When your number's up...

Ballplayers develop emotional and mystical attachments to uniform numbers — not necessarily their own.

BY GORDON WITTENMYER
Pioneer Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Outfielder Jason Tyner, who signed with the Twins as a free agent over the winter, looked up the roster of his new team online and scanned the list to see what uniform numbers might be available.

Jacque Jones already had No. 11, one of Tyner's old numbers. But nobody had the other one.

"He called and said, 'I see 14 is available,' " Twins equipment manager Jim Dunn said.

Of course, 14 isn't available, because the Twins retired Kent Hrbek's number in 1995. Don't bother asking for 3, 6, 29 or 34, either. And Jackie Robinson's 42 is universally out of the question.

"I totally didn't think about that," Tyner said. "It doesn't hurt to ask."

For his troubles, he wound up with No. 74.

But Tyner isn't alone. Dunn, whose duties include distributing uniforms and assigning numbers, has fielded requests over the years for Harmon Killebrew's No. 3, Tony Oliva's No. 6, Rod Carew's 29 and even Kirby Puckett's 34.

"It happens once in a while," he said.

So do requests for midseason numbers changes, requests for numbers belonging to current players and requests for simply a "better" number.

"Baseball players are usually real superstitious," Tyner said.

Few things inspire superstition as much as numbers — which sometimes makes the numbers on the uniform seem as important as those in the boxscore.

During his rough season last year, pitcher Kyle Lohse wanted to get rid of his No. 49 but was told to wait until the end of the season. Since getting away from the rough year, and then beating the Twins in arbitration to win a $2.4 million salary, he decided to keep his old number.

Twins pitcher Joe Mays didn't. After a 2000 season in which he lost 15 games and spent a month demoted to the minors, Mays wanted no part of his No. 53.

"As bad as 53 was, I wanted to flip it around," he said. Of course, then-first-base-coach Ron Gardenhire's number was 35. So Mays settled on 25 — and won 17 games in the best season of his career.

"When you're thinking of ways to change things, it doesn't hurt to change your number," he said. "You have a horrible year, like I did with 53... there were just too many hits in that number."

No. 25 has not always watched over Mays. Elbow problems contributed to a troubled season in 2003 in which he lost his starting job at midseason before eventually having reconstructive elbow surgery.

Changing his number again wasn't going to be the answer. So he tried to wash it away — along with everything else wrong that season. "When I was taken out of the rotation, I sat in the shower for two hours in full uniform," he said. "I was trying to wash all the sins and bad luck out of it."

When he finally emerged? "It was still 25."

"Obviously, it's a big deal," outfielder Mike Ryan said of how much importance ballplayers put in their numbers. His No. 12 dates to his earliest days of Little League and is a comfort to him even now. "Some guys who switch teams will offer guys money for their numbers. That shows you it's a pretty big deal to guys."

Twins pitcher Terry Mulholland, who has pitched in the majors since 1986, did that when he joined the Twins in a trade from Seattle early last season — sort of. He gave hitting coach Scott Ullger a set of golf clubs for the No. 45 he has worn most of his career. Ullger switched to No. 46.

For Mulholland, the significance is traced to what could be perceived as a prophetic coincidence. On his first day in the big leagues with the San Francisco Giants, he arrived at his locker to find his old college number hanging there. "I just kept quiet," he said.

And kept the number for every year of his career with the exception of the 1994 season with the Yankees. "Danny Tartabull wouldn't give it up," he said. "He said it wasn't negotiable."

Others are not nearly as hard to negotiate with. Mulholland's former Phillies teammate John Kruk asked only for two cases of beer to trade numbers with newly acquired Mitch Williams in 1991.

And Twins center fielder Torii Hunter had a deal worked out with Bobby Kielty to acquire No. 23 just before the 2003 season — following his breakout 2002 all-star year. He was talked out of changing it at the time, based on the team's investment in marketing him (including already produced bobblehead dolls) and his identity with No. 48.

"All athletes want 23," he said of the number made famous by Michael Jordan. "It's the number of a champion."

By the end of 2003, Hunter no longer wanted to change numbers.

"Hopefully, I can have a legacy with 48," he said, "But, man, that is a big number. It's like wearing 99 or something."