11/23/24
April 15, 2010
Mariano Rivera is Baseball's Final 42: As Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, there's just one active player who regularly wears his uniform number 42 -- New York Yankees closer and certain Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera. When the league retired the number in 1997, it grandfathered active players who had it. Rivera's the last one left. "Being the only one carrying the number right now, and forever, this means a lot to me," Rivera said.
Last players to wear 42 for each team.
posted by goddam at 10:21 PM on April 15, 2010
Mo Vaughn. #42 whore.
posted by tselson at 10:53 PM on April 15, 2010
Michael Jackson played baseball ?
And wore #42 ?
Who knew ?
posted by tommybiden at 12:15 AM on April 16, 2010
Butch Huskey. Lol.
posted by dyams at 07:38 AM on April 16, 2010
Well, he was. I turned on the Sox yesterday afternoon and thought, "How the hell is Francisco Liriano wearing 42? Didn't we just talk about this?"
I am not that bright. Jackie Robinson Day throws me for a loop each year. I wind up clutching a pillow, thinking about Mo Vaughn and What Might Have Been (if Dan Duquette and John Harrington hadn't infected Vaughn with a disease, which was the final straw and made him sign elsewhere*).
*I did not make that up.
posted by yerfatma at 08:41 AM on April 16, 2010
Michael Jackson played baseball ?
And wore #42 ?
Who knew ?
The Jackson family.
posted by BornIcon at 08:47 AM on April 16, 2010
What was the disease?
posted by yzelda4045 at 10:42 AM on April 16, 2010
My mistake, he claimed the Sox gave his father a UTI.
posted by yerfatma at 12:33 PM on April 16, 2010
Last year when they did the Jackie Robinson day I was in a bar that was playing the Red Sox game and I looked up to see a big dark skinned player in a Sox uniform wearing #42 and my first thought was that they must have been replaying an old Mo Vaughn game on NESN. Then he struck out so I knew it was David Ortiz. (Not snark, actually what happened)
And I just noticed, the best Mo Vaughn photo the Red Sox fan handbook could come up with was a picture of him in a Paw Sox uni?
posted by Demophon at 01:13 PM on April 16, 2010
Die hard Red Sox fan Demophon?
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 02:31 PM on April 16, 2010
Die hard Red Sox fan Demophon?
Nope, was a Sox fan growing up but became discontented with the team under Dan Duquette and vowed never to cheer for them as long as he was around. Despite his departure, I have felt that the Sox fans have become so insufferable as to be indistinguishable from Yankee fans and still continue to refuse cheer for them (unless they are facing the Yankees, because then the Sox are the lesser of 2 evils).
Sticking with the Mo Vaughn theme, I will point out that I got to attend Mo Vaughn's major league debut (along with about 30,000 other people) when I was still a Sox fan, only to see them lose to the Yankees 8-0. Highlight of the night was watching a replay of a Mel Hall homerun to right and seeing my brightly colored shirt blur by as the ball landed in the stands. On the same play Tom Brunansky slammed into the low rightfield fence as he was tracking the ball and bent himself at the waist, only to get up and slam him glove down on the head of a little kid sitting in the front row. He got booed by our section every time he came to the plate for the rest of the night.
posted by Demophon at 02:54 PM on April 16, 2010
when I was still a Sox fan, only to see them lose to the Yankees 8-0
How dare they personally insult you like that. First time I got to see the Sox, they beat the Yankees 8-3 (or something like that; I was 7). Must be why I'm a fan.
posted by yerfatma at 03:04 PM on April 16, 2010
My no longer being a Sox fan and this particular game have nothing to do with each other. The fact that this event took place in 1991 and Dan Duquette didn't take over the Sox until 1994 would have been a hint to that fact.
My statement that "only to see them lose" was because as a 13 year old it is a disappointment to travel across the state and see ones team lose to a hated rival. Of course it does seem fitting that yerfatma would be like a typical Red Sox fan and feel that the world revolves around them and would assume another Red Sox fan would feel the same way and take a loss at a game they attended personally. But then, they personally won for him.
posted by Demophon at 03:43 PM on April 16, 2010
That's one theory, Demophon. Another is that he was being sarcastic.
posted by rcade at 04:08 PM on April 16, 2010
I guess what was described above was Mo Vaughn's loopy final straw, but I always thought that his primary and intermediate straws were Will McDonough.
Long before there was a Simon on American Idol, Mo Vaughn was a regular involuntary guest on McDonough's virtual gong show. The building vitriol helped burnish the reputation of Boston sportswriting as an institution that valued the use of one's intellect to perpetuate misery and distrust above all other endeavors.
With all his shortcomings, Vaughn made for a choice target. I don't think McDonough ever had sex that was as pleasing to him as the opportunity he had to go on camera, look the red dot square in the eye and say with obvious relish: "Mo, you're fat and you can't field your position."
posted by beaverboard at 04:44 PM on April 16, 2010
As much as it pains me to admit, Wil definitely was in the mold of Shaughnessy, et al. He got away with it because it was an earlier time, he was an entertaining Irishman in a town that venerates them and he once punched out a Patriots cornerback after the age of 60.
a typical Red Sox fan and feel that the world revolves around them
My self-obsessed world view has nothing to do with the team I root for. I do wish you'd turn that powerful scope upon thyself since this isn't the first time you've gone off about how awful all Red Sox fans are and how they've ruined your enjoyment of the team because you can't get away from them living where you do. That's certainly one possibility. Another is that you'd denigrate any popular team around you because anything popular must be shitty. You can make a good living on the Internet with that. But having done much the same in my post-college years, I can tell you it's a lot more enjoyable to just find what you like and like it and save the irony for holidays.
posted by yerfatma at 05:12 PM on April 16, 2010
Well, in reading this, I'll have to admit that the results of a couple games I saw determined my baseball fan allegiance. In 1998, my parents took me to both Wrigley Field and Busch Stadium to see Twins-Cubs and Cubs-Cardinals, respectively. Cubs lost both games, McGwire homered, Sosa didn't. Been a diehard Cards fan ever since.
Disclaimer: in 1998, I was an easily impressionable eight-year-old.
Also, to actually speak on the subject of the thread (Mariano), I may not be anything near a Yankees fan, but getting to see him pitch was one of the coolest sports-related memories I have. My dad and I were at Yankee Stadium last summer to see him get saves #501 and 502, with the 501 game being his first home game since getting the 500th. It was truly awe-inspiring to see that, my dislike for the Yanks aside.
Disclaimer #2: I really only dislike the Yankees to annoy my dad, as he's a big fan. However, the Sox have a special place in my heart as well, since my one big league autograph is from Mike Timlin on a Sox cap.
posted by boredom_08 at 07:02 AM on April 17, 2010
As a bit of trivia, I think the Red Sox had the last two other than Rivera with Butch Huskey and Mo Vaughn.