Markets in Everything (A tribute to Tyler Cowen)

Jeff Feagles, the punter for the Giants, wore No. 10 until he sold it to the rookie quarterback Eli Manning last spring for a one-week vacation in Florida. Then Feagles switched to No. 17, which he sold this off-season to receiver Plaxico Burress for a new outdoor kitchen at his home in Phoenix.

Numbers for athletes obviously have significant meaning.

The Wall Street Journal also has an article on the significance to athletes of specific numbers. (Subscription required.)

That "such a subtle, meaningless thing" can trigger a visceral response reflects the power of tradition in baseball, says Tom Shieber, a curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He compiled a history of uniforms for the Hall's Web site. Uniform numbers are "the one thing people associate with the players they watched as a kid," says Mark Stang, co-author of "Baseball by the Numbers," an encyclopedia of more than 50,000 jersey numbers from 1929 to 1992. (MS: Yep, Willie Stargell, #8.) "You don't always remember the guy's batting average." Players can get so attached to numbers they will buy them off teammates' backs; in 1989, Rickey Henderson of the Athletics bought Ron Hassey a new suit in exchange for No. 24.