Uniform numbers in Major League Baseball have crept up over the years. This weekend’s series between the Yankees and Braves featured several players sporting high numbers, including Aaron Judge and Spencer Strider, both of whom wear number 99.

When I started following the Braves back in 1966, center fielder Mack Jones wore the highest uniform number on the team with 48. That was a large number for a position player, but it wasn’t unusual for the Braves as right fielder Henry Aaron (44), left fielder Rico Carty (43), and third baseman Ed Mathews (41) also wore numbers in the 40s.

It isn’t unusual for young players to begin their careers with high uniform numbers but change to lower numbers once they are established. However, Jones, Aaron, Carty, and Mathews were all well-established players in 1966. Carty eventually changed his number to 25 when he returned to the Braves after missing the entire 1968 season with tuberculosis.

Back in ‘66 players with numbers in the 40s were mostly pitchers. The highest number in the big leagues that year was 56, worn by pitchers Ted Davidson of the Reds and Jim Bouton of the Yankees.

In his book Ball Four, Bouton explained why he wore such a large number. “The higher the number, the worse chance they think you have of making the club,” he said.

“The year I was given 56 was the year I made the club. Toward the end of spring training, Big Pete, the No. 1 Yankee clubhouse man, Pete Sheehy, said, ‘Listen, I got a better number for you. I can give you 27.’ I told him I’d keep 56 because I wanted it to remind me of how close I was to not making the club.”

Bouton wore number 56 for most of his career, including when he made his brief comeback with the Braves in 1978. He wore number 44 for the remainder of the 1969 season after the Seattle Pilots traded him to the Astros, but he switched back to 56 the following season.

While 56 was the highest number in 1966, according to Baseball Reference, going into today’s games, a whopping 321 players are wearing or have worn numbers greater than 56 this season. That number almost strains credulity. A lot of the high numbers likely are a byproduct of the constant roster churning that is so prevalent in the game today.

The Braves have five players on their active roster with numbers higher than 56. Nacho Alvarez, who recently joined the team from the Gwinnett Stripers to replace the injured Austin Riley, is wearing number 67. During a stint with Atlanta last season, Alvarez wore number 17; however, Stuart Fairchild scooped up that number, so Alvarez was out of luck. I suspect that if Alvarez eventually permanently sticks with the Braves, he will settle on a lower number.

The Yankees currently have seven players on their active roster sporting numbers greater than 56, but of all the teams in baseball, they can be forgiven for hanging larger numbers on the backs of their players. They have retired a whopping 23 of the available uniform numbers between 1 and 51, including every single-digit number, so it makes sense that they would have several players with high numbers.

Although there isn’t anything wrong with all these high uniform numbers, I suppose I’m old school enough that I liked it when numbers over 50 were rare–Bouton with 56, Don Drysdale with 53, or even Willie McGee with number 51. But once the numbers get past 59, I feel like they belong on a football jersey.