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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: The Red Sox Did Not Retire 3B Wade Boggs' Number until 2016

Even readers who are not sports fans will know that, since the 1930s, one of the honors sometimes accorded to very popular/successful athletes is for their teams to "retire" their uniform numbers, theoretically keeping any other player from that team from wearing that number (sometimes the "retirement" proves to be something less than permanent, though).

What readers might not know is that sometimes the number retirements are, for lack of a better term, politically fraught. Wade Boggs, to take the example from this headline, was clearly one of the greats in Boston Red Sox history, and most certainly cleared the bar for "deserves to have his number retired" with room to spare. However, he did not get to play his entire career with the Sox, and as a result, there was a lot of bad blood between him and the team after he moved on to the Yankees and the Rays. Consequently, it took 17 years after his playing career had ended, and 12 years after he was elected to the Hall of Fame, for the team to finally make good on the inevitable number retirement.

To continue on this theme for just one more moment, there's actually a Los Angeles example that has generated a fair bit of local chatter this year. There is only one team in the NBA that has zero retired numbers (other than Bill Russell's #6, which is retired league-wide), and that one NBA team is the Los Angeles Clippers. Part of the problem is that the team has been pretty crummy for most of its existence (founded 1970). The other part of the problem is that the team has generally traded away AND alienated its few star players.

This year, it seemed that the "curse" was finally about to end. Chris Paul has played for many teams, but he had a long and productive tenure with the Clippers, and he re-signed with them at the start of this year, with the idea that he would have a "farewell tour" season, would retire at the end of the year, and then the team would retire his number shortly thereafter (even, perhaps, on the day of his final game).

The problem is that the Clippers, who are kind of the Trump Administration of basketball teams, could not help but shoot themselves in the foot. The relationship with Paul went south, and they cut him from the team halfway through the season, and in humiliating fashion (they told him he was done in a meeting held at 3:00 a.m. in a hotel room in Houston). So, there will be no number retirement for Paul anytime soon, and the rafters of the Clippers' godawful new arena will remain empty for the foreseeable future, since the team is not going to be retiring any numbers, or hanging any championship banners, anytime soon.

Anyhow, just a sidebar inspired by the headline. When we last did a headline theme, 2 weeks ago, we gave two hints. The first was: "[W]e don't like to do Sports two weeks in a row, but given what yesterday was, our hands were somewhat tied." The second was: "[Y]ou should really pay attention to the 5,000+ word answer" in that day's Q&A. And here is the solution, courtesy of reader A.R. in Los Angeles, CA:

Baseball terms!

In Congress: Congress Can't Solve the DHS Pickle—runner is trapped between two bases and usually tagged out

Legal News, Part I: DoJ Feeling the Squeeze from Federal Judges—play involving a sacrifice bunt to score a runner from third

Legal News, Part II: How to Steal from the Government, in Two Easy Steps—as in, a base

Money Moves: Trump Gets Even Closer to Being a Monarch—pitcher coming in at the end of the game

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Sugar Ray Robinson Won 109 Fights by K.O.—notation indicating a pitch was a strike

This Week in Schadenfreude: Maybe Utah Republicans Can't Count—pitch count, the number of balls/strikes

This Week in Freudenfreude: Save the Planet, Trump Be Damned—the closer finishing off the game successfully

We also accepted "Monarch," as that was the name of Kansas City's very good Negro Leagues team. The day before we ran this theme was opening day, and the 5,000-word answer on Saturday was about the greatest baseball players of all time. Meanwhile, there is much in the headline for this item that is baseball related, but the thing that's actually a baseball term is "3B."

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

R.N. in Cleveland, OH
B.D. in Hood River, OR
K.S. in San Diego, CA
T.A. in Apex, NC
R.S. in Milan, OH
S.K. in Ardmore, PA
R.S. in Landing, NJ
M.W. in Altea, Spain
P.Q. in Metuchen, NJ
G.S. in Basingstoke, England, UK
T.K. in Manchester, MO
M.T. in Wheat Ridge, CO
M.S. in Canton, NY
J.S. in Huntington Station, NY
C.W. in Atlantic Beach, FL
K.M. in Ypsilanti, MI
J.F. in Fayetteville, NC
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
M.J. in Oakdale, MN
C.F. in Miami, FL
M.K. in Seattle, WA
P.H. in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
G.W. in Avon, CT
J.M. in Eagle Mills, NY
R.E. in Birmingham, AL
C.B. in Lakeville, MN
P.A. in Redwood City, CA
M.M. in Charlottesville, VA
S.W. in Winter Garden, FL
P.R. in Havertown, PA

M.K. in Long Branch, NJ
E.S. in Acton, MA
D.B. in Pittsboro, NC
R.S. in Pittsgrove, NJ
J.H. in Flint, MI
A.B.W. in New Haven, CT
B.E. in Brooklyn, NY
M.M. in Dunellen, NJ
L.D. in Bedford, MA
E.B. in North Liberty, IA
B.U. in St. Louis, MO
W.M. in Livonia, MI
D.D. in Bucks County, PA
J.M.R. in Muncie, IN
R.S. in Tonawanda, NY
K.H. in Matyville, TN
K.L. in Sterling, VA
T.F. in Craftsbury Common, VT
J.W. in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
K.B. in Troy, MI
B.J. in Ann Arbor, MI
D.C. in South Elgin, IL
K.R. in Austin, TX
J.M. in Chapel Hill, NC
G.M. in Gaithersburg, MD
N.S. in Los Angeles, CA
J.E. in San Jose, CA
M.J.S. in Gig Harbor, WA
G.R.R. in Claremont, CA
H.S. in Lake Forest, CA

The 60th correct response was received at 7:24 a.m. PT on Friday.

For this week's theme, it relies on multiple words in most headlines, and it's in the category Numbers. That's actually a really good hint by itself, but on top of that, we will add a visual clue:

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line April 10 Headlines. (Z)

This item appeared on www.electoral-vote.com. Read it Monday through Friday for political and election news, Saturday for answers to reader's questions, and Sunday for letters from readers.

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