A comment on Monday’s St. Louis Cardinals telecast led to a mini-research project into the team’s use of the number 15, focusing on the period just prior to the arrival of Jim Edmonds in 2000.
Thanks, Jim Edmonds!
After just one night at home in my own bed, I was supposed to be repacking my suitcase on Monday afternoon in preparation to my return to St. Louis Cardinals spring training camp.
However, I took a brief diversion to check in on the Cardinals-Marlins game on Bally Sports Midwest, and seeing it was an 0-0 game, sat down.
Late in the telecast, won by St. Louis by a 5-0 score, play-by-plan man Chip Caray engaged color commentator Jim Edmonds on the retired center fielder’s uniform numbers over the years.
In his first camp before he first made the Angels in 1993, Edmonds explained he was assigned number 46 because that is what all the new guys got. He moved to 25 upon becoming established.
However, following his March 2000 trade to St. Louis, the center fielder had to change numbers again. After all, there was a guy named McGwire already proudly wearing the number 25.
Edmonds explained Monday that the Cards assigned him number 15 just after they had released another player. He joked that he could still see the name of the former Cardinal stitched on the back of his uniform jersey under his.
Who is this former number 15?
That sent me down a rabbit hole from which I did not emerge for several hours.
I wanted to learn more about what was behind Edmonds’ story – so I dug in.
It turns out that Jim’s recollection is pretty much on the spot.
Following the 1999 season, Willie McGee retired at age 40, creating an opening. With his club in need of a center fielder, in December 1999, then-Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty sent infielder Luis Ordaz to Arizona for Dante Powell.
My 2000 Cardinals Media Guide confirmed that Powell was indeed assigned no. 15 as camp opened.
It did not last long, however.
By March 20, manager Tony La Russa and his staff apparently had seen enough of the former San Francisco Giants first-rounder, as Powell was not only cut from camp, he was outrighted off the 40-man roster.
In what would be his only action as a Cardinal, Powell went 1-for-24 (.042) with three walks and nine strikeouts in 11 spring contests.
Just three days later, on March 23, Jocketty acquired Edmonds from the Anaheim Angels in return for pitcher Kent Bottenfield and infielder Adam Kennedy.
Not only did Edmonds thrive, by May 12, he was signed to a six-year contract extension through 2006, with a 2007 club option. That locked in the services of the man who helped lead the club from the McGwire years to the MV3 glory years.
Who was Dante Powell?
We know about Edmonds, the team Hall of Famer and current broadcaster, but what about Dante Powell?
The Californian was not only a first rounder once, he was selected twice. Initially taken in 1991 by Toronto, Powell instead went to Cal State Fullerton, from where he went to the Giants in the first round in 1994. That time, he signed.
Twice ranked on the fringes of Baseball America’s national Top 100 prospects, Powell was also twice a 20-home run/40-steals player, in High-A and Double-A. He reached San Francisco in 1997 with great hopes, but he couldn’t stick.
Prior to the 1999 season, he was traded to Arizona for reliever Alan Embree. After a year mostly in Triple-A along with 22 MLB games, Powell was then dealt to the Cardinals (as noted above).
I cannot find it documented anywhere, but it seems Powell was released by St. Louis shortly after his March 2000 outrighting. What is clear is that he never appeared in a regular season game at any level as a Cardinal.
During the 2000 season, Powell resurfaced at Double-A in the Dodgers organization and worked his way back up to Triple-A again before becoming a free agent that winter.
Powell rejoined the Giants for 2001 and was a 20/20 man at Triple-A. He reached the majors for what would be one last time, for 13 games in September. He was released that winter and signed with Tampa Bay, but did not survive 2002 spring training camp.
He went to the Giants for a third time, but after batting .229 for a month in Triple-A, he was released. From there, Powell played the rest of 2002 with independent Fargo-Moorhead.
For 2003, Powell snagged a minor league contract with the Angels, but apparently did not make it out of spring training. His career stats trail ends there, at age 29. Powell had appeared in 70 career big-league games, batting .270 over 85 plate appearances.
I came across a 2011 note that Powell was a hitting coach at a facility in his native California but have nothing more recent on him.
A brief history of number 15
Returning to Cardinals number 15, just prior to Powell and Edmonds, it had been worn from 1997-1999 by coach Rene Lachemann.
The number has a long and notable history with St. Louis, often associated with catchers. All-Star backstop Walker Cooper donned it for two World Series teams in the first half of the 1940s.
In the 1960’s, 15 was well known as the number of another future team Hall of Famer and broadcaster, Tim McCarver, during both his stints with the team.
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, catching coach great Dave Ricketts and another World Series champion, catcher Darrell Porter, wore the number.
Though several others were assigned number 15 after Edmonds left, it has remained unused since Randal Grichuk was traded away after the 2017 season.
Will it be retired some day for Edmonds? Only time will tell, but if it does happen, an assist should be awarded to Dante Powell.
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