Who was the best player to wear a particular jersey number? What number had the worst overall players associated with it? Here's my list... 1 Zenga 2 Cullen over Dunseth 3 Pierce, with a slight edge over Calichman 4 Burns (the competition was Roland Aguilera and Ian Fuller!) 5 Kamler by a hair over Chrono 6 Heaps beats out Aunger and Harkes 7 Hernandez gets the nod over Williams, McKinley & Goulooze. Graziani and Morales didn't play enough for us 8 Franchino over Baba 9 Who else but Joe-Max? 10 After this year, we hope it will be Nowak, but for now I've got to go with Gorter 11 Welton. For a "major" jersey number, we've had surprisingly poor players. 12 Joe-Max Moore wore this in 96 and 97. If Kante has a few more years like last year this would change. 13 Harris 14 Alvarez 15 This is a tough one. We've got Richard Weiszmann, Victor Mella, Patrick Tardieu, Patrick Olalere, Tom McLaughlin, and Shaker Asad. Give it to Shaker? 16 Almost as tough, but Jair actually was a decent player for us 17 Gio 18 Llamosa edges Keego 19 Rusty Pierce in his rookie year 20 Francis Okaroh 21 Raul Diaz Arce 22 Lalas beats out Jamar Beasley 23 Paul Wyle, by default over TF3 24 Aidin Brown 25 Colo 26/27/32 Causey, Coufal and Heaney were the only ones to wear those numbers 29 Mauricio Wright. You gonna vote for Hurtado? 33 Matt Okoh 77 Sunsing, and 88 Baicher -- like anyone else would wear those numbers? Tom
Wait......Francis was wonderful but Taylor IS #20. And then Alvarez over Ralston? Maybe the Alvarez of the 1990 World Cup. Maybe........ JIM DOW
Re: Unknowns - winners maybe? Cate and Beto were both #10 - I'd agree with Tom's pick of Nowak/Gorter there. I forget which number Waldo earned, but I've got a feeling is was in the early to mid-teens. Maybe 11? 17? By the way Tom - #23 was Kevin Wylie, not Paul.
I'd rather see Cate in #10, til Nowak earns his stars. He just had more output than Gorter. He pretty much kept us in the hunt for a playoff spot for most of the '01 campaign. Beto, well, I just remember this incredible goal he scored from the half-line. Wynalda scored a couple of times for us, right? Prof
How soon they forget. Gorter was the best of the lot, no question. Nowak hasn't played a game yet and we have yet to see him do anything so forget him. I also take exception with Lalas over Beasley. Beasley was exciting to watch. Lalas is a mucker. Also Twellman over Okarah. #15 - vote for "none of the above"
Ralston over Alvarez If all we're going by is performance as a Rev, I'll take Ralston over Alvarez after 1 season. 2000 is a good example. Leo played 28 matches, started 28 matches, logged over 2200 minutes, and was worth 4 points. How many 4 point *games* did Steve have last year alone?
Waldo wore #21 when he first arrived mid-2000 and switched to 11 for his short stay in 2001, after Baba was traded to Colorado, giving Franchino the #8 strip, thus freeing up Joey's #11 from 2000.
Doh! I can't believe I left off Ralston and Twellman, who I would rate above those who wore their numbers. So let me revise that and say Okaroh and Alvarez would win up until 2002. McKinley wore 14 most of his time here, but switched to Graziani's 7 when he was traded for Alvarez. If Ivy wore #15, he'd have won, but so would a lot of players... What I found interesting is that many of the numbers are members of the current team, which makes sense in that it's the best team we've ever had. Strange that we've still never had a better player than Welton wear the #11 jersey. Tom
Gorter was a great playmaker and all, but Cate WAS the Rev's offense for the 01 season. In spite of his efforts, we finished out of the playoffs. Without Cate, we would have possibly finished lower than the Mutiny of that season. I rank Cate there only because he played one season, scored goals in the double-digits (i think it was right about there), and kept the Revs in the hunt til the end. Gorter was more of an assist person, more of a Ralston than a Twellman, and who gets more credit? If Wynalda is 15, it's his. No question. At least he scored. What happened to Matt Okoh? He scored, like, 3 goals in 3 games at the beginning of the 01 season. Lalas loses. Period. He sucked till he got to LA. What number was Feuer? Are you sure? Show us the list of #11's. Wait, #25. Who? Prof
Again, who? And I give 11 to Waldo. Welton, like Lalas, sucked till he got to LA. And even then, he was a one-hit-wonder. Prof
These are the guys who wore #11 for the Revs: Welton Evans Wise Oscar Pareja Damian Alvarez Joe Franchino Eric Wynalda The reason I picked Welton was that at the time he wore the jersey he was one of out better players. Say what you will about him, but every time he touched the ball there was a buzz in the air as if something was about to happen. Sometimes it even did. So now he plays in a high school stadium for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, but I'd argue he did more in his time here than any of the other guys. You might argue that Joey F made a good contribution for the half-season he wore the jersey, but I still say it's Welton. By the time Waldo wore #11 he was on his way out. I don't know how many games he played in early 2001 before being shipped off to Chicago, but as far as I remember, he did absolutely nothing. He did score a few goals for us when he wore #21, but that doesn't count. Tom
Mary O'Gorry was crap, and we all know it. Besides, he will soon be a Metro, so if you didn't have a reason to hate him, you do now. Cheers, "Red"