Numbers

42

“The answer to life the universe and everything” is 42.  I had completed the rookie number ceremony and selected the number 42.  A few rounds later Papa Bear had completed the ceremony and went up to Phelan, with a boyish grin on his face he asked if 42 was still available.  Phelan scanned the list and told him no, it had already been taken.  PBear’s smile melted dishearteningly, I went over to Phelan and told him that PBear could be number 42, I would pick again.

88

“Is anything good left over?”

“Double 8s!”

“Great, I’ll take it.”

8

I wanted to be like Pat.  Zubair calls Pat “the best captain I ever had”, Kennedy calls Pat “The one person I’ve always wanted to play with”, Walden calls Pat “my number one pick in an all Illinois draft.”  I wanted to be the best cutter on the team.   I wanted to be versatile.  I wanted to challenge these notions.  I wanted to be a player that the team knew would show up.  I converted to number 8 as a commitment to myself that I would live up to my own expectations.

This is a pretty lame story, so whenever someone asks me about it in person I tell them – there are 8 people in my family, or I graduated high school in 08, or it’s a rotated infinity sign.

12

I knew I was captaining ChiClub.  I wanted an everyday reminded of how poorly I did as an Illinois captain.  I wanted to stare at it every game.  I wanted to carry the weight of my failures.

The number 12 is cursed, beware the faint of heart.

88

The Duck wanted to be number 8.  I love the duck.