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LaTroy Hawkins Abandons No. 21
By Rob Abruzzese on April 16th, 2008 7:28 AM |
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Yankee fans spoke up and LaTroy Hawkins listened. After getting booed on opening-day and pitching to chants of “Paul-O-Neill” Hawkins abandoned his No. 21 and will don No. 22 for the remainder of the season.
Hawkins dressed last night in Paul O’Neill‘s number but afterwards Yankees’ director of media relations Jason Zillo confirmed that Hawkins would be switching back to the number he wore during spring training.
The number was initially assigned to Morgan Ensberg this spring, but he abandoned the number after receiving flak from fans down in Florida. It was at that point that Hawkins choose the number and fans haven’t stopped heckling since.
Apparently troubled by the fans reaction, Hawkins approached veterans such as Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera to get their opinion on the issue. Their advice: it’s not worth the trouble.
“I figure if it’s important enough for Jeter and Mariano and some other veterans to ask me about it, it’s not worth it to keep wearing the number,” Hawkins said.
Throughout his career Hawkins has traditionally worn No. 32, but the Yankees retired that number in honor of Elston Howard. He wore No. 22 all spring and choose to wear 21 as a tribute to Roberto Clemente. No. 21 is not retired, however no player has worn it since O’Neill retired after the 2001 season.
The Yankees have 15 retired numbers. That is more than any other team in baseball. They still have about 55 available numbers for players to choose from although most are randomly assigned.
There are currently 10 responses to “LaTroy Hawkins Abandons No. 21”
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“classless.” i don’t necessarily agree, but that’s how I’ve seen Yankee fans described in regard to how they handled this.
?
“Class” is a term so loosely thrown around in sports that it’s disgusting.
I think people have to realize this is sports entertainment and try not to take it too seriously. But I like what we see here, we have the fans who finance this game speaking up and winning a battle.
Agreed.
Bros, yanks fans were chanting “Paul o’Neil!” everytime this guy walked somebody…he had no reason to deal with that. Fans loving a guy who helped them win 4 rings is just loyalty, YANKEE LOYALTY. O’neil’s number should be retired after this to avoid it ever happening again!
Nicky, that is a horrible reason to retire a number. Yep, retire it because the fans are IDIOTS!! Great! Why does no one care that Robbie Cano wears Tino’s 24? O’Neill does not deserve a retired number. That has to be reserved for players who are greats of the game — and O’Neill is not that. Geez, Lou Piniella was popular. Let’s retired 14. How about Willie Randolph’s 30? Andy Pettitte’s 46? Hell, Joba’s 62? Give me a break!
The number 21 should never be worn again. o’neill led the yanks to 4 world series championships. the reason cano doesnt get slack for wearing 24 is bc 1- sierra wore it already n he got his share of criticism for it, and 2- tino came back to the yanks n didnt really be the tino of old, except for that great april he had. so the number kind of lost its luster after that
There is no established criteria for a number being retired. O’Neill was a Yankee longer than others with their numbers retired. He also out performed some who have their numbers retired. Why do players like Billy Martin or Roger Maris or Reggie Jackson?
I don’t understand why fans don’t have final say on this issue. The reason Tino doesn’t have his number retired has more to do with the fact that O’Neill, Jeter, Williams and others were as good or better and were always bigger fan favorites. I doubt it has anything to do with his second stint with the team.
Monument park isn’t the hall of fame, its a small area of the park and I don’t see why the fan favorites shouldn’t be there. All of this after all is financed by them.
Ed Valentine – I want to fight you.