July 21, 2006

Numbers

Craig Hansen (56), Manny Delcarmen (57), Jonathan Papelbon (58) and Jon Lester (62) are young pitchers with high uniform numbers.

Only Papelbon plans on keeping his longterm. "I'm not superstitious, but No. 58 has been very good to me and I don't see any reason to change now." Papelbon wore 19 in high school, 19 and 41 in college, and 50 in the minors.

Lester is "comfortable" with 62, but would like 31. That belongs to bench coach Brad Mills, who would rather have 2, which was worn by Willie Harris. After the trading deadline, a switch might be made.

Delcarmen wore 17 in high school and has the number tattooed on his right biceps, but Dave Wallace has it now. ... Hansen's favorite number, which he wore in high school and college, is 34. There's no chance of that one becoming available anytime soon.

A list of every player who has worn the four numbers:
56
Zach Crouch 1988
Scott Taylor 1992-93
Jeff Pierce 1995
Alex Delgado 1996
Darren Bragg 1996-98
Tim Harikkala 1999
Steve Lomasney 1999
Israel Alcantara 2000-01
Chris Haney 2002
Jimmy Anderson 2004
Craig Hansen 2005-06

57
Nate Minchey 1993-94
Brian Bark 1995
Ken Grundt 1996
Rudy Pemberton 1996
Ron Mahay 1997-98
Juan Pena 1999
Rod Beck 1999
Calvin Pickering 2001
Luis Aguayo 2002 (Coach)
Jason Sheill 2003
Joe Nelson 2004
Scott Cassidy 2005
Manny Delcarmen 2005-06

58
Jeff McNeely 1993
Nate Minchey 1996
Bill Moloney 1997-2000 (Coach)
Hector Carrasco 2000
Nelson Norman 2001 (Coach)
Luis Aguayo 2002 (Coach)
Bryant Nelson 2002
Hector Almonte 2003
Sandy Martinez 2004
Jonathan Papelbon 2005-06

62
Marino Santana 1999
Sun-Woo Kim 2001
Jon Lester 2006
The lowest number that has never been worn is 64.

According to the Red Sox Team Store, Papelbon's 58 is the most popular uniform shirt. He is followed by David Ortiz (34), Coco Crisp (10), Kevin Youkilis (20), Manny Ramirez (24), Jason Varitek (33) and Curt Schilling (38).

1 comment:

laura k said...

"He didn't wear a number. Uniforms didn't have numbers in those days."

-- The answer to the most frequently asked question at 1918redsox.com.