Expert: Tom Schott - 8/6/2007

Question
Hi Tom:
Thanks so much for doing this. I am presently writing a novel. There is a chapter wherein a baseball game takes place between a number of rookies on the Boston Red Sox team and a local minor league team supplemented by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Bill Carrigan. The year is 1928. Although the book is fiction the game actually took place. I am trying to find out what the uniform numbers were for some of the players. They are for the Sox:Merle Settlemire, Wally Gerger, Buddy Myer, Ira Flagstead, Jack Rothrock, Carl Sumner, Pat Simmons, John Hering and Billy Rogell.
 I also need to know the numbers for Yankees players Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri,Earl Combs, Bob Meusel, LEo Durocher, Bill Dickey and Hank Johnson. I found a site which gives the all time numbers for the Sox but it starts for the year 1931. I was wondering if the players didn't have numbers before then and perhaps just had their names attached to the back of their jerseys. Could you help me out with this. I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks,
Glenna Jenkins
Nova Scotia
Canada.

Answer
Glenna,

  In 1928, backs of the Red Sox jerseys were blank.  Tom

Glenna,

 You are correct that players did not have uniform numbers in 1928. The Red Sox did not begin putting numbers on the jerseys until 1931. The Yankees started in 1929. I can give you those.

Ruth: 3
Gehrig: 4
Lazzeri: 6
Combs: 1
Durocher: 7
Meusel: 5
Dickey: 10
Johnson: 15

Names on uniforms came much later than the Ruth-Gehrig era. The Chicago White Sox of 1960 were the first team to wear names on their jerseys. At least one team, the Red Sox, did not start putting names on road jerseys till 1990.