In this surprising piece of news that came out yesterday, the White Sox announced that they were going to un-retire Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio's number 11- with his blessing- so that fellow countryman Omar Vizquel can have the honor of wearing his idol's number for one season. This has, of course, stirred up a lot of debate within not only the White Sox community, but the baseball community as well. The biggest debate that has come out of this is the question of whether or not the honor of having a number retired is diminished when someone else is allowed to don the number- even with the player's blessing. Another question that is being raised with this announcement is whether or not this will create a domino effect; if Vizquel is allowed to don his idol's number for one year, will other players with their number retired give the same kind of blessing to younger players wishing to emulate their idols?
While I understand the critics' point of view in this situation, I do not think that there will be a domino effect created by this. Contrary to what some people may think, a player is not going to let their number be un-retired just for the sake of letting a younger player wear it. Take for example, Barry Bonds. He donned number 24 during his years in Pittsburgh, but when he arrived in San Francisco in 1993, he had to give it up because the "Say Hey Kid"- Willie Mays- already had number 24 retired. Bonds would take number 25 instead. The kicker of it all is that Mays is Bonds' godfather, and despite the connection to each other, he still would not give up his number to Bonds, who grew up idolizing Willie. This was not the only time this has occurred, either. Despite growing up largely within the confines of the Reds' clubhouse during the Big Red Machine era, Ken Griffey, Jr. still had to part ways with number 24 upon arriving in Cincinnati in 2000, because the great Tony Perez already had that number retired by the club, and neither the Reds, nor Perez, had any thoughts about un-retiring it.
However, the Vizquel/Aparicio situation is considerably different. Both men are from Venezuela, and they are both part of the country's brilliant legacy at the shortstop position. Vizquel is part of a shortstop lineage from that country that includes Chico Carrasquel, Aparicio, Dave Concepcion, and Ozzie Guillen, and he is also adding his name to the White Sox's lineage of Venezuelan shortstops, that includes all of the aforementioned players except Concepcion. Plus, Vizquel will likely be a sure-fire Hall of Famer once his career is all wrapped up (which will probably be after this season anyway), which also gave Aparicio more incentive to allow this to happen.
Simply put, Aparicio was not going to just let his number be un-retired for anybody to wear. However, considering that Vizquel is a titan in his home country along with Aparicio, this situation could not be any more perfect. Not only is national pride being put on display, but an homage to baseball history is now on display as well. Now, with this occurring, younger generations can now have the opportunity to learn about one of the game's all-time greatest shortstops, while watching another legend work his craft on the field at the same position.
**A little side note: Aparicio's number will be re-retired once Vizquel leaves, in case you were curious.
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