We’ve known David Price and the Red Sox had a deal in place for several days now, but it only became official as of this afternoon. That’s when Price’s physical came back hunky dory and the team made the formal announcement of the signing. If this was, say, 1950, today may have been the first day you would have heard about it. Thank God we don’t live in 1950 anymore.
Apart from the press conference quotes -- and you know how those go; everyone wants to win a championship; money had little to do with all of this, etc. etc. -- the only thing left to know is what uniform number Price will be wearing. He’s always worn 14 in the past, but it’s retired for Jim Rice.* So Price went with something with an equally-rich history in Boston:
.@DAVIDprice14 will be sporting #24 on the back of his #RedSox jersey! pic.twitter.com/ul4JX7rZMA
— Red Sox (@RedSox) December 4, 2015
You may remember that number from Dwight Evans. Or, if you’re too young for Dewey, Manny Ramirez. Each of whom were Hall of Fame-worthy, I might add. Evans was wrongfully jobbed of the honor because Hall of Fame voters are dumb. Ramirez jobbed himself out of it, one presumes, due to his PED use. Either way: both were Boston Red Sox greats and now Price joins them in 24-ness.
I assume some people will have a problem with him wearing 24. As a guy who is on record hating that the Tigers let other people wear Alan Trammell’s number 3 and Lou Whitaker’s number 1, I can certainly sympathize. But the Sox don’t retire numbers absent a Hall of Fame induction. Even if the Hall of Fame totally blew it on the would-be inductees. So here we are.
*Originally I wrote that Hanley Ramirez has and Carl Crawford had 14. Because I’m a moron. I don’t know. They wear/wore 13.
