Colby Rasmus & the Spring Training Numbers Game
JUPITER, Fla. — Similar to real estate — which apparently can be had at some mighty friendly prices nowadays for these parts — one of the first tell-tale signs for any young, prospect St. Louis Cardinal is finding his locker and his number in the clubhouse.
Location matters.
The absences of such corner stalwarts as Jason Isringhausen and Russ Springer has created a shuffling of seniority and scenery inside the Cardinals’ clubhouse here at Roger Dean Stadium. Kyle Lohse graduates to a primo spot, just on the edge of the clubhouse, closest to the door that leads to the training room. Josh Kinney moves into a posh spot beside Chris Carpenter, and Brad Thompson and Adam Wainwright have been transported over the line of lockers once the domain of the veterans. Which, I guess they now are around here.
As telling as the location of the player’s locker, is the players number. For some of the players coming into camp this spring gone are their days wearing numbers usually reserved for wideouts and offensive lineup.
Take Colby Rasmus.
The Cardinals’ top prospect has moved from the distance corner of non-roster invites to the same wall of lockers that houses, say, Ryan Ludwick. He’s traded in the No. 84 he’s worn in previous camps for a far more slimming number: 28.
Other numbers of note:
- Chris Perez shifts from the 60s to No. 34.
- Khalil Greene, as mentioned before, will wear No. 3.
- Royce Ring has No. 40
- Trever Miller has No. 43
- Brian Barden will continue to wear No. 23.
- Joe Thurston has No. 65 and Tyler Greene has No. 67. Both will be looking to trade up.
- Brett Wallace comes in with No. 84 hanging in his locker.
- David Freese has No. 66 … for now.
For the most part the lockers are laid out by numbers. Greene (3) is followed by Yadier Molina (4), who arrived in camp today, and Albert Pujols (5) and so on. (No. 7, mind you, is suddenly and intriguingly available … Rasmus anyone?) There are, as hinted at above, some purposeful departures from numerical order. Rick Ankiel (24), for example, is lodged between Troy Glaus (8) and Chris Duncan (16). Except he isn’t there today. He’s in Arizona for the Cardinals’ first arbitration hearing since 1999. The arbitration decision won’t be known until, at the earliest, Friday.
More news, less numbers, as the day continues here …
-30-
(29 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Goold… great and fun article. Thanks for writing it!
One note on jersey numbers and baseball history - the New York Yankees was the first team to use them. The position players were given their number based on their slot in the batting order - thus, Babe Ruth, number 3.
Would Rasmus really want #7? Its lucky in craps and the bible, but the last 5 guys to wear it and the birds-on-the-bat are Kennedy (waived), Belliard (allowed to leave as FA), Luna (traded), Drew (all potential and injury), and DeShields (twilight). Not a lot of Karma there.
You missed one number…….#30…….Mulder…….Come on!!!! You put the -30- at the bottom of every post……unless you claimed 30?
And, yes, I did forget No. 30. See, it hasn’t been handed out yet. Neither has No. 7, as mentioned, and Looper’s No. 41 and Isringhausen’s No. 44 are still in drydock. The -30- at the end of every post is … oh, heck … nevermind.
#7…….How about Ducky Medwick?
Slight note on numbers - while the Yankees were indeed the first team to put numbers on the uniforms on a permanent basis, the Indians, a few years earlier, had experimented with having the numbers.
And it was the Indians, under Bill Veeck some years later, who first put players’ names on the uniforms. Most owners had resisted that move, for fear that nobody would buy scorecards any more. (”You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.”)
I am very surprised the Cards just didn’t give jerseys to the reporters covering every aspect of spring training. We know DG is -30-, but what number would Strauss pick? Bernie? Hummel?
DG.. what is the -30- for? i’ve always wondered.. please tell us if you can..
as for other reporters numbers.. Bernie’s would have to be a three-digit #…
-30- is old newspaper-ese to indicate the end of an article. Gould is showing his age (as am I).