COUNTING DOWN: The Best Yankee At Each Uniform Number (#51)

By Paul Semendinger

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The number is already his, for eternity, I assume.

#51.

Bernie Williams.

For now at least, until #52 gets retired for C.C. Sabathia, #51 is the highest of the Yankees retired numbers.

And Bernie was one of the great Yankees.

Absolutely and positively.

Bernie ranks in the Top-10 All-Time in Yankees history in the following areas:

• WAR (position Players) – 10th

• Offensive WAR – 6th

• Games Played – 6th

• At Bats – 4th

• Plate Appearances – 5th

• Runs Scored – 6th

• Hits – 5th

• Total Bases – 6th

• Doubles – 3rd

• Home Runs – 7th

• Runs Batted In – 7th

• Walks – 5th

Bernie Williams was a five-time All-Star. He won four Gold Gloves. He was on four World Championship teams.

Bernie Williams was a leader, the center fielder, during one of the great Yankees eras.

In post season play, Williams hit 22 homers and drove home 80 runs.

Yeah, #51 is his.

One of the best. A Yankees legend. And one of my favorite players of all time.

Bernie Williams – the greatest ever to wear #51.

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The following players also wore #51, but together all combined, they didn’t have the career that Bernie Williams had:

Frank Leja, Jim Coates, Gordie Windhorn, Pete Mikkelsen, Tony Solita, Ron Klimkowski, Terry Whitfield, Larry McCall, Cecilio Guante, and Chuck Cary.

Wow. It isn’t even close.

At all.

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

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