Contest With Large Prize To Be Determined
 

Okay, all you water-cooled heads. All you have to do is pick a year in the future.

Background - Major league franchises retire jersey numbers now and then, none more so than the Yankees I believe. When I was a lad, very few major leaguers had numbers greater than 50, but a few began to show up in the 50s. With more and more number retirements, spring training rosters are now peppered with prospects with higher numbers out of necessity. Big league rosters now have several such players during the season. Judge is 99. There was a 74 in the same game tonight and there are more.

Ultimately the finite supply of one and two digit numbers will be exhausted for some clubs.

The winner of this contest will be the first person to guess the first year that a three digit numbered player will perform in either an All-Star Game or World Series.
I was going to say major league game, but i cannot be sure conclusively that this hasn't already happened, but I think not.

This will take awhile I presume, perhaps when Leon and I are trading cards only with St. Peter (not Spaeth), therefore the proprietor of Net54 at that time will award an appropriate prize at that time only if the winner of the contest is still able to claim it.

This obviously gives the advantage to the younger members on the forum, but legal heirs are not eligible to win.

In the event that I defy all odds and to the disappointment of those who have a vested interest in my demise, I am going to guess 2047.

I was going to say that each answer must be unique, but in the event that I am both correct and dead, the second person to guess 2047 shall be eligible for the prize and so forth.

Who knows, you may win a Trout quadruple refractor signed by the fish himself worth $10,000,000 (N.B. - This is only an estimate and the card could also be worthless). Hence the prize shall be determined in the future with the only caveat that it must be large.:eek:

We're gonna say three-digit uniform numbers will never happen.
If we're right, when will our prize be awarded?

2080
 

and I will be long dead so leave the prize to my heirs

2028 it is not that far away but I am sure the rules will change and the contest will be voided so I can't win.:(

Not to worry Ben.

The rules are etched in the slurry of Net54 on the World Wide Web.

Ancillary tie breaker question,

Given the ever decreasing longevity of starting pitchers in games due to pitch counts and the increasing sentiment that a pitcher should not face a batter three times in a single game,

what is the first year that no pitcher qualify for the ERA league leader, based on the current requirement of needing 162 innings to qualify?

Considering that six numbers haven't been used yet (80, 86, 89, 90, 92, and 93) and 98 was just worn for one year in 2013, I think we are a long way off.

So I will go with 2082.