Major League Baseball apparently has to approve all number changes. So if that is the case, why didn’t the Mets take the proper steps to make the change at the end of last season? You have to wonder why anyone has been given the number at all.
Although it WAS worn by others after Gary Carter left the Mets, the No. 8 was at some point put into moth balls, even though it hasn’t officially been retired.
Keith Hernandez was the first captain of the New York Mets. Hernandez was to the Mets much like Tom Seaver was during HIS time with the club. But a number of players wore the No. 17 for years after Hernandez left the Mets. Jerry Koosman’s No. 36 was also worn by quite a few players over the course of many years until the Mets finally decided to give Kooz the honor of having the number retired in his honor.
The Mets have had a very stringent requisite for having a number retired. What it was exactly no one quite knows for sure. But when you see the No. 37 up there, you have to wonder “why?” Casey Stengel was not a good manager for the Mets. He was an absolute joke who did not last four seasons. Davey Johnson actually had the best success as a Mets manager. Bobby Valentine also had great success, as did Terry Collins, believe it or not. However, the only managers up there are Gil Hodges (well-deserved) and the ‘ol Professor. The point is that having Stengel up there raises the question as to how the honor was determined to be awarded.
With the new regime coming in, some of the honors that were long overdue have come to fruition. A couple I would say are not exactly deserved but that’s a subject for another story.
The subject now is that with Beltran entering the Hall of Fame AS a New York Met, how could the team NOT retire his number? A player going into the Hall of Fame representing THAT team should be the TOP consideration and motivation for retiring a player’s number.
You have to wonder why Tyrone Taylor hasn’t done the right thing and simply relinquished the number for Beltran? But more importantly, why hasn’t the TEAM done the right thing and handed Taylor another jersey with another number? But then, the Mets once handed some guy named Kelvin Torve the No. 24 so…
