Rogers, I’ve Got Your Number – 8? 6? 7? 5? 3? Oh, 9!

By 1932, numbers on baseball uniform tops were nothing new. Various teams, including the Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Cardinals, briefly dallied with the notion early in the 20th century, but it was not lasting until 1929 when the New York Yankees announced they would don numerals on their home and road jerseys. By 1931, all American League clubs stitched numbers on at least one set of uniforms.

The National League, however, was dragging its heels on the matter, as the Sporting News bemoaned.

“The big leagues have always been slow about adopting innovations,” the newspaper’s editorial mentioned in its Nov. 26, 1931, issue. “The magnates hemmed and hawed for a long time before they put into effect the foul-strike rule, and one circuit delayed a year or two after the other had adopted this boon to modern baseball.

“It is proper that the powers that be in baseball should jealously guard the game’s traditions, but there is such a thing as bending over backward in refusing to adopt improvements, the value of which can hardly be denied.”

For a few years, Brooklyn had lobbied unsuccessfully to put numbers on uniforms. Just days before their 1932 season opener, the Boston Braves decided they would be the first senior circuit team to wear numbers on a regular basis, doing so without the consent of the National League.

At the meeting, the teams suggested a variety of deadlines at which to begin using numbers, though it was decided teams would do it at their convenience. Most teams complied within a week, but the Chicago Cubs held out a little longer, adding the numerals after returning from a nearly month-long road trip.

A Chicago Tribune photo from July 1, 1932, shows Cubs stars Woody English and Kiki Cuyler with their new numbers: 1 and 3, respectively. The accompanying game story mentions that “none of [the Cubs] felt like defying fate by wearing number 13, so the number was eliminated.”

Though today’s players may wear whichever available number they like, early uniform number assignments tended to reflect the player’s position in the batting order. In 1932, English spent more than a month in the third spot, giving way to Cuyler, who later procured No. 3. After moving from the third spot in Chicago’s batting order, English went to the leadoff spot, allowing him to wear No. 1. Just a few days after the photo was taken at Wrigley Field, English switched lineup spots with second-place hitter Billy Herman, who wore No. 2. The two did not swap uniforms, however.