The Yankees Retire Paul O’Neill’s Number 21

For Morgan Ensberg, damage control started when he saw his uniform number at spring training in 2008. It was 21, the number worn by Paul O’Neill for nine sterling seasons in pinstripes, and after six years out of circulation, the Yankees had decided to quietly reintroduce it. Big mistake, Ensberg thought.

He begged the Yankees’ clubhouse manager to give him a new number when the season started. He offered $5,000 to buy a different number from his teammate Wilson Betemit. He even apologized to O’Neill, who insisted he did not mind. But Ensberg knew he would never win over the masses.

“The fans made it very clear, even during spring training: ‘That’s Paul’s number!’” Ensberg, who is now a manager in the Tampa Bay farm system, said by phone on Wednesday. “I was like: ‘I know, it’s just spring training, I’ve already talked to the clubbie, we’re good.’ You have certain people, it doesn’t really matter that they’re not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, they’ve done so much and they’re such an example of that team, you don’t want to touch that stuff.”

The Yankees announced on Tuesday that they would retire O’Neill’s number in a ceremony on Aug. 21. But the fans had retired it long ago, hounding reliever LaTroy Hawkins until he gave it up shortly after Ensberg dropped it in 2008. Tuesday’s announcement was a much-delayed statement of the obvious.

“I’ve heard that a big reason for this was the backing of the fans, and if that’s true, all I can do is be thankful,” O’Neill said during a video conference call on Wednesday. “I always have been thankful to the New York fans. They’ve treated me unbelievable, both as a player and up in the booth calling games.”

With the Yankees’ announcement, O’Neill leaves a more exclusive — but less celebrated — group than the one he has now joined: a secret society of standouts whose uniform numbers are out of circulation, yet not retired.

In some cases, the numbers seem destined to be retired eventually, such as No. 5 for the Mets (David Wright) and the St. Louis Cardinals (Albert Pujols), No. 15 for the Los Angeles Angels (Tim Salmon) and perhaps No. 3 for the Tampa Bay Rays (Evan Longoria).

But there are several that have been out of use for decades or more, a quirk that Josh Hader, the All-Star closer, encountered when he joined the majors with Milwaukee in 2017. Hader grew up near Baltimore and hoped to wear No. 17, like his favorite player, the Orioles’ B.J. Surhoff. That number was technically available with the Brewers, but the team had not issued it since Jim Gantner, a longtime infielder, last used it in 1992.

“It’s like a retired number that’s not retired, so I just said 17 backward is 71, and I just rolled with it,” Hader said a few years ago.

The Brewers do have five retired numbers, but all are for Hall of Famers: the former owner Bud Selig (1), Paul Molitor (4), Robin Yount (19), Rollie Fingers (34) and Hank Aaron (44). Gantner never made an All-Star team but has strong local appeal: A native of Fond du Lac, Wis., about 70 miles northwest of Milwaukee, he played his entire 17-year career with the Brewers and…