MONUMENTAL DECISIONS

This week, the Yankees finally designated a date (8/23) in which Joe Torre will receive his honored plaque and have his #6 retired.  For 2014, they also announced that they will be honoring and presenting an individualized plaque for Tino Martinez (on 6/21), Goose Gossage (on 6/22), and Paul O’Neill (on 8/9) in Monument Park, presumably without their respective numbers (24, 54, and 21) being retired.  Lastly, they additionally announced that Bernie Williams will also be honored with a plaque, but not until next season; also, without mention of his #51 possibly being retired.

The choosing of a separate year for Bernie is interesting and mysterious.  My hunch is that Tino, Goose, and Paul were grouped for this year because, while they were World Series heroes, none of them originated from the Yankees’ farm system, like Bernie did.  Hence, perhaps next year they will also add Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte to the 2015 grouping.

Maybe they’ll eventually designate a special Core 4 plague, bringing each of the 4 back for an additional Monument Park recognition.  Of course, that could only happen after Derek’s #2 is officially retired.  I don’t know how or when they can acknowledge and honor Jeter because no one knows for sure if they’ll make the playoffs or not, especially since they’re playing in the toughest division in all of baseball.  Last year, ironically, because of their failure to make the playoffs, it was actually easy and appropriate for them to have had the maneuverability to schedule Mariano’s honor and retirement of his special #42 to join Jackie Robinson’s commonly retired #42.

There’s one thing that will surely come out of these designated celebrations…disputes.  Some folks will undoubtedly argue that the Yankees have been honoring too many with a plaque and/or a retired number in Monument Park.  Of course, no other MLB team has had so many championships and All-Star champion players, making it hard for non-Yankees’ fans to be objective in their arguments.  Even most of the Yankees’ fans have had, and will certainly continue to have, debates over the overload issue and the choices made, especially when it comes to the prestigious retirement of the Yankees’ numbers. 

Thus far, the Yankees have retired numbers for Billy Martin (#1), Babe Ruth (#3), Lou Gehrig (#4), Joe DiMaggio (#5), Mickey Mantle (#7), Yogi Berra & Bill Dickey (#8), Roger Maris (#9), Phil Rizzuto (#10), Thurman Munson (#15), Whitey Ford (#16), Don Mattingly (#23), Elston Howard (#32), Casey Stengel (#37), Mariano Rivera & Jackie Robinson (#42), Reggie Jackson (#44), and Ron Guidry (#49).  That’s 16 numbers representing 18 players before Joe Torre’s upcoming #6 & Derek Jeter’s inevitable #2.

No one in their right mind could dispute Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Dickey, Ford, Howard, Stengel, or Rivera for their contributions.  Nor could they dispute the eventual retiring of #2 for Jeter.  The others are far more debatable. In fact, I’ve already heard arguments for and against the others (Martin, Maris, Rizzuto, Munson, Mattingly, Robinson, Jackson, and Guidry).  Not many have disputed Torre’s upcoming #6 retirement, but many are questioning the deservingness of possible future retired number candidates O’Neill (#21), Martinez (#24), Williams (#51), Gossage (#54), and, possibly Jorge Posada (#20) and Andy Pettitte (#46) - two players the Yankees haven’t even mentioned yet.

It is my opinion that they should not retire all contributing players with multiple championships.  Otherwise, they’d have to backtrack to the 1920s, 30s, 40s, & 50s where many players contributed towards several championships.  Generally, I believe that the non-Hall of Fame caliber players don’t deserve to have their numbers retired in Monument Park with the exception of Thurman Munson and Ron Guidry.  The severe tragedy of Munson obviously shortened his career, but his Rookie of the Year, All-Star numbers, impressive defensive stats, and his deserving Captain title and leadership clearly qualified him as one of the greatest Yankees, even with his tragically shortened career.  Ron Guidry was one of the most dominating starters the Yankees ever had.  In fact, his 1978 Cy Young record of 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA was considered one of the greatest years by any pitcher in MLB history.  He had other years in which he won 16, 18, 17, 21, & 22 games from the mid-70s through the mid-80s.  Guidry also had another qualification that I consider; he played his whole career with the Yankees.

For me, if a player is either a Hall of Famer or a borderline Hall of Famer and has played most or his entire career with the Yankees, then I believe he generally qualifies for a retired number in Monument Park.  Hence, I also support their past retired number selection of Don Mattingly and a possible selection of Goose Gossage, but I wouldn’t support retiring the numbers for O’Neill, Martinez, or Williams.  I don’t even support them receiving plaques just because they each have 4 championship rings, although I respect each of them and am very grateful for their past contributions.  Again, the Yankees have many players that have won multiple championships throughout the team’s long existence.  For them, the Yankees should have plaques representing the decades with these key types of players designated on the plaques collectively.  For instance, they could create a plaque for the 1990s decade with an inscription representing Joe Torre as the manager, each Core 4 member, and perhaps an inclusion of the teams’ other All-Star players which would include Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill.  I think that would be a great solution, while offering a compromise and adding key names that deserve recognition.  That would also help fans realize the importance of other key contributors towards multiple championships including deserving names such as Lefty Gomez, Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs, Hank Bauer, Bob Meusel, and manager Joe McCarthy.