This Houston Astros reliever decided to change his jersey number to honor a former Giants legend for his 2025 season debut.
Good morning, baseball fans!
Have you ever had a moment where something called you old without saying that directly? Because that’s how I felt when reading this news about Houston Astros relief pitcher Forrest Whitley.
Chandler Rome of The Athletic posted on the app formerly known as Twitter announcing that Whitley was changing his jersey number to 55. This is in honor of his life-long favorite baseball player, former San Francisco Giants starting pitcher and Forever Giant Legend Tim Lincecum.
I have conflicting feelings about this. Mostly, I love it. As one of Lincecum’s biggest fans myself, I think it’s really neat. However, Whitley is 27. Lincecum is his life-long favorite player. Life-long. He would have been roughly nine years old when Lincecum debuted.
I can feel my body disintegrating into ashes as I write this.
My faux-pain aside, I still think it’s a neat thing to do. Whitley debuted in the 2024 season and wore the number 60. His 2025 season was delayed due to a bone bruise on his knee that saw him start the season on the injured list. But he is now active, and donned Lincecum’s number for his debut on Monday, in which he pitched two hit-less innings with two strikeouts.
I think Lincecum would respect that.