The personalities of jersey numbers crack me up sometimes. Ben Shockey, the rookie Outlaws relief pitcher, is a perfect example. He is wearing No. 4, which was the same one Craig Kuzmic had for the past two seasons.
Kuzmic is viewed as one of the all-time formidable players in Chico pro baseball history because of his impassioned play as a hard-nosed catcher and, above all else, his performance level in clutch situations. Shockey upon first getting picked up off waivers midway through this season was pretty much the 22nd man on the 22-player roster. He has increased that status of late with some good work out of the bullpen, but with his mellow demeanor he is still a far cry from the clubhouse presence Kuzmic exuded.
On that note, here are the No. 4s retired in baseball history retired by all the different major league clubs (one of these days I'll also do a post about No. 3, but that will be one that always begins and ends with Steve Sax as far as anyone should be concerned):
Luke Appling (Chicago White Sox)
Earl Weaver (Balimore Orioles, manager)
Duke Snider (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Ralph Kiner (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Lou Gehrig (New York Yankees)
Paul Molitor (Milwaukee Brewers)
Mel Ott (New York/San Francisco Giants)
Joe Cronin (Boston Red Sox)
About Me: Patrick Kinmartin has been a sports writer at the Chico Enterprise-Record since graduating from the University of Southern California in 2005. He began covering the Outlaws and the Golden Baseball League upon arriving and took over the beat full-time in 2007.
A north Orange County native notoriously fond of his hometown Fullerton, Kinmartin also has an occupational obsession with European football, which he chronicles on the Web radio site 101 Soccer Live.
The greatest #4 in all of professional sports was/is not a baseball player.
The greatest #4 is Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins.
Maybe #4's play their position/sport with intensity and finesse; but that doesn't necessarily mean they have a rowdy or gentle demeanor in real life.
Can you tell us some more about the brawl between the Yuma Scorpions and the Chico Outlaws on Tuesday night? Was it a bench clearing brawl? Were punches thrown or were they just wrestling around? Were they puttin down eachother's mothers? Obviously, if one likes fighting then they should just watch Ultimate Fighting, and fighting should stay out of baseball, but it does put some feistiness into the end of the season.