Alright, let me tell you about this thing that got me occupied for a bit the other day. It all started when I was digging through some old boxes up in the attic, you know, the kind you haven’t touched in ages.
So, I pulled out this dusty photo album, the magnetic sticky kind from way back when. Flipping through, mostly family stuff, picnics, bad haircuts, the usual. Then I hit this one picture, looked like it was taken at Yankee Stadium, probably late 90s or early 2000s based on the look of things. In the background, kinda blurry, was a player. Couldn’t make out the name on the back, but the number was clear as day: 39.
And it just got me thinking. Who the heck wore 39 for the Yankees? My mind immediately jumped to the big names, the legends, but 39 didn’t ring a bell for any of them. So, I got curious. This became my little project for the afternoon.
My Digging Process
First thing I did was just rack my brain. Went through the eras I remembered watching. Nope, nothing solid. Then I figured, okay, time to do some legwork.
- I grabbed some old yearbooks and programs I had lying around, started flipping through rosters. Found a few names here and there that popped up with 39 for short stints.
- Spent some time just searching, you know, typing in “Yankees number 39 history” and stuff like that into the search bar. Got a whole list of guys.
- It wasn’t just one guy, obviously. Lots of players wear numbers for a season or two, especially relief pitchers or guys called up mid-season.
I saw names like maybe Dave Righetti wore it early on? Or was that later? Then there were relief guys, spot starters. The list kept growing. It wasn’t like finding who wore number 2 or number 7, you know? This was more obscure.
The interesting part wasn’t finding one definitive answer, because there isn’t just one for a number like 39. It was more about realizing how many players cycle through a team, even a legendary one like the Yankees, who don’t become household names but still put on the uniform. They have their moments, wear that number for a bit, and then move on or fade out.
I still don’t know for sure who the guy in my blurry photo was. Could’ve been any one of maybe half a dozen guys depending on the exact year. But the whole exercise was kinda fun. Just reminded me how deep the history of a team goes, way beyond the retired numbers and Hall of Famers. Sometimes it’s just about a random number on a jersey in a faded photograph.