No because a team shouldn't be limited by outside forces as who they and the fans should be able to honor. Before Ron Santo was posthumously voted in by the Golden Era committee, he had a very special number retirement by the Cubs that clearly meant a lot to him and the fans.
Now some teams to get carried away with the number retirements, and some teams are so old that they have retired too many numbers from long ago that they can't afford to retire any more numbers now. But that should be up to the franchise. If the Cubs wise up and want to retire Sammy Sosa's number one day, they should be able to do that, even though MLB will continue to be stupid about steroids era players for eternity.
What about the Lakers and Dodgers? They have always had that rule and still have many retired numbers. What should be the requirement? Maybe the Dodgers should make another exception and retire 34 (which is currently unofficially retired) for Fernando Valenzuela.
Poll
