Yankee Number 12's
Among all the low numbers seen on Yankee uniforms, 12 has rarely belonged to one player for a long period of time. Between 1929 and 2019, 50 different Yankees have donned the pinstriped dozen -- beginning with Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt and most recently, the five-game-tenured Troy Tulowitzki. Chase Headley sported it between 2014 and '17; Alfonso Soriano wore it for five of his seven Yankee seasons, Wade Boggs lent his talents to it in the 1990s; Ron Blomberg -- the first DH -- during the '70s; and Gil McDougald for his entire 10-year career (1951-'60).
Is there a Yankee you most associate with it? Alfonso Soriano, had he never been traded for Alex Rodriguez, might have become the greatest Yankee to wear it -- before he landed in Texas, Chicago and Washington. Some players who best years came elsewhere donned it while in the Bronx: John Mayberry, Vernon Wells, Ivan Rodriguez and Kenny Lofton fit that definition.
Funny, how in a city where 12 become iconic in green and white for Joe Namath (Jets) and 12 in orange and blue for Dick Barnett (Knicks), that number has become, in effect, a pinstriped revolving door.
Is there a Yankee you most associate with it? Alfonso Soriano, had he never been traded for Alex Rodriguez, might have become the greatest Yankee to wear it -- before he landed in Texas, Chicago and Washington. Some players who best years came elsewhere donned it while in the Bronx: John Mayberry, Vernon Wells, Ivan Rodriguez and Kenny Lofton fit that definition.
Funny, how in a city where 12 become iconic in green and white for Joe Namath (Jets) and 12 in orange and blue for Dick Barnett (Knicks), that number has become, in effect, a pinstriped revolving door.
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