Best by Number: Who Wore What… With Distinction

Who wore what … with distinction

   Go ahead, ask sports fans the numbers of their favorite players, and they’ll rattle them off in a heartbeat. Derek Jeter? 2. Shaqille O’Neal? 32.
Peyton Manning? 18. Dale Earnhardt Jr.? 8. That one you’ve seen on the back windows of so many pickup trucks you don’t even need to be a fan to know.
   Numbers have been a part of sports lore since they first appeared on uniforms back in the Roaring 20s. But who’s the bestthe very best player ever to wear 32. Or who’s the best 44: Reggie Jackson, Hank Aaron or Jerry West? Or maybe Pete Maravich?
   Sporting News, which has 120 years of covering sports as a foundation, makes those decisions in the highly-entertaining book Best by Number. The colorfully illustrated book takes you behind the scenes with amazing anecdotes of why players chose or were assigned their famous numbers, but most important, Sporting News tells you authoritatively who was the best of the best, 0-99, including what are sure to be surprise selections that will be debated for years.