By Paul Semendinger
Nov. 13, 2020
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If you ever become a Yankee and want to be remembered for a long time, and possibly forever, ask for a uniform number in the 90s. There just have not been many Yankees who have worn numbers this high.
No Yankees player has ever worn #98.
No Yankee has ever worn #97.
Uniform #96 still has not been issued.
Ditto for #95.
#92 too.
And, because there was a player who wore uniform number 91, he becomes, by default (if nothing else) the greatest Yankee to wear that number.
(Hey, if you want to be remembered in New York, get a high uniform number. It’s that simple. You’d at least make articles like this once in a while.)
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From 2008 to 2010, the Yankees had a right-handed pitcher named Alfredo Aceves. He was pretty good and probably better than most remember.
Aceves wore #91 throughout his Yankees career because that was the uniform number worn by basketball great Dennis Rodman.
In his first stint in New York as a Yankee, Aceves pitched in 59 games. He pitched mostly out of the bullpen, but in 2008, he did make four starts.
I can almost guarantee that most readers have no clue what Alfredo Aceves’ record as a Yankee pitcher was in those three years. (Go on, take a guess…)
Let’s say this, he had 15 decisions and he won 93.3% of his decisions.
Believe it or not, in that period, Alfredo Aceves went 14-1, 3.21. He also saved two games.
In three seasons, the only team to give him a defeat was the Texas Rangers (on May 26, 1996).
After those three seasons, Aceves went to the Red Sox for three years before returning to the Yankees in a cameo role in 2014 (where, in ten games, he went 1-2, 6.52).
It wasn’t all sunshine and roses though for Aceves. He did not always get along with management and teammates, especially with the Red Sox, and he was suspended twice for violating baseball’s drug policy.
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(Most of the research for this project comes from Baseball-Reference.com. Wikipedia and Fansided were also used as a source for this article.)
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