I am not, like, a Shakespearean scholar or anything like that, but in my own way I am a man of letters; hence, I guess, this blog and the stuff I produce for the actual newspaper too.

Of course, I am also a man of numbers, in a couple different ways.

First off, as some of you know, I’m something of a math nut. Hard though this may be to believe, once upon a time I was considered one of the “advanced” students, which meant I was allowed to take algebra in the eighth grade, putting me on a high school track that called for geometry as a freshman, trigonometry as a sophomore, advanced algebra as a junior and calculus as a senior.

And of course I took all those sines, integrals, etc. and parlayed it into a career in journalism; hey, at least I am the undisputed math king of the newsroom.

Beyond mathematics, I am also a man of numbers because, well, I am a man of sports, and sports — particular my favorite sport, baseball — are wrapped up in all sorts of numbers, including, of course, uniform numbers.

I am 47 years old and, just for kicks, I’m going to start at No. 1 and, using mainly the first things that pop into my mind, list my single most notable sports figure at each uniform number up to my age. Here we go:

1. Oscar Robertson.

2. Derek Jeter.

3. Babe Ruth.

4. Lou Gehrig.

5. Joe DiMaggio.

6. Stan Musial.

7. Mickey Mantle.

8. Yogi Berra.

9. Roger Maris.

10. Walt Frazier.

11. Edgar Martinez.

12. Joe Namath.

13. Wilt Chamberlain.

14. Lou Piniella.

15. Thurman Munson.

16. Joe Montana.

17. John Havicek.

18. Peyton Manning.

19. Johnny Unitas.

20. Josh Gibson.

21. Roberto Clemente.

22. Doug Flutie.

23. Michael Jordan.

24. Willie Mays.

25. Jim Thome.

26. Wendell Tyler.

27. Juan Marichal.

28. I am stumped.

29. Satchel Paige.

30. Ken Griffey Sr.

31. Dave Winfield.

32. Sandy Koufax.

33. Larry Bird.

34. Walter Payton.

35. Ken Simonton.

36. Lloyd Neal.

37. Manny Sanguillen.

38. Again, stumped.

39. Roy Campanella.

40. Gale  Sayers.

41. Tom Seaver.

42. Jackie Robinson.

43. Richard Petty (not a uniform number, obviously, but The King earned his spot).

44. Hank Aaron.

45. Bob Gibson.

46. Todd Christensen.

47. To conclude, we’re again going away from the uniform number theme so we can honor arguably the most important year in baseball history: 1947, when my hero Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.