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Well with the fall season ending up here in the Northeast, I am already missing the game. We played a ton of ball on several different teams, but one thing that was constant was my son's number. It got me wondering if other kids always pick the same number and if so why? so I thought it would make for an easy going topic in the off season.

For my son his number of choice is # 6. He has worn that number since he was 8 yrs old. It was was the number he was assigned when he made his first All-star team, he was one of 4 8's that were picked to play up on the 9yr old All Star team that year. I think he took pride in playing up and being chosen and has stuck with that number ever since. He wears it in basketball as well. Funny thing is he is big for his age so the #6 has come close to not fitting him a few times..lol. I guess he sees it now as his "lucky" number, at least for sports.

So does your child have a special uniform number and if so why?
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All be it I'm not longer a Pre-HS kid. I received my number when I was 10.

I was given number 16 by the Coach and it's stuck with me since, all the way from that team to College.

When I was a kid I never knew who wore 16 as a number in the MLB.

I've always like the number and when I couldn't get it for the summer league I played in my Freshman year, I was slightly dissapointed!
When my son was around 6, my husband tried to get him to pick #3. Told him it was his grandfather's number (my husband's dad) when he played baseball years & years ago. My son was adament that he was going to be #23. They would argue about this every season for the next several years. We went to a family reunion a couple of years ago (son was about to start high school by this time and still wearing 23) and my husband's aunt brought old family photos. Included were his father's baseball pictures-you guessed it-he was #23 not #3. Let me tell you-it freaked me and my husband both out!! His dad had died when our son was 2 so he never really knew him.

When he got to high school, he made Varsity as a freshman. When coach gave him his jersey-he was a bit nervous and didn't want to ask him if he could switch numbers so he didn't get 23 for the first time. So all through high school he was a different number. My husband and I joked that his grandpa had decided that my son had proven himself on his own and was ready for his own number.

Now that he's in college, he's yet another number as #23 was already taken as well as his high school number!
I think I told this story before somewhere in the archives of HSBBweb...but since the topic has come up again...

I can't remember exactly how old my son was but it was the first time he was playing on a team when jerseys were being special ordered and not just handed out by the league so he was probably about 9. The coach was asking the boys what numbers they wanted and "3" for the Babe, "7" for Mantle, and being in Texas, "34" for Nolan were grabbed right away as the boys named off their favorite players.

When it was my son's turn, he asked for "56."
"Whose number is that?" the coached asked.
"It's my number," he replied.

He hasn't been able to wear that number for awhile but he used to write it in his hat.
People that have known him awhile still refer to him as 5-6.
Last spring he wore 15. We made a joke out of it ala Gerald Laird. 15 = 1 man, 5 tools. He heard Gerald Laird say this with a laugh when introducing his line up before a game on TV one night and it stuck. Like Mr. Laird he knows not to take this too seriously and his friend know him well enough to know he's not boasting. He is a catcher and Laird is one of his favorites.

This fall he ended up with 10. His little sister is having a lot of fun with that one. Razz
I used to be 1, but that was my coach's number. So I wore 11 and 44 in 7th grade (two different jerseys and not all the numbers matched up). 8th grade year I wore 19. Freshman year I wore 17 on freshman and 23 on varsity. Sophomore year I wore 23 on JV and 22 on varsity. Junior year we got new uniforms and I got 19. Senior year I took 19 away from some dumb freshman who thought he was taking my 19.

19 was Tom Pagnozzi. Also birthday is Feb 17 so 2+17=19. I couldn't wear that number in basketball and coach freshman year wouldn't let me have 14 (which was my dad's baseball number) so I took 43. Stuck with it ever since except junior year the varsity uniforms didn't have 43 so I had to go with 42. Senior year we got new uniforms and I returned to 43. Football I was given a choice of 55 and 57 and just happened to choose 57. Stuck with that number all the way through. 57 just so happens to be 3*19 Smile

Basketball rules state the numbers cannot be above 5 so the highest basketball number is 55. The NBA is an exception.
I'll never forget the first year of minor league (seems like a very long time ago...)when the little kids got their team shirts. All of my son's friends from other teams crowded around asking what # he got. Well our team was the only one with missing numbers! (At the time I didn't realize HOW BIG a deal this was) Some boys started making fun of our team but this story has a great ending...the coach called the t-shirt company who agreed to redo the shirts and the kids got to PICK their numbers. They were the envy of all of the teams. I can't remember if he picked Jeter or B. Williams but it was a great moment when they showed off their shirts especially since the other teams all had 1-15 numbers...nothing special.

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