This is one installment in a team effort by The Cleveland Fan, highlighting the top local sports figures by jersey number. Please weigh in with your thoughts, in the Forum. As David Letterman would say, “For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering.”

Three is a magic number,
Yes it is, it's a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number.

So says Schoolhouse Rock, and/or Blind Melon, anyway.  Unlike a lot of the numbers that we’re going to cover over the next few days, weeks, and months, some infamy exists with the #3 on the global scene, on top of being notorious in Cleveland sports history.  Babe Ruth is very likely the first name that comes to mind when you think of who has worn the number, historically in any sport.  Like Ruth, the best Cleveland athlete to wear the number is Earl Averill who played in an era that most of us who opine on this World Wide Web deal wouldn’t have seen if we were born twenty years earlier than we were.  In a more contemporary age, call it the era of color TV, the most famous 3 didn’t find its way to a jersey, but to the side of a car.

With respect due Hélio Castroneves, that car belonged to Dale Earnhardt, but forget Earnhardt.  While you’re at it, forget Drazen Petrovic, Evan Longoria, Dale Murphy, Allen Iverson, John Starks, and even Harmon Killebrew.  You stopped by for Cleveland sports, and Cleveland sports you shall receive.  Our runaway winner here is obvious to anyone that’s been to an Indians game in the past 38 years, be it at Municipal Stadium or Jacobs/Progressive Field, where Earl Averill’s number has been on display and off-limits to every Cleveland Indian since 1975.  Additionally, Howard “Earl” Averill was inducted into the Hall of Fame in ’75.

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It may only be seven games into the shortened 48-game season, but we have a pretty good idea of who the Columbus Blue Jackets are and what we can expect for the rest of the season. The Jackets, a competitive, young team with a lot of heart, have lost five of their first seven games, with a goal differential of minus-9. They have looked competitive in three of those five losses, all by one goal margins. Their two wins were both one goal victories.

In terms of growing a culture of winning, John Davidson has a tough task ahead of him. However, the first step to a culture of winning is a culture of competitiveness. Last season, the Blue Jackets were minus-60 in goal differential, the worst mark in the league by eight goals and lowest mark in the Western Conference by 11. The Jackets have competed well over their first seven games and simply lack the offensive talent to turn a good effort into a good win. Even the game-winning goal against Dallas on Monday night was a fluke goal on a Vinny Prospal shot from below the goal line.

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This is one installment in a team effort by The Cleveland Fan, highlighting the top local sports figures by jersey number. Please weigh in with your thoughts, in the Forum. As David Letterman would say, “For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering.”

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This is one installment in a team effort by The Cleveland Fan, highlighting the top local sports figures by jersey number. Please weigh in with your thoughts on the "Boards". As David Letterman would say, "For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering"

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For some reason, our city has not been blessed with a great number of notable players wearing the #1. A handful of Indians infielders of varying importance surfaced in our search....along with a Browns wide receiver with a pop star namesake, and a couple of solid but mostly unspectacular point guards for the Cavs. To find the best of the lot, we had to go back to a time and a team too distant for even this old-timer of a writer to remember first hand.

The 1954 Cleveland Indians won 111 games, and their .721 winning percentage still stands as the best in major league baseball in the last 100 years. Playing a 154-game schedule, their percentage tops even the 1998 Yankees (114 wins, .704) and the 2001 Seattle Mariners (116 wins, .716). You might say the fact that baseball’s best team of the modern era was then swept in the World Series by Willie Mays and the Giants is what makes them an authentic Cleveland sports story, albeit one for another day.

That Indians team is remembered mostly for it’s starting pitching staff of Feller, Lemon, Wynn, Houtteman and Garcia, which is considered one of the best, if not the best, in baseball history.

And they had sticks...notably third baseman Al Rosen, who was coming off a 1953 season in which he won the AL MVP Award after leading the American League in homers, RBI, slugging percentage, total bases, OPS and WaR...and he didn’t even know what those last two stats were. When Rosen slipped to a mere 24 HR and 102 RBI in ‘54, All-Star centerfielder Larry Doby took over, winning the AL crown in home runs and RBI, and coming in 2nd for MVP.  

If you asked today’s Tribe fans what member of that Indians team won the AL batting title though, few of them could come up with the name of the Mexican-born second baseman who had a career year in ‘54, hitting .341 and finishing 3rd in the AL MVP balloting. But once we looked around at the (admittedly rather weak) competition, it wasn’t difficult for us to select Bobby Avila as the best Cleveland player to ever wear the #1.

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