As fans know, the connection between athletes and the number that they wear is a deep one. Any player good enough or iconic enough to a particular franchise can be instantly identified by the number on his back, and having your number retired is the most exclusive honor a team can bestow. When we are young, we want to wear the numbers of our favorite players, and later in life we reminiscence about players both good bad who used to wear a particular number.
Owing to this obsession, I keep an ongoing list of the greatest Philadelphia Phillies players by uniform number in franchise history, going from No. 0 through No. 99. The only parameter is that a player's claim on a number is solely determined by what he did while wearing that number for the Phillies. There are no bonus points for being a great player somewhere else and then coming to the Phillies and just taking up space wearing a particular number. Nor can a player carry over previous accomplishments if they change their number with the Phillies. The list ends up being an interesting mix.
While performing a recent update, I was struck by how many current Phillies players either already have a claim on a certain number or are coming close. And so, let's go through the list as we sound off on which current Phils fit the bill.