John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Then the poor guy got brain cancer and they subsequently got scared of how it would look, especially since they'd conspicuously withheld it all those years. I just got done arguing it would be appropriate to re-introduce 8 with dArnaud but they didn't go for it. Now I want them to give 8 to Conforto (it's in his twitter handle!) This is the problem with making decisions that are sentimentally defensible but logically poorly considered. They become institutionalized, and once the sentiment is past, you're stuck with them. Literally 86.41% of all people could do without hearing "God Bless America" at a ball game again. An additional 9.22% just mutely shrug their shoulders at the question, half-drunk and floating through life. The remaining 4.37 aren't patriotic so much as the Patriotism Police, and will rip the Mets publicly if the song ceases appearing. And their brethren-in-arms in parts of the country that will never have access to the Mets will echo the cry in poorly written all-caps protest, so the Mets are stuck with it. I know a way out of the Carter Conundrum, though. Re-issue the number to a good player (d'Arnaud comes to mind), but solicit the buy-in from the family beforehand so they don't get sucked into a populist campaign, and at the same time, let them know you are re-naming Tradition Field as Gary Carter Field, to there will be no ambiguity about the team's continued and ongoing respect for Carter.