I am speculating but it seems at the time that player numbers were relatively dynamic. Multiple players on a team might wear the same number over the course of a season. The Yankees wore sequential numbers 1 through 28 (skipping 13 and 23). Every player in the organization was separately assigned an organizational number that stayed with them regardless of which number they wore on their uniform (since at the time players always wore 1-28 even though more than 40 might play on the team in the course of a year) that may or may not equate to his uniform number. The key at the bottom translates each organizational number to his uniform number. This would explain why some of the lesser players have high numbers.
I repeat, though, I am not sure. Just a guess.
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