Ted Williams wore number 9 for the Boston Red Sox. Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice. He had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. Williams was also a 17 time All Star, and he is the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941). Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs. His career year was 1941, when he hit .406 with 37 HR, 120 RBI, and 135 runs scored. His .551 on base percentage set a record that stood for 61 years. In his final major league at bat (September 28,1960), Williams hit a home run.
Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, wore number 9 for the Oakland A's. Where to start with Jackson..... while he actually earned the nickname "Mr. October" while with the Yankees in the late 70's, he was already an established hitter with the A's from 1967-75. Many of you probably recall Jackson wearing number 44 for the Bronx Bombers. When he came to the Yankees, number 9 was already being worn by Graig Nettles, so Jackson settled for number 44. Jackson began his major league career in 1967, breaking in with the Kansas City Athletics. In just his third season, he belted 47 HRs and had 118 RBI, a sign of things to come. During the course of his career, he was named to 17 All Star teams, played on 5 World Championship teams, was a two time World Series MVP (Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax are the only other players to be named World Series MVP more than once, and Jackson is the only player who played on two different teams), and was the AL MVP in 1973. Jackson was probably most famous for his three homeruns in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. In fact, since Jackson had hit a home run off Dodger pitcher Don Sutton in his last at bat in Game 5, his three home runs in Game 6 meant that he had hit four home runs on four consecutive swings of the bat against four different Dodger pitchers. Jackson ended his career with 563 homeruns and 1,702 RBI. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1993, garnering 93.6% of the vote. The card pictured here is his 1976 card from my collection. His number 9 has been retired by the A's, and the Yankees have retired his number 44.
Home run champ Roger Maris wore number for the Yankees. While not in the Hall of Fame, Maris held the record for most home runs in a season (61), which broke Babe Ruth's record of 60. Note I did NOT include the dreaded * next to Maris's number, as then Commissioner Ford Frick did. Maris played a total of 12 seasons in the majors, finished with 275 home runs, and won the AL MVP award twice. His number 9 was finally retired by the Yankees in 1983.
Another legend that wore number 9 was the great Minnie Miñoso, whose professional career in baseball spanned seven decades! Signed by Cleveland in 1948, he first appeared in 1949. After being out of MLB for a number of years, Miñoso came back to the White Sox in 1976, at age 50, and became the second oldest player ever to get a hit. He played in two more games in 1980, and in 1993 he made an appearance with the St. Paul Saints, drawing a walk at age 77. He finished his major league career with a .398 on base percentage, which included being hit by pitches 192 times, which ranks 9th on the all time HBP list.
Other legends that wore number 9 include Sparky Anderson (long time manager of the Reds, and winner of three World Championships), Enos "Country" Slaughter (Hall of Famer and lifetime .300 hitter), Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski (who hit a walk off home run to win the 1960 World Series for Pittsburgh), Rick Ferrell (Hall of Fame catcher who caught 1,806 games, a record that stood for 41 years until Carlton Fisk broke it in 1988), and Gabby Hartnet, a Hall of Fame catcher who was behind the plate when Babe Ruth allegedly called his home run shot in the 1932 World Series.
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