Anthony Rendon Hates Number 6 But Won't Change It Because He Doesn't Want To Pay $40,000 To The MLB
ESPN - “I actually hate the No. 6, but they gave it to me when I got here. I was 23 in college, and I was always 24 growing up for [Ken] Griffey [Jr.]. But 24 was taken in college, so they gave me the closest number. Everywhere we used to go, they called me Jordan. My birthday’s in June, so there are some ties to six. I don’t hate it, it’s just not my favorite. It’s a single number, too. That’s weird. I’ve never had a single number.
“I was going to switch for this year. I could’ve taken 24, but MLB makes you buy all of the inventory, and it would’ve been like 40 grand. I told them, ‘Don’t make any more then. Just sell it and get the total down, and maybe I’ll change it next year.'”
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In his now 5th season in the majors, Anthony Rendon has turned himself into quite a good baseball player. Through 109 games, batting mostly in the 6 hole, Rendon has mashed 22 HRs, 76 RBIs, and has struck out only 62 times. He’s excellent in the field too, playing full time at 3rd base and committing only 7 errors. But the best thing about him is his general demeanor and attitude towards the game. He is the Jim Halpert of baseball. He is on record that he won’t watch baseball because it’s too boring, and he has a rule that his family can’t talk to him about baseball when he visits. He treats baseball like a job, just like Halpert wouldn’t go to his parents house and talk about paper, he doesn’t want to talk about hitting lefties with a 2-1 count.
Similarly, after his 6/6 game where he had 3 HR and 10 RBI, he didn’t want any of the credit, just wanted to pass all the credit to his teammates and get on to the next game. Maybe a mid false-modesty, but he really just feels like he’s doing his job and that’s all there is to it.
Which brings us to his uniform number, 6. The most Anthony Rendon thing ever is to not even like his number, but just kind of deal with it. Again, reminds me so much of how Jim Halpert would deal with this sort of situation. He wanted 24, settled for 6, doesn’t really like it, but isn’t going to do the work/pay $40,000 to change it. I love it.
I was also surprised to learn MLB makes you buy your inventory if you want to change numbers. It makes sense to protect themselves from guys willy nilly changing their numbers all the time, but I never knew they made you buy up all your inventory. Rendon is only making 5.8 mil this year, but I’m sure he’ll change his number for next season after he signs a big contract extension, hopefully sooner than later.