On Monday, the Seattle Mariners announced that they will retire Randy Johnson's No. 51 during the 2026 season. This will follow the team retiring that same No. 51 for Ichiro Suzuki in a ceremony this August.
So, how many teams have retired the same number in honor of two different players? According to Alex Mayer of Mariners PR, it will be eight once the Mariners take the step.
The Cubs have retired No. 31 for both Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux, while the Reds have retired No. 5 for Willard Hershberger and Johnny Bench. Rusty Staub and Andre Dawson both have No. 10 retired by the Expos/Nationals and the Yankees have No. 8 retired for Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra. Furthermore, the Yankees also have No. 42 retired for Jackie Robinson and Mariano Rivera, and the St. Louis Cardinals have No. 42 retired for Robinson and Bruce Suter. Finally, No. 34 is retired by the A's for Rollie Fingers and Dave Stewart.
Full List: pic.twitter.com/Ondro7zbZM
— Alex Mayer (@alexmayer34) June 2, 2025
Retiring No. 51 for both players is certainly a fair decision given how productive both players were in Seattle and the impact that both had on the franchise.
Johnson spent parts of 10 seasons with the Mariners, going 130-74 in that time. He had been acquired in 1989 via a trade with the Montreal Expos and stayed until he was traded in 1998. He had a 3.42 lifetime ERA in Seattle, tossing 19 shutouts and 51 complete games. The most intimidating pitcher of his era, he had 2,162 strikeouts with Seattle in 1838.1 innings. He helped lead the M's to their first playoff appearance in 1995, going 18-2 and winning the American League Cy Young. He also went 20-4 in 1997.
Ichiro was a professional for 28 seasons between his time in Japan and the United States. He played for the Mariners, New York Yankees and Miami Marlins, earning more than 4,300 combined professional hits. He was a 10-time All-Star and a 10-time Gold Glover. He also won two batting titles and three Silver Slugger Awards.
He helped the Mariners to an American-League record 116 wins in 2001 and also helped the M's get to the American League Championship Series that same year. Sadly, he never got to the playoffs with the Mariners again, but his legacy lives on. He won the Rookie of the Year and the American League MVP that season.
He'll be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27.
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It is no secret that the relationship between Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft has been strained since Belichick left the New England Patriots. Belichick took an obvious shot at Kraft and the Patriots owner's son, Jonathan, who is the president of the team, during an interview with Ben Volin of the Boston Globe that was published on Thursday. Belichick is preparing for his first-ever season as a college coach with North Carolina. When asked what he has noticed that is different about coaching in college versus the NFL, Belichick insinuated he has enjoyed not having to answer to any members of the Kraft family while doing his job in Chapel Hill. "It’s a much more cohesive, and I’d say unified, view of what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it," Belichick told Volin. "It’s a lot of football, and there’s not much in your way. "There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son. There’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that. But it’s way less of what it was at that level." Shots fired. There is no way to interpret that other than a criticism of Robert and Jonathan Kraft. Had Belichick left it at not having to answer to a team owner, you could make the case that he was speaking generally about the NFL. The fact that he added in "owner's son" makes it obvious he was referring to his old bosses, as both Robert and Jonathan are hands-on with the Patriots. Belichick is almost certainly bitter over the way his tenure in New England ended following the 2023 season. He coached the Patriots for 24 seasons and won six Super Bowls, so he likely felt he should have been given more time to turn things around in the post-Tom Brady era. The Kraft family preferred to move on after a 4-13 campaign. Though Belichick insists he is solely focused on the upcoming UNC season, this is not the first time in recent months that he has gone out of his way to throw a jab at Robert Kraft.
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