f*ck what the?

[Spidey.]

The fight for jersey No. 26 is going all the way to courtroom No. 161B.

 

Next month, the District Court of Maryland will try to answer the question being posed in locker rooms everywhere: how much for your number?

 

Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis agreed to pay defensive back Ifeanyi Ohalete $40,000 for No. 26 last year, but after Ohalete was released by the team in August, he accused Portis of stopping payments and paying only half the sum.

 

Ohalete, now wearing No. 25 for the Arizona Cardinals, is claiming breach of contract and suing Portis in a trial scheduled to begin June 7 in Upper Marlboro, Md. "It's not exactly the kind of case you see every day," John Steren, Ohalete's lawyer, said.

 

But it is just the kind of conflict that plays out every season. When a prominent athlete joins a new team after contract talks, the negotiations in a high-stakes numbers game have often only just begun. Jeff Feagles, the punter for the Giants, wore No. 10 until he sold it to the rookie quarterback Eli Manning last spring for a one-week vacation in Florida. Then Feagles switched to No. 17, which he sold this off-season to receiver Plaxico Burress for a new outdoor kitchen at his home in Phoenix.

 

"The guys in the equipment room tell me I'm the luckiest person they've ever seen," said Feagles, who hashed out the kitchen deal with Burress's agent, Drew Rosenhaus. "Think about what I've profited in the past two years just from my jersey number. Now I have No. 18, and everyone is wondering if any of the rookies are going to want it."

 

Mets pitcher Tom Glavine never really even liked No. 47, but it was given to him by the Atlanta Braves at his first spring training and therefore symbolizes everything he overcame to stick in the major leagues. So when Glavine signed with the Mets two years ago and Joe McEwing handed over No. 47, Glavine and his wife financed a baby nursery in McEwing's home.

 

"If you play long enough," Glavine said, "that number becomes your identity."

 

For many professional athletes, a jersey number is a personal brand. It is worn on shoes and helmets, wristbands and turtlenecks. It inspires tattoos and is engraved on medallions the size of manhole covers.

 

Players who have been successful with certain digits are often too superstitious to change. They wonder if they can put up the same numbers while wearing a different number.

 

Lee Evans was a rookie for the Buffalo Bills last year when he paid $20,000 to his teammate Mark Campbell for No. 83. The Cleveland Browns rookie Kellen Winslow pried No. 80 from his teammate Aaron Shea for a package of suits, meals and a vacation totaling around $30,000. Last month, the veteran outfielder Brian Jordan trumped both of them when he bought a $40,000 motorcycle for Fredi Gonzalez, the Braves' third-base coach, to thank him for No. 33.

 

"I think he was just expecting a golf shirt or something," Jordan said. "But this number is important to me. It's the way people in Atlanta recognize me."

 

The price of jersey numbers has escalated at almost the same rate as the value of player contracts. In 1989, Oakland's Rickey Henderson got No. 24 from Ron Hassey by substituting for him at an autograph session. In 1991, Philadelphia reliever Mitch Williams got No. 28 from John Kruk for two cases of beer.

 

But by 1993, when Henderson wanted No. 24 with the Toronto Blue Jays, he had to pay outfielder Turner Ward $25,000.

 

"I didn't even think of asking for money," Kruk said. "The only reason Mitch wanted the number is because his wife had a lot of No. 28 jewelry and he didn't want to buy her any more jewelry.

 

"Not long after that, he got divorced and changed numbers."

 

There have been Hawaiian baseball players, like Sid Fernandez and Benny Agbayani, who wore No. 50 because they were from the 50th state. There have been baseball players whose last names began with the letter O, like Al Oliver and Rey Ordóñez, who requested and wore No. 0.

 

And there was one self-deprecating hockey player, Neil Sheehy, who wore No. 0 because he said that he was as far away as anyone could get from Wayne Gretzky, No. 99.

 

The trends are so difficult to track that espn.com has its own uniform columnist, Paul Lukas, who can tell you that Nick Van Exel once wore No. 37 because he was the 37th pick in the N.B.A. draft, that catcher Benito Santiago once wore No. 09 so that the strap on the back of his chest protector would not cross through the No. 9, and that the Czech hockey star Jaromir Jagr wears No. 68 because of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

 

"Anyone playing the lottery can tell you about lucky numbers," Lukas said. "And as long as salaries go up, the price for numbers will probably go up, too. For today's athlete, what's the difference between buying a case of beer and buying a motorcycle?"

 

Sally Faubion of San Francisco, who studies numerology, the effect of numbers on people's lives, said: "When there's a number that resonates with you, it will bring you something positive. If someone says, 'I hate my number; I wish I had another number,' they probably won't do well with it."

 

Faubion would advise any athlete to pick a jersey number that corresponds to his birth date, making Mets pitcher Kris Benson her ideal example. Benson said he wore No. 7 in high school because he was born on Nov. 7. When he could not get that number at Clemson - the head coach was wearing it - he opted for No. 34 because three plus four equals seven. If Benson were a European soccer player, he might have even taped a plus sign between the digits on his jersey, a recent trend spotted overseas.

 

Oakland's Barry Zito came up wearing No. 34 because he wanted to pitch like Benson, but when the Athletics retired it as a nod to the Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers, Zito picked No. 75.

 

"I'm really into numbers and symmetry, and if you look at the 75, it creates a really nice shelf under my name," Zito said. "There's also an added bonus. Not too many people have it, so if I get traded somewhere else, I probably won't have to give up a Rolex."

 

That is exactly what pitcher Roger Clemens gave Carlos Delgado as thanks for No. 21 in Toronto. When Clemens went to the Yankees, he had to settle for No. 22 because Paul O'Neill had 21. And when Clemens bolted for Houston, he had to keep No. 22 because his teammate Andy Pettitte got No. 21 a month earlier as a tribute to Clemens. Delgado, who gave up No. 21 even though he was wearing it for the Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, a fellow Puerto Rican, said he still had the Rolex in a safety deposit box.

 

Even college teams are starting to recruit by numbers. When safety Darnell Bing signed to play safety for Southern California, he asked to wear No. 20, which had long been retired for Mike Garrett, winner of the 1965 Heisman Trophy. Conveniently, Garrett is still on campus, working as the athletic director, and he gave Bing the necessary permission.

 

For all the locker-room deals that have been struck, nearly as many have stalled. Jacksonville running back Fred Taylor reportedly offered $10,000 to his teammate Aaron Beasley for No. 21 after the 1998 draft, but he was turned down. Frank Viola asked Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden for No. 16 in 1989, to which Gooden responded: "He can have my wife. But he can't have my number." The same season, Steve Sax joined the Yankees and inquired about No. 3. He apparently forgot it had been retired for Babe Ruth.

 

The Yankees, who used to give out jersey numbers based on a hitter's position in the batting order, have retired 15 numbers. But their ranks are empty compared with the Boston Celtics, who have 22 banners in the rafters. Still, when forward Antoine Walker returned to Boston this season, the rookie Al Jefferson handed him No. 8 and did not ask for anything tangible in return.

 

"I just told him to teach me everything he knows about the game," Jefferson told reporters. "Ain't all about the money."

 

Credit: AOL News.

 

 

People buying NUMBERS...damn...

[just another thug]

I wish I had that kind of money to throw around for a number.

[Bigs]

I'd pay for my phone number to be: 666-666-6669

 

But yeah, you know you have too much money if you're spending that much on a...jersey number?

[gizmo]

I was 2, 11, or 13 when I play. I settle for nothing less. If I don't get those then I don't play.

[Spidey.]

If i ever went pro. My number would be safe. Nobody seems to use 27.

[Huitzilopochtli]

I played 7 years of baseball and only wore numbers 28 and 33. 28 was my lucky number, and 33 was random.

[mystk]

That is totally stupid, but there are over-rich people in the world, I wish I had that money .