|
|
Â
|
| Quote: |
| In addition, 21, which belonged to right fielder Paul O’Neill, seems to have been given an off-the-books retirement. In the 14 years since O’Neill retired, it has been awarded only briefly, in 2008, to LaTroy Hawkins and Morgan Ensberg, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Throw in No. 0, which has never been worn by a Yankee, and that makes 23 numbers that are unavailable. “They’re going to have to go to triple digits pretty soon,” said Ryan, a backup shortstop. “I don’t think they want to have to go to negative numbers.” Nobody else comes close to the Yankees in their zest to retire numbers: The St. Louis Cardinals have retired 13 numbers, including Jackie Robinson’s 42, which has been retired throughout baseball. (The Yankees had their own reason to retire 42 — it belonged to Mariano Rivera.) The Atlanta Braves are next, having retired 11 numbers. Five other teams, including the two former New York teams — the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants — have retired 10. The Mets have retired four, only one of them belonging to a Mets player, Tom Seaver’s 41. Jersey numbers, like the way a player wears his stirrups or stands in the batter’s box, can become part of a player’s identity. In some cases, athletes joining a new team offer to pay handsome rewards for a number. (When John Lackey joined the Cardinals last year, he gave Pat Neshek a Babe Ruth-autographed baseball for No. 41.) A player’s uniform number is more fluid in baseball than in other sports. In the N.B.A. and N.F.L., a player must petition to change his number. The N.F.L. requires players at certain positions to wear numbers in a certain range. |
I certainly understand honoring the "core 4", but you can do that without retiring numbers. The Celtics have run into this problem too, and they only have to issue 15 numbers at a time.
Who is this River fellow?
I certainly understand honoring the "core 4", but you can do that without retiring numbers. The Celtics have run into this problem too, and they only have to issue 15 numbers at a time.
Here's a list of their retired numbers. Doesn't seem to me that there are any that jump out to me as crazy.
Next time a baseball team has a core of winning players like that maybe they can retire that many numbers too.
Link - ( New Window )
No offense, but how many Mets had a career as good as Bernie, especially all with the Mets?
The team is looking at probably a few years of mediocre baseball and they need to put fannies in the seats.
I'd say that Maris and Reggie, who only spent a few years of their careers with NY shouldn't be retired. I'd even go so far to say Mattingly - my favorite player as a child - shouldn't be either. He had a few great years, but never led the team to a championship. (noted - this would cause mass revolt). Every other number actually has a very valid claim to retirement.
I agree that of this era's players, only Jeter and Mo should be retired, but the rest of the gang deserve plaques - Bernie, Andy, Jorge, O'Neill.
Sort of off topic, but within this context Torre and Stengel deserve to have their numbers retired but it's ridiculous that baseball still gives managers numbers at all.
Quote:
Marginally a HOF-er, and provided offense at a defense heavy position. As a Mets fan, I had a ton of respect for Bernie, but I don't think he's worthy of a number retirement.
No offense, but how many Mets had a career as good as Bernie, especially all with the Mets?
What does this have to do with anything?
I do agree that the plaques in Monument Park, though, are an excellent way of honoring some very good players without retiring their numbers.
Quote:
Don't understand the need to retire this current crop, especially Pettite. You already have immortals from this era in Mariano and Jeter.
The team is looking at probably a few years of mediocre baseball and they need to put fannies in the seats.
Exactly. The Yanks brass knows there's a real chance that August and September won't be meaningful games, so they're looking to artificially create demand
I really don't get wound up on debating it...but I do like the way NFL teams have gone to the "ring of honor" concept - sort of a team hall of fame ceremony, that doesn't include retiring numbers.
That's of course largely bc NFL teams can't afford to retire too many numbers, or they'd run out of eligible numbers for players on the field after a while
Quote:
In comment 12159344 Section331 said:
Quote:
Marginally a HOF-er, and provided offense at a defense heavy position. As a Mets fan, I had a ton of respect for Bernie, but I don't think he's worthy of a number retirement.
No offense, but how many Mets had a career as good as Bernie, especially all with the Mets?
What does this have to do with anything?
The point is that Bernie was a homegrown player, played his entire long career for the Yankees, was an all star a crap ton of times and was the best player on those late nineties teams that won a ton of hardware.
Those players are rare. That's why the Mets haven't had one possibly ever (hence my question). The Yankees probably won't have one for a long time themselves. I'm totally ok with Bernie, Pettitte and Posada for those reasons. It is uncommon to have that kind of run with a team. It's not crazy to retire those numbers because of that rarity.
I've been a Yankee fan for a long time. We're not gonna see what happened in the 90s for a long time. Those five players were special.
I do agree that the plaques in Monument Park, though, are an excellent way of honoring some very good players without retiring their numbers.
regarding your comments on Reggie, you can make similar statements about guys like Cone and/or El Duque. IMO, Reggie and Maris simply didn't play with the team long enough. Once you've lowered the bar to 5 years with the team and championships, guys like Tino, Gossage, Catfish, and Chambliss all of a sudden have arguments....not to mention guys who were around a lot longer like Roy White and Nettles.
Absolutely agree, especially since Hawkins was wearing it to honor Clemente iirc. O'Neill was my favorite player during the Dynasty years, but it bugged the crap out of me to watch those idiots boo Hawkins.
That said, I think Roy White and Nettles are two very underrated players in Yankees history.
Plus, the reality is there are only a couple of teams who could afford to keep them as they aged into their prime
You got the best closer, an all time great SS, an absolute money clutch pitcher, an C who could hit and a borderline HOF CF
I am not a Yankee fan, but it really is 1 of the greatest developments of home grown talent in any sport