ernie14_billy26

I'm coming into this pretty late, but hey...a lot of players have worn numbers that were retired after the player who the number is retired for played. See this website http://ignarski.tripod.com/temprost.html #26 was worn by several players before it was retired. Same with #10. I think the reasons 14 and 23 were not reassigned were because Ernie was such a legend when he retired (and he retired as a Cub) and Sandberg stayed in touch with the organization after he retired for the last time. When Kenny Hubbs was killed, the Cubs said they would not issue that number (16) again, and they kept their promise until for about 7 years, and I know people who to this day think 16 should be retired for Hubbs. In my opinion, before Sammys number is retired, the Cubs should honor some of their old time heros. Stan Hack, Charlie Grimm and the biggest oversite, Phil Caveretta.

Actually..I know the person who put up this site. A couple of things here... 1)He bought the domain as a preemptive move figuring someone was going to do something anyway. 2)He was pissed off that Rothschild was being retained, so he decided to put his feelings out there. 3)He even admits that the site is sorta tounge-in-cheek (thus the "Because someone had to start this up!! ") 4)He is having fun watching the reactions by some people (he has forwarded me some really "interesting" emails he has gotten from people who have been really upset about this site) and 5)He may be pissed that Piniella kept Rothschild and he may have put up this site, but he is really a big Cubs fan and he is excited about the fact the Cubs are at least trying to do something this off season to improve the club. He just wishes it was not with Piniella and Rothschild. Enough of defending my friend.