Certainly I would think that playing ball for money, ie professional baseball- certainly violates the spirit of the Law. How about just for fun? Thanks for being so nice about the hijack.
My bad. I wasn’t aware of that, thanks zev.
Today’s New York Times quotes an unnamed source that the Yankees will have a “Dave Winfield Day” sometime during the 2001 season, and will probably retire his # 31. sigh
I think most Yankee fans will agree that Paul O’Neill has had much more of an impact during his Yankee career than Winfield did during his. So, I suppose # 21 will be retired? Then, sentimental favorite Joe Torre’s # 6. Then, if he continues his stellar play, Derek Jeter’s # 2 (oops! No more single digit numbers!). The honor will have become rather silly by then.
Here’s what I would do in my imaginary world: Unretire all the numbers. Then, retire one number to represent each decade since the Yankees started winning pennants: the 1920’s (Ruth’s # 3), the '30s (Gehrig’s # 4), the 40’s (Dimaggio’s # 5) the 50’s (Berra’s # 8), the 60’s (Mantle’s # 7), the 70’s (Munson’s # 15).
To represent the '80’s and '90’s, or any other reason to retire future numbers, the player has to be retired (or dead) for 10 years before being considered. If the team decides not to assign the number during those 10 years, so be it (currently, the Yankees are doing that with Guidrey’s # 49).
At that time, it could be decided a little more dispassionately as to who deserves the honor. In lieu of retiring a number, the Yankees could still honor great players with a plaque in Monument Park.
Actually, playing ball for money is not as big a problem as you might think. I can hire a person to do work for me (even if that work involves working on Shabbos [as long as no Shabbos laws are violated – I can’t ask someone to come and mow my lawn for me, for example]). For example, I can hire a babysitter to come and watch my kids for me every day (including Shabbos) and I can pay him/her for the time they spent there on Shabbos as well. Hiring just for Shabbos, however, is a different and more problematic situation. As baseball players aren’t expected to play only on Shabbos this is not so big a problem.
If you want to discuss this, Daniel, perhaps we should start another thread and not bore everyone here looking for uniform number info with religious laws. 
Zev Steinhardt
Just a little more info on when numbers became standard. I have seen a couple references that say Cleveland used them as early as 1916 (and there evidently were even earlier uses). Bill James, in the Historical Abstract of Baseball, says neither team used them in the 1927 World Series. He says he thinks they started being used regularly in 1928, but couldn’t confirm it (but surely there would be photos and newsreels from that Series that would show them if they had been used?). Another source says numbers became mandatory in the AL in 1931 and in the NL in 1933. (I’ve seen a photo from Ebbets Field in 1930 in which neither team is wearing them). So the Yankees probably started using them in either 1928 or 1929, but if Bill James couldn’t find out, it must be pretty damn hard to pin down.