Derrick Goold reports that the Cardinals have issued number 32 to a player for the first time since 2007. The player who has it: catcher Rob Johnson. The last player to wear it: Josh Hancock, who was killed in an auto accident in April of that year.
Hancock, you’ll recall, was intoxicated, texting and driving 68 miles per hour when he smashed his SUV into the back of a parked flatbed tow truck. The Cardinals had not retired his number or anything, but they hadn’t issued it. It had been available to other players if they wanted it before Johnson took it, but no one did, making it for something of an awkward memorial.
As Goold notes, though, the Cardinals have so many numbers either retired or currently not in circulation because they may be retired one day, it was inevitable that someone was going to wear 32 again.
