NumerOlogy

Now that the results of Monday’s Photo Day are up on Getty Images, we might as well take a closer look at the Spring Training roster, in numerical order (of course!). Click below to see who’s wearing what.

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I’ve got a Friday quickie for you:

• Roch Kubatko confirms that Aubrey Huff has switched from #19 to #17 to honor former Tampa Bay teammate Joe Kennedy, who passed away on November 23 due to heart disease. Joe had worn #17 with the then-Devil Rays in 2002 and 2003.
• New pitching coach Rick Kranitz is sporting #39, last worn by reliever Jim Hoey. Hoey is listed on the roster as #27, which should be free now that Jaret Wright is out to pasture.
• Finally, I wanted to pass along a link to reader Kasey Ignarski’s website, which has year-by-year rosters for the Chicago Cubs dating back to 1932(!) as well as an all-time roster. Kasey’s actually gotten some help from the Cubs in completing his research, which is very cool.

It seems like only yesterday that pitchers and catchers reported to Fort Lauderdale for the Orioles. That’s probably because it was yesterday. As soon as I see more pictures and everyone gets to camp, I’ll try to roll out a Spring Training Roster, so we can keep ourselves occupied with numerical comings and goings from now until the games start to count. We already have one confirmed number change for 2008; Roch Kubatko reports that Daniel Cabrera has switched from #35 to #40. Hopefully we’ll find out why, but considering his recent performance, it couldn’t hurt to change things up. Glancing over the Baltimore Sun’s roster, there are some other items of interest:

• Greg Aquino is listed as #35; he would replace Cabrera in that number.
• Fernando Cabrera might supplant Kris Benson as #34; he wore #23 late in 2007.
• Speaking of #23, that now seems to reside with Rocky Cherry, who was last seen in #38.
• Jon Leicester still claims #52, so it appears that George Sherrill will make do with #51.
• Radhames Liz jumps up to #64, with nonroster invitee Matt Wieters taking Liz’s old #58.
• Steve Trachsel is back in #41, which briefly resided with Victor Zambrano after Trachsel’s trade to the Cubs.
• Among other pitchers who have a good shot at making the team, Troy Patton is assigned #43 and Dennis Sarfate looks to have jumped on Erik Bedard’s new available #45.
• Guillermo Quiroz, the early favorite to back up Ramon Hernandez at catcher, sports a number familiar to O’s backstops - #24.
• Only notable digits among infielders go to Scott Moore, who swaps #43 for #9 (formerly the property of Paul Bako).
• In the outfield, new Orioles Adam Jones (#10) and Luke Scott (#30) will likely keep the numbers they’d most recently worn in Seattle and Houston, respectively.
• Has Aubrey Huff turned over a new leaf? He may have given up #19 in favor of #17.  Aubrey has worn #19 for his entire major league career except for the second half of 2006, when he wore #9 with the Astros.

Of course, for now these numbers should all be taken with a grain of salt. After all, that same roster currently lists Chris Tillman’s age as -1, and several numbers have changed just today.

Lots to get to today. First of all, the slowest-developing trade in MLB history has been consummated. Erik Bedard is now a Seattle Mariner, so I’ve updated the roster and the 40-49 page to reflect his departure. Best of luck to Erik…except when he’s facing the O’s, of course. If yesterday’s press conference in Seattle is any indication, he’ll continue to wear #45 for the Mariners. Time will tell which numbers Adam Jones and George Sherrill will wear; Jones wore #10 in Seattle last year (recently vacated by Miguel Tejada) and Sherrill wore #52. The most recent #52 in Baltimore was Jon Leicester, who seems to be a long shot to make this year’s team. Welcome to Birdland, guys!

In other news, we’ve got our first confirmed Orioles player to have found this little site! I got an email this morning from reliever Dick Hall, whose grandson showed him NumerOlogy. He says the following:

“Some of players were into numbers. I remember one time in the bullpen paying a game (we were safely way ahead - we didn’t play games much if the game was close) where someone would say a number and then people would name all the players in the league with that number. Milt Pappas especially knew everyone.”

Dick was also fairly certain that when he first arrived in Baltimore in April 1961, he wore a number other than #29. He thought it might have been #38, but wasn’t sure. He also didn’t know when he switched for good. I did a little sleuthing, and Baseball Almanac lists him as #29 and #38 in 1961. I had already confirmed pitcher Dick Hyde for #38, but he didn’t appear in a game until May. This would support Hall’s claim that he started out in #38, and switched to #29 either before or when Hyde joined the team. I’d like to thank Dick for helping me make that correction, and if anyone has more specific dates for the switch they can let me know.

I wanted to acknowledge a few blogs that have had some positive things to say about this site and that were kind enough to toss a link my way:

Neal Shaffer at the Baltimore-centric sports blog The Loss Column asserts that “this is what the Internet is really for”.

Bill Ordine of the Baltimore Sun’s O, by the Way sports blog says, “Count on a great read”.

Finally, Ben Penserga of The Daily Times in Salisbury, MD was kind enough to interview me for his O’s Chat blog. I answered Ben’s questions by email, so hopefully I’ll actually come across as articulate.

Thanks, guys! The feedback for NumerOlogy is already exceeding my expectations. Don’t forget, pitchers and catchers report to Fort Lauderdale in four days!

So far, the first week here at NumerOlogy has been a big success, and I have you guys to thank. I really appreciate all of your feedback on the site, and I’ve got to give out some recognition:

• Uni Watch’s Paul Lukas and Mets by the Numbers’ Jon Springer linked to the site, which brought traffic up from zero to more than zero.
• Joe Hilseberg, who actually stitched the lettering and numbers onto the Orioles’ jerseys in the late Nineties, sent me some great graphics that are now up on the site, including a full set of numbers (to replace my slapdash collage look) and a great-looking site logo that I added to the banner photo on the other pages.
• Bryan Duklewski sent me photos of his Sammy Sosa #21 jersey tee with Nick Markakis’ surname hand-lettered and stitched on top! So now I have visual proof for my Markakis anecdote on this page.
• Bob Andrews has offered to send me some nifty Orioles baseball cards, which will surely appear at some point on my blog.
• Speaking of blogs, reader Dave asked for a little love for his sports blog. I’m in a giving mood tonight, so why not?

So to sum up, my readers rock and I’ve updated the banner and number graphics across the site. As always, hit me up with any comments. Thanks!

Welcome to NumerOlogy! I’ve spent most of the last year digging up every tidbit of information I could find about the players and coaches who have worn each uniform number for the Baltimore Orioles, and now I’m submitting it for your entertainment. Hopefully you’ll be able to use this site to settle a bet, learn something new, rekindle some old memories, or at the very least kill a couple of hours. I hope the links on the left side of the page are mostly self-explanatory, but just to cover my bases, here’s what you’ll find on this site:

• I’ll use this index page for site updates, Orioles news, and my own pointless ramblings about the team.
• The numbered pages (0-9, 10-19, etc.) offer short writeups for everyone to ever wear each respective number. You’ll find gobs of stats, anecdotes, and quirky facts that will tell the story behind the numbers.
• If you just want a chronological number-by-number list, with players who wore multiple numbers cross-referenced, check out the All-Time Roster.
• There a bunch of fun miscellaneous tables on the Odds and Ends page. Find out who was the longest-tenured player for each number, which Orioles had their numbers retired by other teams, which players were traded for someone who took their old number, and more.
• I’m coping with with my baseball card addiction by posting a scan and stream-of-consciousness writeup of one Orioles card each day; I’ve linked to my card blog (Baseball Card of the Day).
• Links. Sports blogs, reference sites, humor sites, check it out.
• About. You know, how and why I created the site, and a little slice of my secret identity.

Have fun!