It would seem that in most every instance (perhaps mainly in the non-professional levels?) that I have seen a team sport played wherein the participants wore numbered jerseys, there was always one player bearing double ciphers. I know that in American football that there is a designation that pertains to position played, but I’ve seen this elsewhere as well. Is there some meaning to this?
And why are all those girls sporting jerseys with 69 on them? 
I’ve never seen a double-zero on a jersey in professional basketball or baseball… Well, except for Mr. Met, which I don’t think counts.
Football: Jim Otto of the Oakland Raiders wore 00.
Basketball: Robert Parish of the Boston Celtics wore 00.
Baseball: Al Oliver who mostly played for the Pittsburgh Pirates wore 0.
Baseball: Junior Ortiz who played for a few teams wore 0.
Basketball: Orlando Woolridge who played for a few teams wore 0.
Haj
add: Rey Ordonez for the Mets (for a while).
A little internet searching…
More 00:
Ken Burrough: Football
Johnny Moore: Basketball
Kevin Duckworth: Basketball
Tony Delk: Basketball
More 0:
Olden Polynice: Baasketball
Eric Montross: Basketball
Walter McCarty: Basketball
Haj
cuz dey badd
duh…
Baseball: Omar Olivares of the St. Louis Cardinals was 00 for a while. I guess he wanted his initials on his back.
Has Tony Delk worn 00 in the NBA? He wore it here at Kentucky, but I don’t remember seeing him wear it in the NBA (admittedly, he’s been hard to follow.)
Walter McCarty wore 40 here at UK, so why he wears 0 now is a mystery.
I drove a figure 8 race car with the number 00. Just like the other nine digits, 0 is a number.
00 is not allowed to be worn in American Football anymore; they went to a numbering system in the 70s IIRC, and 0 or 00 were not assigned to any position. Some guys (listed above) used to wear it, and they were grandfathered in, but since Kenny Burrough retired, there’s been no 0 or 00.
As to why they’d want it – you *noticed * those guys, didn’t you? That’s the whole idea…
Maybe not. I got him from a hasty internet search.
Haj
I’m guessing the idea came from the roulette wheel. It has both a 0 and a 00 space.
Jim Otto’s use of the double o made perfect sense: Ought-Oh.
George Plimpton: 0 for the Detroit Lions (in training camp). The number was used by a player the year before, but I don’t recall the name.
According to Mets by the Numbers (a fascinating site if you’re a Met fan), Tony Clark wore 00 for the team, and Terry McDaniel wore 0 (in addition to Ordonez).
Jim Otto chose the number because of OttO.
In college basketball now, you can have either a 0 or 00 on the roster, but not both.
You are also not allowed to use any numeral greater than 5 in either the tens or the ones column in college basketball. So the highest number in college ball is 55. That is so the referees can flash the number of a player committing a foul to the scorer’s table.
For some reason, NBA officials seem to get by with players wearing all sorts of numbers.
In international basketball, the players all have to wear numbers 1 through 12.
No longer (And sorry, but innacurate to begin with, too)
The rule used to be 4-15 inclusive, but I’ve seen larger numbers in the past year or so (OTTOMH, just for my team, Macabi Tel-Aviv, there Yaniv Green with #40 and Komatos with #20)
Most players still adhere to the 4-15 range, though.
I’ll look for the official FIBA rule on this later when I get home from work
Dani
Is baasketball the national sport of Finland?
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I can find a newspaper cite for a college player using “00” as early as 1940.