Globex Corporation Newsletter

Forty-seven year old Julio Franco hit a pinch hit homerun for the New York Mets last night against the San Diego Padres (marketing tip from 7 years ago, change name to "Pod Race" and the geek crowd will show up at Petco field in droves....). It gave the Mets a lead and they eventually won the game.

Julio Franco re-emerged in baseball a couple of years ago. He played shortstop for the Cleveland Indians when I was in college, for chirst's sake. When he showed up in an Atlanta Braves uniform I figured it was just another guy named Julio Franco. I'm sure it's not the most common name, but look in a large urban phonebook and you'll probably find as many 'Julio Francos' as 'Bob Pattersons'. I figured Julio Franco had retired a decade ago, but here he is winning games with late inning homeruns.

A player a little better in his chosen sport, though worse in Franco's, is Michael Jordan. Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls at the top of his game and went off to play minor league baseball. Truthfully, I think Jordan could have been a pretty good baseball player had he chosen that instead of basketball at a younger age. Making that switch in his early thirties was a little too difficult for even such a great athlete.

The Bulls retired Jordan's #23. No Bull would ever wear that number again. The Bulls erected a statue of Jordan outside of the United Center. I was no fan of Michael Jordan, but if a player was ever worthy of such honors for his accomplishments on the court, it was Jordan.

There was a small glitch in the plan, though, when Jordan decided he stunk at baseball and decided to play basketball again. Imagine, going to work every day and passing a statue of yourself. I don't think it reflected on Jordan as much as it did on the Bulls. "Michael is gone forever, we honor him in statue...... Oh, hi Michael...."

Michael wore the number 45 on his jersey until a playoff game against the Knicks in which he reverted to wearing #23, agreeing to pay the fines levied by the NBA. Being a Knicks fan, I think all of his baskets should have been disallowed, a fine against someone with Jordan's financial resources obviously not meaning much.

Jordan re-retired after winning three more championships with the Bulls, then re-un-retired after taking a front office job with the Washington Wizards. I imagine it was tough for him to see talent on the court that wasn't as good as he was, even in retirement. Still, I always saw Jordan as someone who needed constant attention, when people stopped talking about him, he needed to do something to get people talking about him again. It did work, so I guess good for him.

Craig Morton wore #7 for the Denver Broncos, leading them to Super Bowl XII after arriving via trade with the New York Giants. It was the Broncos only super bowl appearance to that point.

Morton retired following the 1982 season and the Broncos acquired quarterback John Elway from the Baltimore Colts in 1983. Elway, the obvious choice to be the first pick in that year's draft refused to play for the Colts and was traded to Denver. Elway, like Morton the season before, wore #7.

For once the hype of a first draft pick was completeley justified. Elway, with little talent around him, led the Broncos to 3 super bowls. That resulted in three super bowl losses. Later in his career, surrounded by great teams, Elway was a member of two super bowl winners. After the second, John Elway retired and I see ads for his car dealerships any time I watch one of the Denver channels on TV.

In gratitude for a great career, the Broncos retired the number 7. No Bronco would ever wear it again. Elway deserves the honor. I believe he was the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL. He was definitely the greatest quarterback, the greatest player in Denver Broncos history.

I'm not an overly superstitious person, but the day that #7 was retired, I thought that the only quarterbacks to lead the Broncos to the super bowl had worn the number 7. If I were superstitious, I would realize that the Broncos will never again play in a superbowl for that reason.

In an episode of Futurama a few years ago, Leela was signed to a Blernsball contract by the New New York Mets. When she first showed up in her uniform, she was wearing the number seven-eighths. Her explanation was that all of the whole numbers had been retired.

I'm in favor of retiring numbers of great players. Elway and Jordan or defintely worthy of the honor. I'd say we should probably be really careful with doing that with too many players. NFL quarterbacks are required to wear a number of 19 or less. Teams generally carry 3 quarterbacks. Retire too many numbers and you'll run out of numbers for your QB's.

Personally, I would want to wear pi.....

BOJ