As Urban Legends Go, This One Is Full of Kruk

My colleague TD at Rain Delay shot me an email the other day:

Got a question for ya, and I figured you’d be the guy to go to. Right now I’m in the middle of reading John Kruk’s I Ain’t an Athlete, Lady, and he says in the book (and he’s said it on BBTN this year) that he was the last guy to wear #44 for the Padres because they retired it when Willie McCovey got elected to the HOF. I’m either reading things wrong or seeing things, because doesn’t Jake Peavy wear #44?? So do you know the story with that?

I’d heard Kruk mention the bit about McCovey earlier this year and it bugged the heck out of me, but I had no idea that he’d committed this nonsense to paper several years earlier (his book was published in 1994). I don’t have a copy of the book, and it’s out of print, so I asked TD to send me the exact citation and here it is (p. 203):

In San Diego I was the last guy to wear number 44 before they retired it for Willie McCovey. He had played there for a couple of years. I was wearing it with the Padres, but when he was voted into the Hall Of Fame, they retired it. It was kind of exciting.

As any Padres fan knows, there are five numbers that have been retired in team history:

  • #6, Steve Garvey — a mistake, IMHO, but what are you gonna do
  • #19, Tony Gwynn — duh
  • #31, Dave Winfield — duh
  • #35, Randy Jones — maybe not quite as obvious as Gwynn and Winfield, but still a no-brainer
  • #42, Jackie Robinson — by mandate of MLB

The next number to be retired will be Trevor Hoffman‘s #51, but we’re not there yet.

At any rate, in the interest of debunking this myth (others are sure to ask about Peavy’s #44 in light of Kruk’s claim), here are the players who have worn the number for San Diego:

Padres Players Who Have Worn #44
Year(s) Player, Pos
Courtesy of Baseball-Almanac.com.
1969 Steve Arlin, RHP
1970 Tom Dukes, RHP
1971 Al Severinsen, RHP
1972 Mark Schaeffer, LHP
1973 Vicente Romo, RHP
1974-75 Willie McCovey, 1B
1976-79 Bob Owchinko, LHP
1980 n/a
1981 Eric Show, RHP
1982 n/a
1983 Marty Decker, RHP
1984-85 n/a
1986-87 John Kruk, OF
1988-89 n/a
1990 John Davis, RHP
1991 n/a
1992-93 Frank Seminara, RHP
1994 A.J. Sager, RHP
1995 n/a
1996-97 Sean Bergman, RHP
1998 John Vander Wal, OF
1999 Carlos Reyes, RHP
2000-01 Tom Davey, RHP
2002-present Jake Peavy, RHP

It’s true that Kruk changed to #8 at some point during his Padres career, and it’s true that nobody else wore #44 for two years after Kruk had. Who knows, maybe the Padres had plans to retire McCovey’s number and it never happened. Whatever the case, #44 is very much alive and well in San Diego.

(I’m personally hoping that the Padres do retire the number. And that they don’t do it for another 15 years or so.)

So, the next time someone asks you about #44, tell them that the Padres are still using it, thank you very much. And remind them that Kruk ain’t no historian.