Numbers Game For Wells, Renteria
By Chris Snow, Globe Staff
May 30, 2005
NEW YORK - Since April 1997, the beginning of his second big league
season,
Edgar Renteria had worn No. 3. That was, until he signed with the Red
Sox in the
offseason, three days after David Wells signed.
Wells chose No. 3, and Renteria settled on No. 16.
Yesterday, they
switched. Renteria paid Wells to make the trade, though the shortstop,
who's
earning $40 million over four seasons with the Sox, wouldn't say how
much, only
"a lot."
"I like it," Renteria said. "We were talking
about doing it for three
or four days. That's my favorite number, my lucky number."
Wells wasn't available before the game to give his side of
the story,
since he was pitching last night. But, it's worth noting that Wells
went to the
Yankee Stadium mound last night wearing the number (16) worn by the
greatest
lefty in Yankee history, Whitey Ford , and Wells always has been rather
intrigued, to say the least, with Yankee lore.
Ford went 236-106 with a 2.75 ERA with New York between
1950 and 1967.
Wells, when he came to New York in 1997, asked for Babe
Ruth's No. 3, but
that was retired in 1948. Wells asked for No. 03, was denied, and went
with No.
33.
Johnny Damon yesterday suggested Wells wear No. 333 ( Jason
Varitek has
33). Sox general manager Theo Epstein , in a Wall Street Journal
article about
player numbers published earlier this month, made the same joke.
"I assumed, if anything, he'd go for the three digits to
fill out that
jersey," Epstein told the Journal. "There's a lot of white space
there."
Players buying and selling jersey numbers has become
something of a trend,
and an expensive one. According to a recent New York Times article,
John Kruk
sold his No. 28 to Phillies teammate Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams in
1991 for two
cases of beer.
Two years later, Rickey Henderson bought his No. 24 from
teammate Turner
Ward in Toronto for $25,000.
Last year Atlanta's Brian Jordan traded third-base coach
Fredi Gonzalez a
$40,000 motorcycle for No. 33.
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