There’s really no knowing what will come first: the Yankees’ 28th championship, or the Yankees’ 28th retired jersey.
New York’s playoff prospects may still be up in the air as a roster full of aging stars tries to bounce back from a down season, but the club is poised to at least gain in the retired jersey department sometime soon.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Tuesday that the team plans to retire No. 6, the jersey worn by former manager Joe Torre, at some point. No one has worn Torre’s number since he left the Yankees after the 2007 season.
“We haven’t given it out for a reason,” Cashman said. “It’s been tucked away for quite some time. At some point, that will happen, no doubt about it. Clearly it’s already unofficially happened, because we’ve left that open.”
Torre, who won four World Series with the Yankees in five years, was elected to the Hall of Fame on Monday.
The Yankees have retired 16 numbers for 17 players (both Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey wore No. 8), but they haven’t set aside a set of threads since Ron Guidry’s No. 49 in 2003, perhaps being aware that they’re quickly chewing through numbers available for their active players.
Torre’s No. 6 being retired will leave just one single-digit jersey — the No. 2 belonging to the captain, Derek Jeter — in use.
Photo via Twitter/@MLB_Talk13
