name and number

With the NFL Draft fast approaching (but not fast enough), my mind will be increasingly on football. And at the same time, with the MLB season just days away from starting, I'll also be thinking about baseball! Today's entry will involve both sports:

If you're a 49er fan, as I am, you are familiar with the running back Anthony Dixon. As far as I'm concerned, he was a late-round gem that the Niners drafted last year. As last year's pre-season progressed, we started becoming accustomed to him wearing the number 33; in football more than in other sports, the numbers they wear on their jerseys help us quickly identify who they are; after all, their faces are hidden behind their face masks, their bodies are covered by protective padding, and there are so many of them running around the field at the same time. Even though number 33 is Roger Craig's old number, I think there's been enough time since he was on the team to allow another running back to wear it.

Still, after running back Michael Robinson left the team, Dixon quickly assumed Robinson's old number, 24. Which was an adjustment for me... I had so closely associated Robinson as 24 and Dixon as 33. So okay, I suppose that after enough time, I'll know Dixon as number 24. Yet, there is another 49ers player that I would have much preferred to take over the number 24 when Robinson was no longer wearing it: Taylor Mays.

Are you on to the reason why yet? Taylor Mays wears the number 23 for the 49ers, but imagine if he wore the number 24 instead. A San Francisco athlete named Mays wearing the number 24. How perfect would that be? (for those of you too young to remember what I am referring to, the great Willie Mays wore number 24 when he played for the San Francisco Giants). And Taylor Mays playing the position of safety, otherwise known as playing 'center field' in a defensive set, well, it's fun to imagine.