silly—it is not included in the above chart.

Team	Players	Other	rWAR	Mean
CHW	9		420.6	46.7
CLE	6		293.8	49.0
DET	6		461.0	76.8
KCR	2	1	121.7	60.9
MIN	6		291.4	48.6

Source: rWAR data courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com; Retired numbers courtesy of Wikipedia.

Poll

The Cleveland Indians "retired" number 455 to honor their then-record streak of consecutive home field sell-outs. What's your take?

I think it's silly

114 votes

I think it's fun

55 votes

I'm indifferent

39 votes

208 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

I am just going to point out that the Royals really only have 2 retired numbers

was worn by Dick Howser, the manager of those awesome early 80’s teams

"We don’t have guys with a long history of being effective in the seventh and eighth innings."
~Trey Hillman, master of understatements.

by RoyalPug on Apr 22, 2011 4:47 PM EDT reply actions

number 10...formating fail

"We don’t have guys with a long history of being effective in the seventh and eighth innings."
~Trey Hillman, master of understatements.

by RoyalPug on Apr 22, 2011 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks, Pug

He did have some playing time with the Royals, so he gets included under the Billy Martin/Gil Hodges clause, but I understand that some people object to this.

Blogger and Editor, Rational Pastime Blog. Twitter: @RationalPastime.

by J-Doug on Apr 22, 2011 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions