Yankees by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Bronx Bombers by Uniform Number

What do Mark Koenig, Red Rolfe, Frank Crosetti, Sandy Alomar, Bobby Murcer, Wayne Tolleson, and Derek Jeter all have in common? They all wore number 2 for the New York Yankees, even though nearly eight decades have passed between the first time Koenig buttoned up a Yankee uniform with that number and the last time Jeter performed the same routine.The 1929 New York Yankees were the first Major League baseball team to begin regularly wearing uniform numbers. That team, led by superstars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, was assigned its numbers based on the batting order. This is why Ruth wore 3, Gehrig 4, and so on. Soon other teams in other cities caught on, and before long every team in baseball were wearing numbers. But like many things in baseball history, it all started in the Bronx.