# Robinson family says no to retiring Clemente's number **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 25, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robinson-family-says-no-to-retiring-clementes-number/341486 "2006-01-25T01:39:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robinson-family-says-no-to-retiring-clementes-number/341486/21 "2006-01-25T15:25:25Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > No, he wasn’t. Clemente was a great player, but Robinson was even better. > > Robinson only played ten years so his total accomplishments don’t seem as impressive, but that’s because he didn’t get to play in the major leagues until he was 28, due to the color of his skin; he otherwise would have been in the majors at least by 1945, possibly 1944. The war interfered with his career as well. > …snip… I don’t and won’t disagree with you, I will take the skilled IF over the RF also. I didn’t see Jackie play and I barely saw Clemente, one WS appearance that I saw on TV and I was really little. So effectively I saw neither play. I would consider both to be very valuable. The 3000 hits loom large for Clemente but a lifetime .409 OBA for Jackie is priceless. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robinson-family-says-no-to-retiring-clementes-number/341486/22 "2006-01-25T16:12:14Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’d like to make a rule that only Hall of Famers can have numbers retired. But that defeats the purpose of retiring numbers. It’s about honoring players who did a lot for your franchise even if they weren’t considered great enough for the Hall. The Yankees really don’t need to unretire any numbers, and it would seem really disrespectful. It’s not as if they’re on the verge of having a problem: there are 83 numbers still available. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robinson-family-says-no-to-retiring-clementes-number/341486/23 "2006-01-25T16:55:28Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > But that defeats the purpose of retiring numbers. It’s about honoring players who did a lot for your franchise even if they weren’t considered great enough for the Hall. > The Yankees really don’t need to unretire any numbers, and it would seem really disrespectful. It’s not as if they’re on the verge of having a problem: there are 83 numbers still available. The retiring is for honoring players who are strongly associated with that team and that number. It was based on Lou Gehrig – he was the only #4 to ever play for the Yankees, so the number is forever associated with him (Other Yankees wore Ruth’s #3 between the time he was released and they got around to retiring it, including one other Hall of Famer). Numbers under 10 are more distinctive, so losing them all is an issue. Back to the OP: If Clemente, why not Al Simmons, who inspired American of Polish descent? Why not Dimaggio (and Tony Lazzeri), who did the same for Italian-Americans? Hank Greenberg for Jewish Americans? Pedro Martinez for Dominicans? Hideo Nomo for Japanese? Throughout MLB history, there are quite a few instances of players from a particular ethnic group who became stars and inspired people in that group, much in the way Clemente inspired Latinos. So it’s not a big difference. Robinson did more than just inspire an ethnic: he broke a barrier. No one officially banned Latinos from baseball. That’s a _major_ difference. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robinson-family-says-no-to-retiring-clementes-number/341486/24 "2006-01-25T19:45:46Z")
Wait, I misunderstood, I thought she meant teams retiring numbers, not the entire league. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robinson-family-says-no-to-retiring-clementes-number/341486.md?page=1)