It’s a feel thing, the notion of retiring a player’s number, as the Mets will now do for Keith Hernandez’s No. 17. It is more about symbolism than statistics, a referendum on the meaning of a player to a team and a town.
Many teams have long understood this. There is no plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y., for Thurman Munson, but the Yankees retired his No. 15 anyway. Same with Johnny Pesky and the Boston Red Sox, Frank White and the Kansas City Royals, Randy Jones and the San Diego Padres and on and on and on.
The Mets took a long time to grasp the concept.