2003 Guidry Number Retired

August 23, 2003. Fifteen years after his last pitch in pinstripes, Ron Guidry finally got his number back -- except this time it was to take it out of circulation for good. The Yankees retired No. 49 in a pregame ceremony at Yankee Stadium, unveiled his plaque in Monument Park, and made him the second Yankees pitcher in franchise history (after Whitey Ford) to have his number hung up. He cried. The crowd of 54,397 didn't let him finish a sentence without cheering over it.

Then the actual baseball game happened, and the Orioles beat the Yankees 7-2. (Baseball has a sense of humor. It rarely cooperates with a script, even on somebody's big day.)

The Fifteen-Year Wait

Ron Guidry retired after the 1988 season -- quietly, on his own terms, no farewell tour. He'd gone 170-91 with a 3.29 ERA and 1,778 strikeouts across 14 seasons, all of them in New York. Two World Series rings. Five Gold Gloves. Four All-Star nods. And one season, 1978, that still gets mentioned in the same breath as any single-year pitching performance in baseball history -- 25-3, 1.74 ERA, unanimous Cy Young.

None of that got him a number retirement right away. The Yankees moved slowly on these things, and Guidry -- never the loudest voice in a clubhouse that included Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, and Billy Martin -- wasn't the type to lobby for it. (Can you imagine Guidry cornering George Steinbrenner about a plaque? Not happening.) He went home to Louisiana. He stayed close to the organization. He showed up at Old-Timers' Day and got a standing ovation before anyone even announced his name. Fifteen years is a freakin' long gap for a guy that beloved, and by the time August 2003 rolled around, it read less like an oversight corrected than like a debt finally paid.

The Ceremony

The Yankees carried a framed No. 49 jersey onto the field before the game. Guidry wiped his eyes. He wasn't a crier by reputation -- the "Louisiana Lightning" persona ran cool and understated -- but this one got to him.

This will probably be my toughest game, to tell you how much I appreciate today.

He talked about the fans specifically -- the two-strike standing ovation that started during his 18-strikeout game against the Angels in 1978 and never stopped for the rest of his career.

I have but one regret in baseball, and that is that I never got to say goodbye to you wonderful fans, and how much I appreciated you. When you would stand and clap on my second strike, I would hear you.

(He heard it. Every time. That's the kind of detail that makes a guy easy to root for.)

The living legends turned out in force -- Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Phil Rizzuto, and Dave Winfield were all on hand, each of them already a Monument Park honoree in his own right. Guidry's old teammates showed up too -- Goose Gossage, Don Mattingly, and Graig Nettles, guys who'd shared a clubhouse and a couple of championships with him back when the Bronx Zoo was still a zoo.

Second Pitcher, Sixteenth Plaque

Guidry became the 16th person in franchise history to have a number retired or a Monument Park plaque dedicated in his honor. More specifically, he became just the second Yankees pitcher to get the number retired -- Whitey Ford's No. 16 had been the only one before him, hung up back in 1974. In a franchise that's produced Hall of Fame pitching from Whitey Ford to Mariano Rivera to Andy Pettitte, that's a short list. Guidry's spot on it says something about how thin the air gets at the top.

His plaque doesn't try to oversell him with poetry. It calls him "a dominating pitcher and a respected leader" and, simply, "a true Yankee." Which fits. Nobody ever needed three extra adjectives to describe what Guidry did for 14 years -- he took the ball every fifth day, and more often than not, the Yankees won.

Why 49, and Why It Mattered

Guidry's number was never going to have the built-in mystique of a single digit -- not next to Ruth's 3, Gehrig's 4, DiMaggio's 5, or Mantle's 7. Forty-nine is a number a middle reliever wears today. But that's kind of the point. The Yankees weren't retiring a number because it looked good on a jersey. They were retiring it because of what the man wearing it did with it -- a unanimous Cy Young, a franchise strikeout record that still stands from that June night in 1978, back-to-back World Series rings, and 14 years without ever putting on another team's uniform.

The 1978 season is the one everybody remembers first -- the 25-3 record, the 18-strikeout game, the two-strike standing ovation that started spontaneously and never really stopped. But the number retirement wasn't only about one year. It was about a guy who kept doing it -- 21 wins in 1983, 22 wins in 1985, seven years after 1978 was supposed to be unrepeatable -- and never left.

What It Meant

By 2003, the Yankees were deep into the Evil Empire era -- big-ticket free agents, a payroll that dwarfed everyone else's, a roster that would go on to lose a heartbreaking World Series to the Marlins that October. Guidry's ceremony was a reminder of a different Yankees identity -- homegrown, developed through a farm system, loyal for the long haul. He'd been a third-round pick out of Louisiana who almost quit the game in 1976 because the organization couldn't figure out what to do with a 160-pound left-hander. Twenty-seven years later, they were hanging his number in center field next to Ruth and Gehrig.

That's not nothing. That's the kind of story a franchise tells itself to remember what it's supposed to value.

The Yankees haven't issued No. 49 to anyone since. It's up on the wall now, next to the rest of them, exactly where a franchise that almost let him go twice decided he belonged.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the Yankees retire Ron Guidry's number?

The Yankees retired Guidry's No. 49 on August 23, 2003, during a pregame ceremony at Yankee Stadium known as Ron Guidry Day. A crowd of 54,397 attended, and the club unveiled his plaque in Monument Park the same day.

What number did Ron Guidry wear for the Yankees?

Guidry wore No. 49 for all 14 of his Yankees seasons (1975-1988). It's been out of circulation since his 2003 number retirement ceremony.

Was Ron Guidry the first Yankees pitcher to have his number retired?

No. The Yankees retired Whitey Ford's No. 16 back in 1974, making him the first. Guidry became the second Yankees pitcher to receive the honor in 2003, and Ford showed up in person for the ceremony.

What did Ron Guidry say at his number retirement ceremony?

Guidry told the crowd, "This will probably be my toughest game, to tell you how much I appreciate today," and thanked fans directly for the two-strike standing ovation tradition that started during his 1978 season: "When you would stand and clap on my second strike, I would hear you."

Who attended Ron Guidry's number retirement ceremony?

Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Phil Rizzuto, and Dave Winfield -- all Monument Park honorees themselves -- attended, along with former Guidry teammates Goose Gossage, Don Mattingly, and Graig Nettles.