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Who's Your 4?

Edgy MD Apr 08 2023 02:55 PM

The number of veteran platoon infielders, reserve outfielders, and not a few backup catchers has had all the juice of 11 in Mets lore, despite occasionally landing on the back of a star passing through (Staub, Ventura) one nascent star-to-be jackass (Dykstra), and a Hall-of-Famer in sunset (Snider). While some utility infielders that have donned it have proved useful (Bailor, Flores), several 21st Century types (Valentin, Woodward, Lowrie) have just used the number to start collecting early retirement. Now it's on the back of your catcher of the future. If he makes a name for himself in it, whose legacy will he encroach upon?

metirish Apr 08 2023 03:04 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Looking at #4 over the list Wilmer Flores would have to by my #4. https://www.ultimatemets.com/uninumbers.php

Edgy MD Apr 08 2023 03:14 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Wilmer was pretty fourish.

Johnny Lunchbucket Apr 08 2023 03:15 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Boisclair is my no. 4 with Wilmer a close second.

Frayed Knot Apr 08 2023 03:20 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

I know that Francisco is Venezuelan rather than Puerto Rican, but I wonder if his choice of #4 (assuming it was his) is a nod to Yadier.

kcmets Apr 08 2023 03:22 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Rusty 4ev, but I suppose deep down it's really Wilmer for me.

metirish Apr 08 2023 03:25 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Hopefully someone on the Mets shows young Alvarez this list and he goes holy fuck I have a shot and being the greatest #4 in Mets history

TransMonk Apr 08 2023 03:28 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Lenny. I always wanted #4 as a kid because of him. Ventura helped redeem it for me as an adult. I still wear 4 if there's an option.

MFS62 Apr 08 2023 03:37 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Others may have had a better Met career, but Ron Swoboda is my #4 (for now). He hit "baseballs over buildings" as Casey said. And then there was the catch. Later

Frayed Knot Apr 08 2023 03:38 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Bobby Orr

Edgy MD Apr 08 2023 04:46 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Not a lot of Cookie Rojas fans in the house.

Fman99 Apr 08 2023 06:06 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Wilmer

cal sharpie Apr 08 2023 07:29 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Swoboda.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 08 2023 07:33 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

The first player I think of is Dykstra, but I hate that answer. Rusty Staub seems to be more remembered as a 10 than a 4. I really like Wilmer Flores, but had completely forgotten his uniform number.

Edgy MD Apr 08 2023 08:17 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

I think you guys are coalescing correctly. Flores isn't just the four of your heart. I think righthanded-hitting-utility-infielder-who-isn't-about-speed is pretty much the prototype for the number.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 08 2023 08:56 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Rusty 4 me. 10 was Rusty's preferred number. He wore 10 almost everywhere he played but 10 wasn't available in '72 when the Mets traded for Rusty and so he wore four instead. Rusty's the first player I think of when I think of a Mets #4. BTW, Flores' preffered # is 41, which obviously, he couldn't wear with the Mets. He couldn't reverse the order of the digits and take #14 either, so then four. But Flores wore 41 with the DBacks and now with the Giants.

Fman99 Apr 09 2023 05:40 AM Re: Who's Your 4?

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=121837 time=1681009012 user_id=68] Rusty 4 me. 10 was Rusty's preferred number. He wore 10 almost everywhere he played but 10 wasn't available in '72 when the Mets traded for Rusty and so he wore four instead. Rusty's the first player I think of when I think of a Mets #4. BTW, Flores' preffered # is 41, which obviously, he couldn't wear with the Mets. He couldn't reverse the order of the digits and take #14 either, so then four. But Flores wore 41 with the DBacks and now with the Giants.

He couldn't wear #4 in SF anyway as that number is retired for Mel Ott. And when he got to AZ Ketel Marte was already there wearing #4. So I don't know that #4 isn't his preferred number all along.

DocTee Apr 09 2023 05:46 AM Re: Who's Your 4?

Bruce. Armond. Boisclair.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 09 2023 06:48 AM Re: Who's Your 4?

=Fman99 post_id=121848 time=1681040452 user_id=86] =batmagadanleadoff post_id=121837 time=1681009012 user_id=68] Rusty 4 me. 10 was Rusty's preferred number. He wore 10 almost everywhere he played but 10 wasn't available in '72 when the Mets traded for Rusty and so he wore four instead. Rusty's the first player I think of when I think of a Mets #4. BTW, Flores' preffered # is 41, which obviously, he couldn't wear with the Mets. He couldn't reverse the order of the digits and take #14 either, so then four. But Flores wore 41 with the DBacks and now with the Giants.

He couldn't wear #4 in SF anyway as that number is retired for Mel Ott. And when he got to AZ Ketel Marte was already there wearing #4. So I don't know that #4 isn't his preferred number all along.


Interesting.



Flores wore 61 and 71 for some of his minor league teams. I'm assuming that the Mets retired #s are retired for every professional level, from instructional league all the way up to the top.

G-Fafif Apr 09 2023 07:58 AM Re: Who's Your 4?

Heart of hearts, 4 is Swoboda, but not incapable of randomly evoking, say, Jose Moreno without warning. In the Home Opener intros, I saw the player in 19 waiting on the top step for his name to be called, and was instinctively surprised the name wasn't Tim Foli.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 09 2023 01:02 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

I'd say that the booth read this thread.

Edgy MD Apr 15 2023 12:15 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

By the way, if I ever get kidnapped by international scoundrels, who force me to make a video where I tell the world how well I'm being treated by this kind terrorist cell who are only trying to make the world safe from evil infidels, you'll hear me greet a handful of friends: "I'd like to let my wife know I love her and that I'm thinking of her and my family, and my friends Bruce and Felix and Al." Please let the CIA know that this is me conveying a digital code — in this case, 4-17-22. It might be an address, it might be coordinates, or it might be a date and time, but the key is that I'm using Mets names to pass a digital code back to the intelligence bureaus of my homeland. The quicker they sort that out, the better, so I need youse to clue them in, and maybe walk them through the ambiguities — that "Bruce" is probably Boisclair and not Berenyi or Chen, and that "Felix" probably refers to the 17 that Millan wore from 1974 to 1977 and not the 16 that he wore in 1973.

MFS62 Apr 15 2023 12:36 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Frayed Knot wrote: Bobby Orr When I worked for Prentice-Hall they published a book about him titled "Orr on Ice". There was a bet between two company execs over how many of the 50,000 initial printing would be returned. The bet was more than half or fewer than half. The stakes were a bottle of Jack Daniels Green Label (which wasn't sold in the North back in those days.) The guy who had the "over" won. Later

Lefty Specialist Apr 15 2023 12:53 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

It was Staub for me originally, but then he came back as #10. Wilmer placed a hammerlock on #4 for me in 2015. Alvarez has a long way to go to pry that number away. Hopefully he can.

Frayed Knot Apr 15 2023 12:58 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Frayed Knot wrote: I know that Francisco is Venezuelan rather than Puerto Rican, but I wonder if his choice of #4 (assuming it was his) is a nod to Yadier. Acc to a story told in the booth a few days ago, Alvarez and Molina did have more than a few lessons/sessions over this past winter so my above speculation might be more true than I realized when making it.

Edgy MD Apr 20 2023 08:32 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

I just spotted Wilmer in 41. It looked weird, like somebody stuck a 1 in there next to his 4. I also just remembered that Cookie Rojas wore 4, being a rare coach assigned a single-digit number, without even establishing prior equity in it as a player! He wore 8 also! Cookie got VIP treatment!

whippoorwill Apr 21 2023 07:02 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

Rusty

ashie62 Apr 23 2023 12:50 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

I got a Swoboda bat at an early Shea bat day. That and the diving catch

vtmet7 Apr 28 2023 05:29 PM Re: Who's Your 4?

considering that it's a low number (so low that some other teams have long retired the numbers on their much more bland jerseys), and there have been 32 different guys that have worn the number 4...it's a pretty underwhelming choice...a few of them that I am not considering were either early in my fandom, or didn't wear the number for very long... So I guess my choices are reduced to: Bruce Boisclair (this was the prime of my childhood baseball watching days...Rusty/Swoboda wearing #4 were in my real early days); Lenny Dykstra; Wilmer Flores... I saw all 3 of these guys play in person while wearing #4 I gotta go with Wilmer...