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LaTroy Hawkins beats Butch Huskey in this at least...

By Rox Girl

This will be more or less an evening open thread to tide us over to the game thread later, but I did want to point out this interesting tidbit of Rockies and MLB trivia.

Uni-watch is going over the entire post 1997 history of the #42 jersey and those MLB'ers who wore it after it was permanently retired by the league in honor of Jackie Robinson. Of course, this Sunday many MLB players will once again don the jersey in tribute to Jackie. At any rate, the post brought up something I hadn't really paid attention to at the time:

* Butch Huskey was another player who wore 42 as a conscious Robinson tribute. Along with Vaughn, he shares the record for having worn 42 for the most teams over the past decade. He was with the Mets in '97 and continued wearing 42 with the Mariners. He then wore 44 with the Red Sox but went back to 42 upon joining the Twins (which would seem to refute the reasoning MLB used in the Lima situation). Huskey asked for 42 when he joined the Rockies but was told no, because team owner Jerry McMorris wanted to keep the number completely out of circulation. Huskey was later in spring training with the Indians, where he was assigned No. 35, although he didn't make the club.

* Scott Karl was with the Brewers in 1997. Like Huskey, he had to give up the number when he was traded to the Rockies.


Now, to the best of my knoweldge and correct me if I'm wrong, LaTroy Hawkins will be the first Rockie to wear the number since Armando Reynoso in 1996. In fact, he will be the only other Rockie besides Reynoso to wear the jersey, not that Huskey and Karl didn't try.

In talking about Andres Gallaraga in this morning's Rockpile, the question came up which numbers you'd like to see the Rox retire besides #42. I'll post a poll with the few obvious options. Feel free to use this thread to let me know if I'm missing somebody.

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