{"id":653436,"date":"2026-05-20T00:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653436\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T00:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:58:15","slug":"for-one-day-the-mets-mistakenly-handed-out-gary-carters-no-8-to-nick-morabito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653436\/","title":{"rendered":"For one day, the Mets mistakenly handed out Gary Carter\u2019s No. 8 to Nick Morabito"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/p>\n

Though Gary Carter’s number isn’t officially retired by the Mets, it hadn’t been used in 24 years. Getty Images<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026Updated 7:40 pm EDT<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 For one night only, the New York Mets brought No. 8 back into use.<\/p>\n

Nick Morabito, freshly promoted from Triple-A Syracuse, was given No. 8 for his major-league debut<\/a> on Tuesday against the Washington Nationals. The Mets, however, hadn\u2019t handed out No. 8 in 24 years \u2014 not since Gary Carter had been inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.<\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s number is not officially retired by the organization. Coach Matt Galante had been the last to wear No. 8, in 2002; before Morabito, Desi Relaford, in 2001, was the last player to wear the number.<\/p>\n

Morabito, who wore No. 70 in spring training and No. 7 for Syracuse, will have a new number Wednesday, a Mets spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Although Carter\u2019s number hasn\u2019t been retired, he\u2019s long been a candidate for the honor.<\/p>\n

Starting in 2019, the Mets loosened the standards on number retirements. Before then, a player had to enter the Hall of Fame as a Met to receive the honor. Only Tom Seaver (41) and Mike Piazza (31) had done that. (Carter\u2019s Hall of Fame plaque has him in a Montreal Expos hat.)<\/p>\n

Since 2019, though, the Mets have retired the numbers for Jerry Koosman (36), Keith Hernandez (17), Willie Mays (24), Dwight Gooden (16), Darryl Strawberry (18) and David Wright (5). Managers Casey Stengel (37) and Gil Hodges (14) had their numbers retired. Jackie Robinson\u2019s No. 42 is retired throughout MLB.<\/p>\n

The club will retire Carlos Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s No. 15 this summer<\/a>; Beltr\u00e1n is the only player of that group who meets the Mets\u2019 initial requirements.<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

May 20, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though Gary Carter’s number isn’t officially retired by the Mets, it hadn’t been used in 24 years. Getty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,1189,99],"class_list":["post-653436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}