Paul Semendinger- Paul Semendinger
COUNTING DOWN: The Best Yankee At Each Uniform Number (#23)
By Paul Semendinger
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And sometimes these are easy.
#23 is Don Mattingly.
Simple. Easy. Period. No questions asked.
The greatest Yankee to wear #23 was Donald Arthur Mattingly.
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In the history of the Yankees, 25 different players wore #23. Just for fun, I'll list them all:
Tony Lazzeri (1932)
Floyd Newkirk (1934) - A Least Among Them Yankee!
Frank Masosky (1937)
Dick Kryhoski (1949)
Fenton Mole (1949)
Bob Porterfield (1950-51)
Archie Wilson (1951)
Bill Miller (1951-54)
Tommy Byrne (1954-57)
Murray Dickson (1958)
Ralph Terry (1959-64)
Rich Beck (1965)
Jim Brenneman (1965)
Billy Bryan (1966-67)
Bob Tillman (1967)
Ellie Rodriguez (1968)
Don Nottebart (1969)
John Ellis (1969-72)
Jerry Moses (1973)
Alex Johnson (1974-75)
Oscar Gamble (1976)
Damaso Garcia (1978)
Luis Tiant (1979-80)
Barry Foote (1981-82)
Donnie Baseball (1984-95) - Retired
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It's Don Mattingly. Plain and simple.
Mattingly led the American League in hits twice, doubles twice, runs batted in once, and batting average once. He was an MVP. He was a six-time All Star. He won nine Gold Gloves. Mattingly on three Silver Slugger Awards.
Yeah, that's easy.
But, who is the runner-up? It comes down to two pitchers: Tommy Byrne or Ralph Terry.
Byrne (1954-57) : 30 wins, 16 losses, but just 0.5 WAR
Terry (1959-64): 76 wins, 56 losses, 9.0 WAR
Terry gave up the big home run to Bill Mazeroski to end the 1960 World Series in a loss, but he also got Willie McCovery to line out to end the 1962 World Series in a victory for the Yankees.
Terry's best year was 1962 when he went 23-12 and led the AL in games started and innings pitched.
It's great to remember Don Mattingly, but we also shouldn't forget that Ralph Terry was a pretty good pitcher for a nice period of time. Tommy Byrne's WAR belies his second tenure with the Yankees (he was also a Yankees in 1943 (before the war) and from 1946-51).
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Most of the background research for this project came from Baseball-Reference.com and the SABR BioProject.
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