Showing posts with label retired numbers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retired numbers. Show all posts

Saturday, February 23, 2008

The Mets should retire more numbers

The Mets currently have three of their own numbers retired: 37 (Casey Stengel), 14 (Gil Hodges), and 41 (Tom Seaver), plus 42 for Jackie Robinson. This to me is ridiculous - only one player in 46 years has been good enough to have his number retired? Really? I hope the team decides to retire a few more once Citi Field opens in 2009. I think Keith Hernandez (17), Mike Piazza (31), and John Franco (45) all would be appropriate.
Hernandez was the core of the great Mets teams in the mid-late 1980s, especially the 1986 championship team, was team captain for a while, and is one of the greatest defensive first basemen ever. Piazza is probably the greatest Met ever offensively, was the star of the 2000 pennant-winning team, and is a lock for the Hall of Fame (he will probably be the second HOFer [after Seaver] to be wearing a Mets cap on his plaque). Franco was also team captain for many years (I think he and Hernandez are the only two in team history, but I may be wrong on that), and is the best Mets reliever ever, and one of the best southpaw closers ever as well.
Gary Carter (8) wouldn't be a bad choice either - he loved being a Met, played a crucial role in the 1986 season (e.g., his two-out single started the improbable game-winning rally in game 6 of the World Series), and wanted to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Met (the HOF insisted on inducting him as an Expo). However, the fact that he only played five seasons for the Mets (1985-89) hurts his cause.
The overall point is that, despite many terrible seasons, the Mets have a lot about their history to be proud of, not least their two World Series championships, which are more than many teams have (Nationals, Astros, Brewers, Rockies, D-Backs, Rays, Royals, Rangers, Angels, Mariners, to name a few) including the evil Phillies, who have only won one in over 100 years. Part of showing this pride should be retiring some more players' numbers.