White Sox Bring Aparicio's Number Out of Retirement

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Feb 9, 2010 3:20PM

With Omar Vizquel joining the White Sox, he knew he had to choose a new jersey number. The number 13 he's used to wearing currently belongs to skipper Ozzie Guillen, who wasn't going to give it up. Instead, Vizquel asked another one of his fellow Venezuelan shortstops if he could borrow his number. Said Vizquel, "One day I was hanging out with Luis Aparicio and I had the courage to ask if I could use his number. He thought about it for a while and with a little smile said it would be great." With Hall of Famer Aparicio's blessing, the White Sox will "un-retire" the 11 jersey for Vizquel to wear in 2010.

Aparicio played for the White Sox from 1956-1962 and again from 1968-1970. He also played stints in Baltimore and Boston. A ten time All-Star, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, and had his jersey retired by the Sox that same year.

The only other time the South Siders have un-retired a number is when Harold Baines returned to the club in 1996 and 2000, and each time they had to dust off his jersey that had been retired after he was traded to the Rangers in '89 -- a move which will likely go down as the most premature jersey retirement in the history of sports. Baines currently sports jersey 3 for the Sox as their first base coach.