So as we saw last night in his Mets debut, Jeff Francoeur wore No. 12, becoming the first Met to wear that jersey since Willie Randolph left town.
I didn’t think to reseach it beforehand but as you can see in the jocky images below, 12 was Francoeur’s number in both baseball and football at Parkview High in Atlanta (the school actually retired the jersey). Go Panthers! When he debuted with the Braves in 2005, 12 belonged to catcher Eduardo Perez.
Submitted by Kiko Jones (not verified) on Mon, 07/13/2009 – 5:14pm.
I’m a Yankee fan but I keep tabs on the Mets (although I’m still pissed over their treatment of Willie Randolph, but anyway…) and I always liked Church. I equated his ’08 season with that of former Met Xavier Nady in the Bronx: each were one of few a shining lights on their respective teams that year. Good luck to him in ATL.
Question for ya: how do you feel about non-sluggers wearing no.44? It bugs me to see pitchers, non-hitting infielders, etc wear Hammerin’ Hank, Reggie, and Strawberry’s (w/the Dodgers) old number.
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44
Submitted by Jon Springer on Mon, 07/13/2009 – 10:02pm.
The Mets’ tradition has been to put guys who *think* they’re power hitters into 44 (Ryan Thompson, Jay Payton, Lastings Milledge) but its best occupants were pitchers Ron Darling (when he first came up) and David Cone. Tim Redding who wears 44 for the Mets today says he’d done so in honor of Cone.
Howard Johnson was struggling with his power stroke in 1991 and switched to wearing 44 as a means of changing his luck. But his wife requested he change back to 20 since since that’s what all her jewelry said, and he did within a week.
I think the organization has gotten a bad rap for how they treated Willie. Everyone badly wanted him to succeed, but he just didn’t.
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Berroa
Submitted by Gene F. on Tue, 07/14/2009 – 7:37pm.
Whether Angel Berroa should be wearing a major league uniform may be up for debate, but apparently he’s going to be starting Thursday, and there is going to be a large number on the back of the jersey. What will it be?
My guess? 4.