Sitting in the Dodger Stadium press box for the first time in over 20 weeks on Sunday night, a look to my right saw the plaques along the base of the club level with years representing championships. Six are on display, and a seventh is currently covered, to be unveiled later this week for last year’s World Series win.
Down the left field line along the base of the club level are the Dodgers’ retired numbers. Near the middle of those plaques are number 20 for Don Sutton and number 24 for Walt Alston, and I was struck by the two numbers also coincidentally representing the last two years the Dodgers won it all.
The next number in line is 32, for Sandy Koufax.
But waiting until ‘32 for the Dodgers next championship would qualify as a bust given the heightened expectations of this current era of the franchise.
In other words, the Dodgers need to retire number 25, and fast.
Doing so for Tommy Edman would be quite an honor, and who could blame them considering his NLCS MVP award after getting acquired at the trade deadline. The team liked the versatile infielder/outfielder so much they signed him to a five-year contract in November rather than allow him to escape in free agency after this season.
But retiring the number of an active player is obviously unlikely, especially considering that the Dodgers essentially only retire numbers of Hall of Famers with in two very special exceptions.
What other Dodgers number 25s might be worthy of such an honor?
- Rickey Henderson wore 25 in his final big league stop, in 2003. What better way to honor his memory after the legend died in December?
- Mike Piazza wore 25 during his first September call-up in 1992, and is in the Hall of Fame. But the team and the catcher haven’t even mended fences enough to rightfully retire his number 31, so don’t hold your breath.
- Jim Thome is in the Hall of Fame, though his Dodgers experience after the waiver trade deadline pickup — 21 pinch-hitting appearances, five singles, a walk — wasn’t all that memorable, except maybe now for Immaculate Grid purposes.
- Tommy John has fallen short in 20 different Hall of Fame elections, but the man pitched for 26 seasons in the big leagues. And nothing says fame like having a surgery named after you, especially considered that was during his time in Los Angeles, and he amazingly had more wins, innings, and starts after the procedure (which was at age 31!) than before.
In reality, none of these number 25s are getting retired by the Dodgers, unless someone within the higher reaches of the organization happens to be overly superstitious.
Clayton Kershaw will one day have his number 22 retired, and it’s quite likely Dave Roberts’ number 30 will be so honored as well. But today’s question is that, if you had to pick another Dodger other than Kershaw or Roberts, whose number would you want to see retired next?