COUNTING DOWN: The Best Yankee At Each Uniform Number (#23)

By Paul Semendinger

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And sometimes these are easy.

#23 is Don Mattingly.

Simple. Easy. Period. No questions asked.

The greatest Yankee to wear #23 was Donald Arthur Mattingly.

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In the history of the Yankees, 25 different players wore #23. Just for fun, I'll list them all:

1. Tony Lazzeri (1932)

2. Floyd Newkirk (1934) - A Least Among Them Yankee!

3. Frank Masosky (1937)

4. Dick Kryhoski (1949)

5. Fenton Mole (1949)

6. Bob Porterfield (1950-51)

7. Archie Wilson (1951)

8. Bill Miller (1951-54)

9. Tommy Byrne (1954-57)

10. Murray Dickson (1958)

11. Ralph Terry (1959-64)

12. Rich Beck (1965)

13. Jim Brenneman (1965)

14. Billy Bryan (1966-67)

15. Bob Tillman (1967)

16. Ellie Rodriguez (1968)

17. Don Nottebart (1969)

18. John Ellis (1969-72)

19. Jerry Moses (1973)

20. Alex Johnson (1974-75)

21. Oscar Gamble (1976)

22. Damaso Garcia (1978)

23. Luis Tiant (1979-80)

24. Barry Foote (1981-82)

25. Donnie Baseball (1984-95) - Retired

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It's Don Mattingly. Plain and simple.

Mattingly led the American League in hits twice, doubles twice, runs batted in once, and batting average once. He was an MVP. He was a six-time All Star. He won nine Gold Gloves. Mattingly on three Silver Slugger Awards.

Yeah, that's easy.

But, who is the runner-up? It comes down to two pitchers: Tommy Byrne or Ralph Terry.

Byrne (1954-57) : 30 wins, 16 losses, but just 0.5 WAR

Terry (1959-64): 76 wins, 56 losses, 9.0 WAR

Terry gave up the big home run to Bill Mazeroski to end the 1960 World Series in a loss, but he also got Willie McCovery to line out to end the 1962 World Series in a victory for the Yankees.

Terry's best year was 1962 when he went 23-12 and led the AL in games started and innings pitched.

It's great to remember Don Mattingly, but we also shouldn't forget that Ralph Terry was a pretty good pitcher for a nice period of time. Tommy Byrne's WAR belies his second tenure with the Yankees (he was also a Yankees in 1943 (before the war) and from 1946-51).

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Most of the background research for this project came from Baseball-Reference.com and the SABR BioProject.

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