Mets by the Numbers

To be fair, plenty of Met fans do hate the fact that #17 is still not on the wall at Shea and has been used as a hot potato, especially in the last few years. Ditto with the way 16 and 18 have been used since being put back in circulation. Granted they've never been as vocal as Yankee fans were with Hawkins (they even booed him when he was introduced) and to make matters worse, I've seen comments on message boards where they believe Hawkins' Clemente comments are bogus! Sounds like they would have rather have heard Hawkins go the route Mariano Rivera did when he didn't know much about Robinson when MLB took 42 permanently out of circulation and would have rather Hawkins just be another "clueless about the game's past" athlete (which is grossly unfair since this is their job and rarely are athletes fans, but that is another topic) so they can shame him into switching numbers. Could be worse though, he could have taken #51!