Over the years I have probably been one of most pessimistic contributors to this site. Until recently, I saw no reason to change my stripes.
Following the news coming out of Mets land is that the team intends to retire David Wright’s number 5. This would be on top of the ten numbers already retired. When the news came out one of the intrepid sportswriters suggested that Carlos Beltran , Gary Carter and Jacob deGrom be added to the list.
In my world,
the only time a number would be retired is for a truly great player or manager.
The only one on the list that is worthy of having his number retired is George
Thomas Seaver. The others, who have their banners flying over Citi field were
good players or like Mays and Stengel successful with other teams.
Take Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel who was a terrible manager for terrible teams. The Mets were a joke during the earliest years and Casey was the biggest clown of all. We honored him by retiring # 37.
Willie Mays was the greatest player I ever saw play during his career with the New York and San Francisco Giants. For goodness sake, why have we retired his number 24? Guess we can thank Grace Payson.
Gil Hodges, “my man” had a rather short tenure as manager of the Mets but his Hall of Fame career was etched as a member of the Dodgers who have not retired his number 14.
Keith
Hernandez deserves recognition as a very entertaining broadcaster, However, his
solid career with the Mets was not Hall of Fame worthy.
Mike Piazza
was another Hall of Famer who split time with the Dodgers and Mets. I can
understand the argument to give him special recognition.
Jerry Koosman
had a nice career with the Met but short of Hall of Fame worthy. His number 36
is now retired and one of the most memorable things about Jerry is that it
brought us Jesse Orosco in a trade.
I opposed
retiring the numbers 16 and 18 for Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. Two
players on a Hall of Fame trajectory who both became addicted to drugs. Their
addictions not only ruined their careers but also resulted in a Mets freefall
which took a decade to recover from.
While we are
looking for players whose numbers to retire – how about Buddy Harrelson and Ed
Kranepool. No doubt someone can make an argument for both.
Let’s stop
this nonsense of indiscriminately retiring numbers. Instead, why not create a
Bust of the player with a plaque in Memorial Park.
Bah, Humbug,
I say.
Ray
December 17,
2024
Ray, I want to honor you by retiring your #! You can keep writing of course. Lots of lowering the bar on retirements, I believe to do with ticket and jersey sales, and with seeing so many retired numbers in the Bronx. Not the same game as when DennyMcLain won31 games.
ReplyDeleteAmazing that Koosman and Orosco combined for 43 MLB years.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about what the fans want. We will never have a monument park at least not in my lifetime but Mr. Cohen and Mr. Sterns are working overtime to make our team a beast in the east at least. LGM!
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on this topic Ray. I don't necessarily agree with you about the retirement of numbers by a team. I fully agree with retiring David Wright's #5. He was a special player for the Mets, even if not quite Hall of Fame worthy.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see every team retire #24 to honor Willie as the best player to ever play. I certainly can understand why the Mets both obtained him late in his career and to retire his number. That is an honor for New York National League baseball.
R69, I agree on Mays. The year before the Mets got him, when he was a 40 year old SF Giant, he stole 23 of 26 bases and led the NL with a .425 OBP. All time great.
ReplyDeleteI think Wright deserves it. He's a home grown player who was the face of the franchise. If not for his career ending injuries, he would be Hall worthy
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of Ray's assertions, although I think that David Wright is worthy given his on-field production and off-field representation as the face of the Mets.
ReplyDeleteAgree 100% on your article. I do not agree retiring some of these numbers like Doc and Straw
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