There's no easier solution to a NY Mets controversy than this

Losing 9-6 to the Washington Nationals wasn’t what a lot of New York Mets fans were up in arms about on Tuesday. It was the digit on the back of rookie Nick Morabito. On the back of his jersey, the non-retired number 8.

You don’t even have to have memories of Gary Carter to know the significance. The holiest of non-retired numbers the Mets currently have, no one has worn it since Desi Relaford in 2001.

Morabito will have a new number, the seamstresses at Citi Field hard to work to right a wrong someone made.

Howie Rose's disgust from the situation boiled down to this being the 40th anniversary of the 1986 championship. Time and place, this faux pas missed on both.

The Mets should just retire Gary Carter’s number if they’re not going to hand it out

Pick a lane. You either retire the number or you give it out. It’s really that easy. The Wilpon Era Mets were unusually strict about who had their number retired. Under Steve Cohen, it’s a free-for-all. Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Willie Mays, Keith Hernandez, and David Wright have all had their numbers retired. Only Wright couldn’t be considered overdue if deserved at all.

The Mets weren’t stubborn about holding onto 8 post-Carter. Several people have worn it after. Dave Gallagher in the early 1990s, Carlos Baerga in the latter part of the decade, and then Relaford all wore it. Probably because many of his 1986 Mets teammates have had their numbers hung from the rafters, plus the power of social media, has this become more of an open outcry.

Carter does meet many of the criteria for number retirement. He’s in the Hall of Fame albeit not with a Mets cap. He won a championship. He was adored by fans.

As short-lived as his career was with the Mets, it was as meaningful as anyone’s. Carter is often viewed as the finishing piece when he came to the Mets in 1985. A year later, they won it all.

A simple miscalculation by someone let Morabito get away with wearing number 8 for a night. There’s a chain of command for these kinds of things that we’re not privy to nor is it always the same in any given moment. The fine folks who put together the jerseys kept it simple by giving Morabito the next single-digit number available, 8. All other numbers from 1-7 are either taken or retired.

The next lowest number available and not retired other than 0 or 00 for Morabito would be number 20. At least there’s no controversy with that one, right?

It's a good thing Morabito has already chosen that he'll wear 55. The last Mets player to wear that: Richard Lovelady. A little payback for Lovelady celebrating a save like he won the World Series? We've already forgotten about you, Dickie.

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