Number Retired

As perhaps the final chapter of the Mets season long salute to their 1969 champions, the club announced plans to retire number-36 in honor of pitcher Jerry Koosman. The runner up to Johnny Bench for 1968 NL Rookie of the Year, the Minnesotan spent 11 seasons in Flushing... the first 9-1/2 as Robin to Tom Seaver's Batman. 140 wins as a Met -- with 108 complete games. That's as throwback as it gets.

He becomes the first Mets player not inducted in Cooperstown to have their number retired. It marks a change in what had been a rather strict club policy on numbers. So which Flushing favorites should be honored in the future?

Now, it's your turn. Hit the comment tab and add your suggestion. I'll add one deserving name in the broadcast category: Bob Murphy, who called Mets games for 40 years and really came into his own as the lead voice on radio from 1982 on. A Ford Frick Award winner, which makes him a Hall of Famer, no plaque for Murphy hangs alongside the club's retired numbers, the way it does for his longtime colleague Ralph Kiner. That's an oversight that deserves correction. The broadcasters remain a franchise's direct day to day connection with fans. And several generations of them enjoyed Murphy's energetic, solid and informed calls; he's a part of Mets tradition in a different yet comparable way to the players whose heroics he described.

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Keith Hernandez and David Wright
September 26, 2019 at 11:17 AM
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