Apparently someone else thought of it.
"He's the best player in the history of this franchise to have worn that number. I understand the significance. If that's what they want to do, I'd have no problems with it. It's only a number."
—OF David Murphy on possibly relinquishing No. 7 if the Rangers want to retire it when they honor retiring former C Ivan Rodriguez on Monday.
That would be a classy move by David Murphy. I never understoond why Mariano Rivera didn't give up 42 when the ENTIRE league retired Jackie Robinson's number.
I'm just saying.
It wasn't just Rivera wearing #42 at the time. Many players were wearing 42 at the time when MLB retired Jackie's number in 1997, and each of those players continued wearing it until they retired (i.e. Mo Vaughn wore it until 2003). In fact, Marc Sagmoen wore #42 all season for the Rangers that year and he didn't give it up after it was retired in April. It just so happens that Rivera was at the beginning of his career at the time he wore the number before it was retired. I'd hardly look at it as lack of class.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the Rivera #42 thing that way. I think there are some very big differences, though. What's that? You want me elaborate? OK.
ReplyDelete-There's a big difference between retiring a team number and what baseball did. The situation with Murphy is actually a little different. Most of the time, when a team retires a number, they have had it out of circulation anyways. Except for the brief stint his son had, no one has worn 14 in Cincinnati since Pete Rose played. I guess in Texas it's probably because Pudge went to other teams since and was still playing with them.
-So, obviously, it wasn't possible for baseball to keep 42 out of circulation, so you had plenty of players with the number in 1997 when retired. In 1998, 1 year later, there were still 7 players and 1 coach wearing the number (Jose Lima and Mo Vaughn are other notable names). So it wasn't just Rivera - he's just the only one who's been around that long.
-If it was, say, Manny Ramirez instead of Rivera wearing that number, maybe it's different. I'm no Yankee fan, but if anyone has lived up to the standards of integrity that Jackie Robinson set, it's Rivera.
I think all jersey numbers should be in binary. Cleans up the situation nicely.
ReplyDeleteI think Rivera has spoken several times about what an honor it is to be the last active major leaguer to wear #42.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification on Rivera guys. I think Jackie would be honored to have Rivera wear his number.
ReplyDeleteNo beef with Mo. Still think this is a classy move by Murphy. Texas needs to retire number 7 before the end of the 2012 season.
ReplyDelete