LI Phil posted this in comments:
at wednesday’s mets game, paul and i discussed the possible retirement of kid’s 8, and i have to say, his arguments have made me change my stance slightly — i still feel carter’s being sick is no reason to retire his # (either retire it or don’t, but don’t do it because now he may kick off before he gets to see it retired) and i also feel that IF you retire #8, you have to retire #17 & 31 (and possibly #45 in a tug-piazza-franco three-way), you also better strongly consider #16 & #18 as well…no way 8 gets in ahead of the others
but in discussing it with paul, he reminded me (and i never should have forgotten) how much of a “me first” player kid apparently was…and how egotistical he was — now, did that affect his play on the field? maybe not, but if you’re gonna bring up character issues with straw and doc (and possibly keith and mike), then you better consider kid’s attitude towards his teammates and in the clubhouse — he may have thought he was a choir boy (and probably seemed like it in that clubhouse), but he had as many failings as a human as did everyone else
and one more thing — i recently attended an event hosted by frank boulton (LI Ducks owner) which featured Bob Wolff (there to promote and sign his new book), Ron Darling and Bud Harrelson…this was before carter got sick (or at least before the news was made public)…
and somehow the panel had carter’s name brought up, and BOTH darling AND buddy took shots at kid — now, darling played with him and buddy was a coach, so their perspective was quite valuable — and they were especially critical of his behavior when he wanted the mets managerial job; i wished i’d recorded the evening’s dialog, but suffice it to say that, in a very public forum, darling and buddy weren’t too keen on carter — had he been a fantastic teammate and overall good guy, i’m SURE they never would have said this stuff — and while buddy can be a bit sardonic, i found darling to be nothing short of a total gentleman — and he didn’t seem like he had an ax to grind either
i think you retire a number based SOLELY on the player’s ENTIRE value to the organization
and if that is the criterion (or the primary one) then there are about 5 numbers that need to go in before *8*
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