Defensive Indifference

The Diamondbacks are one of the youngest franchises in Major League Baseball, and as such haven’t had to worry too much about retiring jerseys. This week, they laid out their policy:

“Our policy is that jersey numbers will be retired only after a player enters the Hall of Fame as a Diamondback,” club president Derrick Hall said.

That would seem to rule out former D-backs like Matt Williams, Jay Bell and Luis Gonzalez.

I’m always interested by this type of thing, and in general, I tend to err on the conservative side. The Yankees have retired far too many numbers over the years. On the other hand, I think the Red Sox’s team policy is far, far too restrictive. For those who don’t know, to get your number up on the right field facade at Fenway Park, a player has to be a Hall of Famer and have spent 10 years with the team.

Any policy that’s going to keep Pedro Martinez’s No. 45 from being retired at Fenway is no good in my book.