What To Do With '24'?

Dan:

A year ago at this time, the idea the Sox would someday retire Number 24 wasn't even up for discussion. It was a certainty.

When Manny retired, and was voted into the Hall of Fame, the Sox would hang his Number 24 up next to the all-time Sox greats. It would be a ceremony that included Dwight Evans. We'd all reminisce about the great teams of 2004 and 2007. Good times.

Since then, Manny quit on his team (again), got traded to the Dodgers, and got caught using PEDs. Of course, how the Sox brass thought about Manny's place in Sox history was evident even before he got busted for 'roids: They gave his number to set-up man Tagashi (sp?) Saito right out of Spring Training. While the bad feelings for Manny were obvious, giving his number to a reliever right away was a surprise. I still thought the Sox would someday recognize Manny by retiring his number. He is, after all, one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time, and along with Papi made up the greatest 3-4 tandem not named Ruth/Gehrig in baseball history. But, the PED bust has removed any notion of that.

Ah well. Hopefully six years from now we'll be hanging up Number 45.