FanHouse Willie McGee

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That things got weird, awfully weird, at Petco Park on Sunday. The Diamondbacks carried a five-run lead into the ninth inning against San Diego thanks to seven innings of one-run ball by Dan Haren and a scoreless inning of relief by Tony Pena.

Then the wheels really fell off.

Juan Gutierrez and Chad Qualls surrendered five runs in the ninth, the last three of which came on a game-tying home run by light-hitting David Eckstein. Eckstein has 20 career homers in nine professional seasons, and a career slugging average of .359. So if you're keeping score, one of the most punchless players in the majors went deep in the most cavernous park in baseball, and things were only starting to get interesting.

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Apparently, this movement has been around for a while, as some very appreciative Cardinals fans started selling t-shirts with "Retire 46" on it, in honor of former Cardinal, Italian Olympic pitcher, and current Nationals pitcher Jason Simontacchi ... and in reference to the more famous "Retire 51" movement, an attempt to get the Cardinals to retire Willie McGee's number 51. As for the "Retire 46" movement, it appears that after all this time, it has reached all the way to Simontacchi himself:

After beating the Brewers to even his record at 6-6 on Saturday night, Simontacchi was sporting a green T-shirt bearing the inscription "Retire 46," a reference to the jersey number he wore when he broke into the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals.

"It's just a joke," admitted Simontacchi. "They're pushing to retire Willie McGee's number, 51, so these guys made up these shirts and a Web site."

Simontacchi has no plans on retiring any time soon - not after fighting his way back to the majors after going 20-10 in 83 games with the Cardinals from 2002-04. He missed 2005 after surgery to repair a torn right labrum. He's still regarded as a cult hero in St. Louis. "They've always treated me real well," he said. "People in St. Louis are always really, really good to me when we're there."

Just being a healthy Nationals pitcher should be reason enough to have your number retired. That's not easy in Washington, DC. Now if only he'd bring back those high socks ...

Previously on The Fanhouse:
Nationals Starters are Dropping Like Flies