A modest proposal (written with the remainders of a hangover)

I finally got around to reading what Hoss had to say about the list of retired numbers, and while I continue to disagree about some of them, I think the discussion is maybe what "retiring a number" signifies.

To me, it's Mick and Joe and Lou and Yogi and the Babe and a couple of others.

You know, the giants. The men who came to define "Yankee-ness" over the course of many years in pinstripes. 

That leaves out a lot of people, and it always has. Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey...there was nobody else on those teams whose number was retired. But I bet there were players who did something memorable or great but maybe weren't consistently great. Or had injuries that cut their greatness short, or were only with the team for a relatively short period of time, or...well, take your pick.

Those are the kind of guys I say shouldn't have their number retired. Stengel, yes. Torre, no. Whitey, but not Guidry. Dickey but not Thurm. DiMag, but not Donnie. Mariano but not Sparky or someone.

They don't deserve to be forgotten. But maybe we can come up with some other honor besides retiring their numbers, which I still think should be reserved for the very, very few. 

Maybe there's a Yankees Wall of Honor or something for notable but not "giant" Yankees. Maybe mini-plaques. There's a little ceremony, gifts, mementos. A day to let the player know he is remembered and appreciated.

As it stands now, there are too many retired numbers for it to mean what it used to mean. And there are too many guys in the Hall of Fame, too.

At some point, at this rate, neither will mean much of anything.