2 Rod Barajas“Growing up, I played on a traveling team,and we were the Phillies. I had to pick anumber, and I thought Mike Schmidt’snumber (20) is a pretty good number towear. And from then on he basically becamemy idol. It was 20 all the way until I signedwith Arizona. But 20 is kind of taken here.”

3 Abraham Nunez“But before I wore 3, I actually had 7. KennyLofton had 3, but he always wore 7. Hewanted it, so he gave me a Rolex for thenumber. That was in 2003. It’s usuallywatches. That’s the standard. I’ve neverheard of anybody getting a car or anything,but if anybody wants No. 3 for a car …”

5 Pat Burrell“I wore 11 in college. Five was always myfavorite number, but it was retired at Miamiand when I got here Ron Gant had it. So Ihad 33, but the next year Gant went toAnaheim, and I took it. I always wore it whenI was a kid, which is tough because whenyou’re in Little League usually the smallernumbers are for the smaller jerseys. I wasn’treal small. I think it’s even like that in theminor leagues. I was always 40 orsomething in the minors.”

6 Ryan Howard“I don’t know. It was just something thatalways kind of stuck out, you know what Imean? I wore it in college. It’s justsomething I wore in college. I don’t know. Iactually did wear 6 one time when I was akid. I had some success with it, so …”

8 Shane Victorino“My mom’s birthday is the 8th. And mybrother wore 8 in high school. And then Iwore 8 in high school. I had 8 in 2005, butthen Alex Gonzalez came here last year andwanted 8. So I took 18. And then I wanted tokeep 18 because I felt comfortable lastseason. But then Wes [Helms] wanted it, soI went back to 8. He gave me a nice littlewatch. I can’t complain.”

9 Michael Bourn“Nine is cool. I used to wear 2 because my dadused to wear that number back in the day.”

11 Jimmy Rollins“I wore number 6 for one year when Doug[Glanville] wasn’t here. I wore number 11 inbasketball in high school. It looked good. Ihad worn 6 in baseball in high school, sowhen I had the opportunity to grab it I did.And then Doug came back, and he asked ifhe could get it back. So I gave it up.”

18 Wes Helms“My first year in the big leagues, [Ryan]Klesko left Atlanta, so they gave me hisnumber. I kept it my whole career. Otherthan that there’s no significance. I’ve justhad it. I had to steal it from Victorino when Igot here. I called himwhen I signed andasked him, ‘Hey, I’vebeen 18 for seven anda half years in the bigleagues. I’d like to keepit as long as I can. Youcan tell me no if youwant. I won’t ask again.I want to be a team guy.I don’t want to pressureyou for it.’ I told him Iwould do somethingnice for him. I wouldtake care of him. So I gothim a nice Brightonwatch. I didn’t expecthim just to give it to me.After I bought Vic thewatch I had playerscoming up to me saying,‘Hey, if you ever want mynumber let me know.’Victorino is a little flashy,too, so he wanted the diamonds around thewatch. Yeah, they were all over me.”

19 Greg Dobbs“I had 22 in Seattle. It doesn’t matter.I really don’t care.”

21 Jon Lieber“Every team I’ve been on has been different. Iwas thinking about 32 when I went to theYankees, but 32 is retired [Elston Howard]. So Iwent to the next best thing in New York, whichwas 22. I was 32 with the Cubs. I was 47 inPittsburgh. I definitely don’t like 47. It justdoesn’t look right. I might wear 50 orsomething, but 47 doesn’t look right. [Jason]Michaels had 22 when I got here. He said hewould give it to me, but I had 26 my first year inNew York when I was rehabbing. But then theysigned El Duque [Orlando Hernandez] back,and I gave it to him. If 47 was available inChicago, I probably would have taken it. That’swhen I knew if I ever got traded or signed withanother team that I would pick differentnumbers. … it’s kind of neat because a certainnumber reminds me of the time I played in thatcity. One number represents a different team.”

23 Adam Eaton“It was the only one that looked remotelyinteresting. I had 21 in Texas. They gaveme 53 in San Diego. You don’t buynumbers from older guys, so Iwasn’t getting 21 here. Plus, mynumber is free. Why spendmoney? No, there’s really nosignificance to my number. But Icould create some. Let’s see, 53 wasmy first number in the big leagues. Two andthree equals five. Three is the second numberin both numbers. Two plus one is three. Soyou can have people draw their ownconclusions. Everybody asked why I was 21.Well, five minus three is two. Three minus twois one. It was a progression. And it wasavailable.”

26 Chase Utley“They just gave it to me. There was no say.Whatever year I got it in spring training. Ican’t even remember. It was better than 78,that’s for sure. So I haven’t changed it, and Idon’t plan to now. I’ve always liked thenumber 7, but I didn’t have a chance at that.So I’m stuck with 26 now.”

27 Chris Coste“Numbers don’t mean much to me. However, Iwould have liked to have gotten a popular oneso in case a new guy comes around he mightwant to buy the number off of me. You know,like Victorino. In that case, it would have beenreally good for me. That’s probably an answeryou haven’t gotten yet. Barajas has alwaysbeen 27. He didn’t want to impose. I’m like,‘You could impose with your checkbook open.’But a number really doesn’t matter. Other than44 because I was a big Reggie Jackson fan.So if I could have chosen, I would have been10 or 44. Ten was the number I had in theNorthern League. It was just a nice, easy,round number. Twenty-seven isn’t round at all.It’s almost a prime number.”

28 Jayson Werth“That was the number they gave me when Igot to LA. I had a good season there in ’04,and it kind of became my number.”

33 Aaron Rowand“I wore it in college, and I wore it inthe minor leagues. It was thecoolest number available when Icouldn’t get 14, which is what Iwore in high school. Fourteen isretired at Cal State-Fullerton.”

34 Freddy Garcia“I wore 34 in Seattle. I wore it inChicago. They gave me 34. I just like34. I like it. I wore it in Venezuela.They didn’t ask me what number Iwanted in Seattle. I was just lucky,and they gave it to me. It wasn’tavailable in Chicago, so I had to get itfrom [pitching coach Don] Cooper. He wanteda flat-screen TV. He said he needed one, so Isaid, ‘OK, you give me the number, I’ll give youa TV.’ It was a big TV, too.”

35 Cole Hamels“I was all the way over there [on the other sideof the clubhouse in spring training], and lastspring training they decided to move me overhere and gave me 35. Gavin [Floyd] was 34,and we got along, so I think they put ustogether. I actually tried to get 19, but GaryVarsho had it, and they wouldn’t give it to me.”

41 Charlie Manuel“I wear 41 because I had been 42 and it’sretired. I also wore 41 when I managed inthe minor leagues, and we wonchampionships in back-to-back seasons intriple-A in 1992 and 1993. I started wearing itthen. I wore 42 when I first came to the bigleagues with Cleveland. Then I gave it to MikeJackson, and then they retired it. Then I wentto 41. Then Albert Belle wanted 41, so Iwent to 32. But when I came here EdWade asked me what number Iwanted and I said 41. I wore 9and 4 when I was aplayer. I liked 9because I likedTed Williams.And if Icouldn’t have 9I wanted 4because I likedDuke Snider.”

45 Tom Gordon“I’ve worn 36 and 45, just because I wore 9in high school and they both add up to 9.Thirty-six. Forty-five. I was just fortunate that45 was [Tug McGraw’s] number. I liked himgrowing up because I liked his name.”

50 Jamie Moyer“I’ve never been a number requester, and if Ithink over my career I’ve had a whole bunchof numbers. I started out with 49 in Chicago.When you go from those high numbers like65 or 66 and go to a lower number, it usuallyhappens one of two ways: ‘Hey, I want thatnumber, is it available?’ Or, ‘It’s a numberthat’s given to me, and I don’t care.’ Myfeeling is that I didn’t work to get here topick a number. I worked to get here to wearthe uniform. I’m happy to have a uniform in

my locker. A number is just an extension ofthe uniform. I’ve been 49, 41, 47, 51 inBaltimore and 50 in Seattle. I had 50 inSeattle because Randy [Johnson] had 51.”

51 Carlos Ruiz“I had 80-something in my first big-leaguecamp. In my second big-league camp I had51. They gave it to me. I wore 18 in triple-A,but Victorino had 18 last year. But I gotcalled up with 51, so I want to keep it. Fornow I feel comfortable with it. My momasked me why I had 51. I told her, ‘That’s thenumber I had in spring training and I hadwhen I got called up.’ I like it.”

56 Geoff Geary“That’s the number I was assigned, and Ihaven’t gotten any number since.”

57 Antonio Alfonseca“My first year in the big leagues in ’97 theygave me 57. I’ve been 57 everywhere I’vebeen. I haven’t had to buy it off anybody. Notyet. You never know. Maybe soon. I like mynumber.”

63 Ryan Madson“They gave it to me, but my friend liked it.He had a ’63 pickup truck, so I kept it.Remember pagers? You’d put in a number,so you knew who it was. His number was63, so I knew it was him. This was a whileago. I’m getting old, man. I wanted tochange it, but I said forget it. Plus, I’mstarting to see a lot of people with No. 63jerseys on, you know, all the 63s they havein the shop there? I don’t want to have themthrow all those out.”

39 Brett Myers“I came up with 41, but I don’t like numbers in the 40s. I wanted 34. What happened was, I was goingto switch to 34 because of Nolan Ryan. But I got a phone call from Frank [Coppenbarger] halfwaythrough the off-season, and he said they traded [Johnny] Estrada for [Kevin] Millwood. And he’s like,‘Millwood wants 34.’ I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll show respect to Johnny and get 39 because he caught me inthe minors.’ There wasn’t 33. Ricky Ledee had that. 32 was [Steve] Carlton. 31 Ramon [Henderson]had. Thirty just didn’t appeal to me. Tony Scott had that one. Nothing in the 20s appealed to meunless it was 22, and J-Mike [Jason Michaels] had 22. Twenty-one was [Eric] Milton, so I couldn’t get21. Twenty-one, 22 and 34 were my favorite numbers. [Roger] Clemens, Clemensand Ryan. I don’t know who’s worn 39 and I don’t care. I want to be the guy thatpeople say ‘Thirty-nine, that’s Brett Myers’ jersey.’ When I had41, I said ‘Nobody good has ever worn this jersey.’ ThenI came to find Tom Seaver had it.”

Think you’re a baseball numbers whiz? Tryour online quiz to see how smart you reallyare. Go to: http://go.philly.com/numbersquiz

A Game ofThe uniform number is the first thing fans note about a player.Some players give it a lot of thought, some none at all.Watches, TVs and even a case of beer have been the cost ofchanging, but some have been given away for free. The currentPhillies give the reasons for the numbers they wear.NUMBERS

NolanRyan

RogerClemens

TomSeaver

Ted Williams

www.philly.com C E5THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRERSunday, May 27, 2007