6 – 19 – 31 – 35 – 42.

5 numbers.   4 players and a baseball icon.

When you gaze into center field at PETCO Park you’d be hard pressed to miss the digits staring back at you.  It got me thinking:  why are they up there?  Should they ALL be up there?

First things first: for the purposes of this discussion of retired numbers we shall not even consider Jackie Robinson’s #42 and Tony Gwynn’s #19. 

42 is retired for all MLB teams and I have absolutely no problem with that.  Jackie was a hero in every sense of the word.  If my kids grow up like him, I will be as proud as humanly possible.  Anyone who needs an explanation why I don’t have to explain TG’s #19 is free to become a Nationals fan, because you’re not welcome at the Padres table.

That leaves 3 numbers up for discussion:

#31 - Dave Winfield

#35 – Randy Jones

#6 – Steve Garvey

They are in that order for a reason, as you’ll see.

Winfield is not quite a no-brainer as a retired number, but he’s close.  The only reason why someone might argue Winfield’s validity as a Padre legend is the fact he’s not ONLY a Padre legend.  He was the best player in baseball in the 1980’s, but he was playing for the Yankees at the time.  He won a World Series, but he was playing for the Blue Jays at the time.  He collected his 3,000^th hit, but he was playing for the Twins at the time.  You get the picture.

However, I’m cool with Winfield’s retired number for a few reasons.  First, he was the Padres’ first Superstar.  I wasn’t yet on the planet in the early 1970’s, but I’m told the Padres were a joke.  Then here comes along this phenom who could play every sport and chose baseball.  He then skips the minor leagues and goes straight to the bigs, getting better every year up until 1979 when he had maybe the best single season by a Padre, ever.  He batted .309 with 34 HR and 118 RBI.  I’m no Sabrematrician, but that’s ridiculous.  He then cashed in with a monster deal with the Yankees, one of the first megadeals in baseball (which led to a near-comical spat with Steinbrenner which as funny to read about, but I digress).  He has the 7^th highest batting average in Padre history for dudes with more than 2,000 AB’s.  He is 4^th on the Padres all-time HR list and 2^nd in RBI.  Not to mention he is the first baseball Hall of Famer with “SD” on his plaque.

Randy Jones is a tougher case to make for having a retired number.  Yes, he is the Padres all-time innings leader.  Yes, he’s 2^nd on the all-time wins list for Padre pitchers.  Yes, he was the first Padre Cy Young winner.  That’s all well and good.  But just how good was RJ?  I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I’m not all that sure he’s so good that you never want anyone to wear his number EVER AGAIN. 

Let’s take a look at career numbers as a Padre.  I’ll put Randy Jones on top and a mystery pitcher on the bottom.  Let’s take a look and see how they stack up:

            Record            pct.               ERA               Innings               SO

RJ:       92 – 105          .467               3.30                1766.0              677

Mr. X:   92 – 68           .575               3.29                1342.2              1348 

What jumps out at me is the fact that RJ has the same ERA as the other dude, the same wins… but it took him 400 more innings.  But in those innings, Jones fanned half the batters.  You probably guessed the second set of numbers belong to Jake Peavy.  I seriously doubt anyone will be clamoring to retire number 44 when he’s done.

I’m not saying RJ was anything other than excellent.  He was excellent.  He was the Padres first true ace.  But just because he was the first of something and because he was really good for a long time, does that mean we can’t bear the sight of someone else wearing #35?   It’s a tough question to answer. 

Ultimately, I don’t feel #35 should have been retired for one reason:  the need for debate.  It’s the same criterion I use for the baseball Hall of Fame: if there is any legitimate debate then he doesn’t belong in.  In other words: there is absolutely no question that Willie Mays is a Hall of Famer.  But when Gary Carter is voted in, I scratch my head.  Jones has a retired number because he holds a special place in Padre history and because he was beloved by fans, not because of his raw numbers.  I’m not a fan of the choice, but I understand the choice, so I won’t argue against it too vehemently.

That brings us to Steve Garvey.

(sigh)

I have had more than a few heated debates with other Padre fans about the Garve, and some of them have almost ended violently.  People get mad because I say he is not a Padre legend.  He does not deserve a retired number.  He simply did something epic.  However, one swing of the bat does not a career make.

Let’s be clear, Garvey’s number was never “hung” in a place of honor at Jack Murphy Stadium.  There is no debate there.  It was plastered to the right-center field wall at the stadium in the 1989 season.  There was no ceremony, no pomp, no circumstance and no real announcement.  It was just, kinda…. there.  This led many Padre fans to wonder if the number was “retired” or if it was out there as a marker for the home run Garvey hit against Lee Smith in game 4 of the NLCS.  That’s all well and good, the home run was epic.  But, it was only game 4!   The Padres still had to win game 5 to reach the World Series (which they did, thanks to a tie-breaking double in the bottom of the 7^th by Tony Gwynn, which is a far bigger hit in Padres history… but again I digress).

Flash forward to PETCO Park and the Padres have the really good idea of putting the team’s retired numbers on the batter’s eye.  Cool idea, loved it.   But the organization had to be saying “oh, crap… now we really need to decide whether Garvey’s number is really retired, or if that #6 on the outfield wall at the Murph was just a big poster.”  They, of course, decided that the number was, indeed retired.  And Padre fans groaned.  Well, at least THIS Padre fan groaned.

Garvey is not in the top 10 in Padres history in any really relevant statistical category.  He is only 3^rd on the all-time Padres list for games played at first base.  He is not in the Padres team Hall of Fame.  Seriously, why is that number up there next to Tony Gwynn’s?   Padres organization, I realize there’s no take-backs for retired numbers… and you can’t get a mulligan, but can we at least put that number 6 somewhere else once Trevor Hoffman’s #51 is retired?  Can you move it to like the beach area or something?  I’m all for honoring history, but to retire a number because of a home run… that’s an idea I’d like to see retired.

Editors Note: JBox from our friends at GLB also touched on the subject.  You can check it out here