BASEBALL, HOTDOGS, APPLE PIE & IDENTITY TAGS – ISSUE NO. 304

Opening Day for baseball is the sure sign that spring is finally here. In Fraser, MI we look forward to seeing the Detroit Tigers get back on the field and hopefully make another run at the Central Division Title. While watching Sunday night baseball last night, someone asked the question of why do baseball players wear numbers on their uniforms? I knew it had to do with some kind of identification method of the player, but I wasn't truly aware of the history. I decided to do some research to find out how this originated. According to Wikipedia, the uniform number first appeared in the 19th century, but the earliest official record is from 1907. The Reading Red Roses of the Atlantic League numbered its players' jerseys in an effort to help the fans identify them. While it is unknown if the team ever took the field with numbers, it did mark the beginning of the idea of uniform numbers. Numbers are used for the purpose of easily identifying each person on the field as no two people from the same team can wear the same number. Although designed for identification purposes only, numbers have become the source of superstition, emotional attachment, and honor (in the form of a number retirement). The identity of numbers on players uniforms even created modern culture attachment to specific players in other professional sports. If you're a fan a basketball, what is the first person you think of when you see the number "23"? There is a good chance that most of you answered Michael Jordan. Identity is an essential key to the Central Sterile department as well. There are so many trays, baskets and other items being reprocessed that they are imperative to track and identify. Many items can be so unique in nature that they even require an special customization tags to be able identify or may even require an important message to be included with them. Be sure you're identifying the players in the Central Sterile game and properly use identification tags for those specialty items and equipment.