[Evil Vito]

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball Do they have some sort of requirement for retiring numbers? The Red Sox themselves are pretty strict with their requirements since its both 10 years played on the team and be in the MLB Hall to get a number retired.

Nope, the Mets don't have any sort of requirement. There's a panel of like 7 people who vote on the team HOF and whether or not to retire any numbers. So far they've only retired 3 - 2 managers (Casey Stengel and Gil Hodges) and Tom Seaver. The committee has said they don't want it to get to the point where they retire one number and risk opening up Pandora's Box. That's why there are no '86 Mets numbers retired. If you retire Gary Carter's number 8, you open up talk on if 16-18 should also go up for Gooden, Hernandez, and Strawberry since all of them played such huge roles in the Mets' greatest season ever.

I'm glad they don't retire the number of every significant player ever...but I do at least think each "era" should get a number retirement. Keith Hernandez' 17 should go up as he was really the leader of the Mets through most of the '80s. Carter only spent 5 years with the Mets, but he was a co-captain so if they were to put 8 up as well I wouldn't mind. Both numbers are out of circulation anyway so it makes little sense to not officially retire them. Gooden's 16 and Strawberry's 18 don't really have much of a case, they were great but should have been HOF'ers if not for the off field problems. 17 and possibly 8 is fine to do the '80s justice.

Then you throw Piazza's 31 up for the late '90s early 00's, and from there you don't have to worry about retiring another number until 2020 Wright (who already has most of the team records and will have a HUGE lead in everything by the time he's done) retires. That would be 6 or 7 numbers retired over about 60 years. That's really not that bad.