Blog Update, Plus an Old Curiosity

If anyone out there regularly checks this blog (which doesn't appear to be the case according to Google Analytics), I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I've been overwhelmed with work and a baseball research project I've been putting together for a while now, so writing up a season summary for the next World Series winner profile seems like a relatively low priority. I promise I'll get back to that stuff eventually, since, you know, there has to be another internet user out there who finds those types of things interesting.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share something interesting I noticed back in my teenage years. This blog was created for posting baseball junk, and if this item doesn't qualify as "baseball junk" I don't know what does.

When Jermaine Dye was called up by the Atlanta Braves in 1996 he was given uniform number 24. I still remember that he hit a home run in his first Major League at-bat, because it was played on every single highlight show, it seemed. Strange to think that in those days the Braves experienced Yankees-and-Red Sox-like levels of popularity.

Before the 1997 season the Braves traded Dye to the Royals. In that trade they got a new right fielder, Michael Tucker. Tucker's uniform number in Atlanta? 24.

After two seasons of league-average offense from a corner outfield position the Braves traded Tucker to the Reds. In that trade the Braves got Bret Boone, who, like Tucker before him, inherited the Braves' number 24 jersey.

Boone lasted only one season in Atlanta before he was sent to San Diego. One of the players the Braves got back from the Padres was Wally Joyner, who, you guessed it, was assigned number 24.

The string ended when Joyner left as a free agent after the 2000 season, but it was impressive while it lasted. Has there ever been another case where four straight players who were all linked through trades wore the same number for one team?