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Jackie Robinson's daughter, Sharon, says that baseball should not retire Roberto Clemente's #21 throughout the sport. The advocacy group Hispanics Across America has championed the idea.
How in the world could Bud Selig, shrewd decisionmaker that he is, come to a resolution that wouldn't upset one side or the other?
Mariano Rivera remains the last #42 in the majors.
The players wearing #21 at the time being are Jason Johnson (he wore #21 in Detroit, but it's retired in Cleveland for Bob Lemon, he is listed as #16 on the Indians website), Choo Freeman, Chad Moeller, Mark Kotsay, Jon Lieber, Jason Ellison, and Jason Marquis. I was using the ESPN.com rosters because I could through them more quickly, but numbers are all subject to change as rosters change through the spring.
Interestingly, no Latino players are wearing #21 to honor Clemente now that I can find. In addition to Pittsburgh for Clemente and Cleveland for Lemon, the Braves have also retired #21 in honor of Warren Spahn. Arky Vaughan also wore #21 when he played in Pittsburgh.
Similarly, there were always a large number of Latino #13s in honor of Dave Concepcion (though that might have just been a Venezuelan thing now that I think about it--Ozzie Guillen and Omar Vizquel being the two examples that lept to mind).
At any rate, I find it odd that there are no Latino #21s in the majors at the moment. Much as I have great respect and personal fondness for Clemente, I think it would be absurd for baseball to retire #21 throughout the sport in his memory (and something that likely wouldn't even be discussed had he not died tragically and heroically while still an active player). Unlike Robinson, Clemente would be an arbitrary selection (he was neither the first, nor the best Latino player in the major leagues, though an argument could be made that he was the first great Latino player in the majors, even that is an arbitrary distinction that is dependent on the interpretation of both his statistics and the term "great"). It's the very definition of a slippery slope.
Reading the petition linked above, the only justification given for retiring Clemente's number is, essentially, "he was a good person." Or perhaps "he was a good person who died tragically and heroically." That's fantastic and worthy of tribute and honor, but it doesn't make him unique. The way I saw it (and the only way I could justify it) was that MLB retired Robinson's number because his contribution to the sport was that special and that unique, and had not and could not be equalled by anyone else. That being the case, I don't believe that the distinction chosen to honor that contribution be bestowed up on anyone else either.
That being said, I enjoyed this Freudian slip/typo:
...Bud Selig, shrew decisionmaker that he is...
I think Robinson is the only player who merits the honor, but it's clear that there will be a bunch of people who won't be happy. And the dilemma is do you honor the demographic that doesn't like baseball as much anymore or the demographic is likely to be the backbone of the sport for the next 100 years.
There is honor. There is marketing. They don't often intersect.
Stan from Tacoma
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