David Wright is being honored for his achievements, including being the best homegrown offensive player in Mets history and a seven-time All-Star. Unlike past retirements, this ceremony holds a unique significance. The piece critiques the hesitation around retiring numbers, suggesting that number retirements may be obsolete. Alternatives such as statues or a well-managed Hall of Fame could serve better to honor players. Furthermore, it raises questions about how honoring players through number retirement truly commemorates their legacy, advocating for honoring through future players instead.
This is a resume of a number-retiree, and what we'll see today. It's not what we'd been seeing with the Strawberry, Gooden and even Hernandez retirements.
But uni-number retirement shouldn't be about waiting for the right moment. If there's a moment to be waited for then that's not a guy whose number you should be retiring.
The only solution, I've come to believe, is to do away with number retirements entirely. It doesn't do anything that a statue couldn't do or a well-managed Hall of Fame couldn't do.
Plus, I've argued this before, how does not issuing a number honor a guy? You'd do better to remember him through the guys who follow in his path.
Collection
[
|
...
]