Happy 11-11-11 Day
November 11th, 2011 by slangon

In honor of today being 11/11/11, I thought I’d show 11 guys who have sported number 11 for throughout the years for the Mets.

Ed Bouchee was the original #11 for the Metropolitains. He only ended up lasting half the season, though. The remained of 1962, number 11 was worn by this guy.

Classic line from Gene: “I never wanted to hear a ballplayer saying ‘Nice hustling’. You’re supposed to do that.”

Probably the most famous Met to ever don the double ones is Duke Snider, who wore it in 1963, before switching over to his more familiar #4. Charlie Neal wore #11 for the Mets before going to the Reds. I’m not sure why Neal wouldn’t have ceded number 4 to Duke to begin with. I know Charlie Neal was a great player, but it would seem that the Duke would’ve had a bit more clout. I also would’ve thought that Charlie would be cool with the Duke from playing with him on the Dodgers. Besides, Neal was #43 when with the Dodgers. Maybe players didn’t care as much about uniform numbers back then.

 Roy McMillan took over #11 after the Duke, which is actually the number Roy wore his entire career.

After Roy McMillan left the Mets in 1966, the number went unused until Wayne Garrett took it over just in time for the 1969 Championship season.

After Pepe Mangual had a cup of coffee with #11, Len Randle took it over halfway through the 1977 season.

Number 11 went through a few owners until the Mets next Championship, including Frank Taveras, Tom Veryzer, Tucker Ashford and Kelvin Chapman. Tim Teufel took it over for the ’86 season.

I passed up such #11 luminaries as Garry Templeton and Dick Schofield and went straight to Vince Coleman just because I love this card.

I’ve mentioned before that Danny Murphy is one of my favorite current Mets. It seems like I’ve always been fond of that sort of Super Sub type player, because one of my favorites from the Piazza-era Mets was Joe McEwing. He’s pictured as #47 on this card, but he took number 11 to allow Tom Glavine to have his number. I wonder if he got a watch out of the deal.

Ramon Castro was another non-star Met that I always loved. He had a habit of sticking giant wads of chewing gum on guys caps when they weren’t looking. He rocked the double ones from 2005-2009.

Ruben Tejada currently wears #11 for the Mets. Hopefully he’ll be wearing at second base next year and not short stop.

So there you have it. Eleven cards of 11 guys who’ve worn the number 11 for the New York Mets. Some other guys who’ve worn the number that I haven’t already mentioned include such unforgettables as Mike Bishop, Rich Parker, Aaron Ledesma, Tim Bogar, Cory Lidel, Preston Wilson, Wayne Kirby, Shane Halter, Jason Tyner, Jorge Valandia, Argenis Reyes and Anderson Hernandez.

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