From 1871 to 1928, no Major League Baseball team featured numbers on the backs of their jerseys. This episode of All About Baseball discusses the origin of numbered jerseys and their impact on those who played and watched Major League Baseball. Originally, numbers were instituted as a means of identifying players. No one saw the reverberation of what numbered jerseys became in the decades to follow — a means to identify and associate ourselves with legends.

Not to mention superstition — and a numerically based decision that I made as a high-school senior Varsity baseball player that reverberates to this moment.

This episode is dedicated to Steve, my high-school baseball teammate.

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