Lee Smith was great; the all-time saves leader for a while before Trevor Hoffman passed him. He wore the number 46 while with the Cubs for only eight of his eighteen seasons. Lou Groza was great too, but wore 46 for only six of his NFL years, and was mainly a tackle during that time period, not the kicker he became known for (he also wore 76, and had that number retired by the Browns.) Andy Pettitte however, is the best athlete to wear the number 46. Andy wore the number 46 in his nine years with the Yankees from 1995 to 2003. He amassed 149 wins in that time span. Altogether, including his three years with the Astros, Pettitte has 186 wins and a .641 winning percentage. According to wikipedia.com, "Through 2006, he is one of only 5 active players with at least 180 wins, 1,700 strikeouts, and a winning percentage above .640. The others are Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, and Pedro Martinez, each of whom is older than Pettitte." That's pretty good company. The two-time twenty game winner will presumably wear number 46 again when he returns to the Yankees this year.
Did you know......Andy is the only MLB pitcher since 1930 to win at least 12 games in each of his first nine seasons? (source: imdb.com)
It seems that the athletes wearing numbers in the 40's are predominantly Major Leaguers. Jusat an observation...
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to see what uniform # is most popular in each sport. Also, which number was worn by the best athletes across different pro-sports. For example: 23 was worn by MJ in Baseball and Beckham in soccer...both best in their sports.
beckham is nowhere near the best soccer player... NOWHERE.. he is just popular here... thats all
ReplyDeleteDanny Abramowicz..New Orleans Saints..late 60's-70s.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the best Defense ever. The Bear 46 Defense named after Chicago Bear Doug Plank
ReplyDelete