Prime Numbers

The first thing Christian Fauria did after signing a free-agent contract with the Washington Redskins in March was make a phone call. It wasn’t to his wife, his parents, or even his agent. It was to his new team’s equipment manager.

“I said, ‘Dude, hold that number!’ ” said Fauria, who wanted to keep the No. 88 he had worn as a tight end for the New England Patriots. “I had to make sure he kept it.”

For Fauria, and countless other athletes, the first stop on the road to success is jersey city. The thinking: Before you start putting up big numbers, you have to put on the right one.

That’s why New Orleans Saints rookie Reggie Bush was adamant about keeping the No. 5 he wore in high school and at USC. He lost that fight when the NFL’s competition committee wouldn’t budge on its rule that running backs must wear numbers 20-49. Bush reluctantly chose 25, cutting a deal with new teammate Fred McAfee, who had worn the number for eight of his nine seasons.

Bush will donate 25% of his jersey royalties to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, and half of those funds will be distributed by McAfee to a charity of his choice.

By all accounts, the Bush-McAfee deal was a friendly transaction. That isn’t always the case.

When running back Clinton Portis became a Redskin two years ago, he agreed to pay $40,000 to safety Ifeanyi Ohalete for the right to wear 26. Although Portis paid $20,000 up front, he refused to pay the other half after Ohalete was cut by Washington and signed by Arizona. Ohalete filed suit, and the matter was resolved before trial when Portis agreed on an $18,000 payment.

Jeff Feagles, punter for the New York Giants, scored big in consecutive seasons by twice selling his number, first swapping No. 10 with quarterback Eli Manning, then selling No. 17 to Plaxico Burress. Manning paid for a Feagles family vacation; Burress bought an outdoor kitchen for the punter’s Arizona home.

“It’s not like you’re buying it off the rack at Foot Locker,” Fauria said. “You’re wheeling and dealing.”

The reasons are, well, numerous:

* Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers wears 68 because he’s a Czech, and the number is to commemorate the Prague spring rebellion of 1968.

* Gilbert Arenas, a guard for the Washington Wizards, wears 0 because that’s how many minutes his critics predicted he’d play as an Arizona freshman. (He averaged 32 minutes that season.)

* Kevin Frandsen, a San Francisco Giants infielder, switched his number from 8 to 19 this spring to honor his late brother, D.J., who battled cancer for 19 years before dying in 2004 at 25.

* Mario Lemieux wore 66 for the Pittsburgh Penguins as an upside-down tribute to Wayne Gretzky, who wore 99 and is the only NHL player to have his number retired by all member clubs. Gretzky originally wanted to wear 9 in honor of his idol, Gordie Howe, but it was taken when he joined the junior team in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. The team’s general manager suggested he take 99 instead.

* Shavlik Randolph, a Philadelphia 76ers forward, wears 42 because it’s half of the 84 his grandfather, Ronnie Shavlik, wore in the 1950s as an All-American basketball player at North Carolina State.

* In soccer, Brazil often gives its top attacking player 10, worn by Pele. In rugby, there’s a position called “No. 8,” and the player wears a shirt with that number.

The Lakers’ 8 doesn’t plan to wear that jersey anymore. Kobe Bryant is switching next season to 24, the number he wore when he first played at Lower Merion High in Ardmore, Pa. By 1996, when he led his team to the state championship, he had switched to 33, his father’s high school number.

Bryant, whose jersey was the fourth-best seller in the NBA this season, wore No. 8 because it was the number he wore as a kid playing in Italy, and it was also the sum of 143 -- one plus four plus three -- his number at Adidas’ ABCD Camp.

According to an ESPN report, Bryant’s decision to change numbers might be related to a dispute with Adidas, the company he used to endorse. Adidas is remaking Bryant’s first signature sneaker, the KB8, as the Crazy 8. The thinking is that Bryant, who now wears Nikes, can stick it to Adidas by changing his number.

Linebacker Brian Bosworth wore different numbers in his first two NFL games. When the league said it wouldn’t allow him to wear 44, his number at Oklahoma, Bosworth got a one-game restraining order two days before kickoff and wore the number for Seattle’s exhibition finale against Kansas City. For the season opener a week later, he switched to the league-approved 55.

“It becomes your identity,” former San Francisco quarterback Steve Young said of a player’s number. “When guys sign their autographs, they put their number down too, as if they wouldn’t be whole without it. I have fought that. People say, ‘Put your number down.’ I’m not a number.”

Some numbers stand out more than others. Ron Artest, the combustible Sacramento Kings forward, wears 93 -- just one other NBA player has a number greater than 62 -- because to him it represents “infinite intensity.” He was a mathematics major at St. John’s.

Ninety-three is a good fit for Artest, said an expert in numerology, the study of occult meaning in numbers. The 93 “reduces” to 12 -- the sum of nine and three is 12 -- and the 12 reduces to a 3.

“The three energy tends to be a bit scattered,” said Daniel Hardt, president of the Life Path Numerology Center in Indianapolis. “All of Ron’s numbers are somewhat emotional.... He’s going to act more from his emotions than he will from his logic.”

Another good fit, Hardt said, is the 18 worn by Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. The 1 and 8 on that jersey reduce to a 9 “which is a number of perfection and idealism.”

As for Bryant, Hardt said, changing numbers is a good thing.

“Not that the 8 is bad, but the 24 is much better,” Hardt said. “The 24 reduces to a 6. And the 6 relates to the O in his name, the first vowel.... If he were to consult me, I’d recommend the change.”

But Hardt believes Bush blew it by picking 25.

“That probably wasn’t a good choice,” Hardt said. “The 5 was excellent for Reggie. The 25 reduces to a 7, and the 5 and the 7 are at opposite extremes. The 5 is out to do anything it’s big enough to do, whereas the 7 is contemplative and introspective and cautious. It tends to be aloof. It’s not Reggie’s number for sure.”

However, Hardt pointed out that while 7 wouldn’t be a good number for Bush, numbers apply differently to individual players. In other words, what worked for John Elway might not for Bush.

Hardt said a combination of numbers that add up to five would be a better fit for Bush. Such as 32, the number worn by Magic Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson. Or 23, which was worn by Michael Jordan.

Running back Edgerrin James has, like Bush, lobbied the NFL to wear his college number, 5, but has done quite well with 32.

That Bush had to switch in the first place bothers Paul Hornung, who was a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Notre Dame before converting to halfback in the pros. Throughout his Hall of Fame career, he wore 5.

“I think it’s ridiculous, what the NFL’s doing to Reggie Bush,” said Hornung, who wore the number in honor of baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, his boyhood idol. “My God, they’ve got one of the greatest kids ever to come into the NFL, a kid who’s going to sell tickets wherever he goes, and they’re not going to let him wear No. 5? Let the kid wear his college jersey.”

Bush used to have the same front as Hornung. Now, Hornung has his back.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

By the numbers

A look at some of the players who made the uniform numbers famous, from 00-99, with a decided West Coast bias:

00 -- Jim Otto, AFL

0 -- Gilbert Arenas, NBA

1/8 -- Eddie Gaedel, MLB

1 -- Ozzie Smith, MLB

2 -- Tom Lasorda, MLB

3 -- Babe Ruth, MLB

4 -- Bobby Orr, NHL

5 -- Joe DiMaggio, MLB

6 -- Bill Russell, NBA

7 -- Mickey Mantle, MLB

8 -- Cal Ripken, MLB

9 -- Ted Williams, MLB

10 -- Pele, Soccer

11 -- Isiah Thomas, NBA

12 -- Joe Namath, NFL

13 -- Wilt Chamberlain, NBA

14 -- Pete Rose, MLB

15 -- Bart Starr, NFL

16 -- Joe Montana, NFL

17 -- John Havlicek, NBA

18 -- Peyton Manning, NFL

19 -- Johnny Unitas, NFL

20 -- Frank Robinson, MLB

21 -- Roberto Clemente, MLB

22 -- Elgin Baylor, NBA

23 -- Michael Jordan, NBA

24 -- Willie Mays, MLB

25 -- Barry Bonds, MLB

26 -- Jon Arnett, NFL

27 -- Juan Marichal, MLB

28 -- Anthony Davis, USC

29 -- Eric Dickerson, NFL

30 -- Nolan Ryan, MLB

31 -- Mike Piazza, MLB

32 -- Magic Johnson, NBA

33 -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, NBA

34 -- Walter Payton, NFL

35 -- Doc Blanchard, CFB

36 -- Robin Roberts, MLB

37 -- Casey Stengel, MLB

38 -- Eric Gagne, MLB

39 -- Larry Csonka, NFL

40 -- Gale Sayers, NFL

41 -- Tom Seaver, MLB

42 -- Jackie Robinson, MLB

43 -- Richard Petty, NASCAR

44 -- Hank Aaron, MLB

45 -- Bob Gibson, MLB

46 -- Todd Christensen, NFL

47 -- Mel Blount, NFL

48 -- Lee Smith, MLB

49 -- Satchel Paige, MLB

50 -- David Robinson, NBA

51 -- Dick Butkus, NFL

52 -- Mike Webster, NFL

53 -- Don Drysdale, MLB

54 -- Goose Gossage, MLB

55 -- Orel Hershiser, MLB

56 -- Lawrence Taylor, NFL

57 -- Steve Howe, MLB

58 -- Jack Lambert, NFL

59 -- Jack Ham, NFL

60 -- Chuck Bednarik, NFL

61 -- Bill George, NFL

62 -- Charlie Trippi, NFL

63 -- Gene Upshaw, NFL

64 -- Jerry Kramer, NFL

65 -- Tom Mack, NFL

66 -- Mario Lemieux, NHL

67 -- Kimo Van Oelhoffen, NFL

68 -- Jaromir Jagr, NHL

69 -- Jon Runyan, NFL

70 -- Sam Huff, NFL

71 -- Alex Karras, NFL

72 -- Carlton Fisk, MLB

73 -- John Hannah, NFL

74 -- Merlin Olsen, NFL

75 -- Deacon Jones, NFL

76 -- Lou Groza, NFL

77 -- Red Grange, NFL

78 -- Bruce Smith, NFL

79 -- Bob St. Clair, NFL

80 -- Jerry Rice, NFL

81 -- Tim Brown, NFL

82 -- Raymond Berry, NFL

83 -- Ted Hendricks, NFL

84 -- Jack Snow, NFL

85 -- Jack Youngblood, NFL

86 -- Buck Buchanan, NFL

87 -- Dwight Clark, NFL

88 -- Lynn Swann, NFL

89 -- Fred Dryer, NFL

90 -- Neil Smith, NFL

91 -- Dennis Rodman, NBA

92 -- Reggie White, NFL

93 -- Ron Artest, NBA

94 -- Charles Haley, NFL

95 -- Richard Dent, NFL

96 -- Pavel Bure, NHL

97 -- Cornelius Bennett, NFL

98 -- Tom Harmon, NFL

99 -- Wayne Gretzky, NHL