A's Retiring of Rickey's Number Imminent?

After the A's announced that they were holding a "Rickey Weekend" a few weeks ago, complete with a ceremony before the game on Saturday, I guessed that this was probably going to be to retire Rickey's number.

Looks like I may have been onto something, as the following was in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday:

"In another sign the A's are preparing to retire Rickey Henderson's jersey number, catcher Kurt Suzuki switched from No. 24 to No. 8 this spring.

"He's a Hall of Famer and they're retiring his number, so that's a good enough reason," Suzuki said Monday. "No complaints on my end. Rickey deserves to have his number retired. I just agreed."

A's equipment manager Steve Vucinich said there has been no official decision about retiring Henderson's number and noted that the team waited until the year after Dennis Eckersley was elected to the Hall to retire the closer's No. 43.

There have, however, been rumblings that the A's are pointing toward this year to put No. 24 on the outfield wall, and a team source said not to be surprised if it happens sooner rather than later this season."

I've been a fan of Suzuki since he came up, but it has been a little weird seeing him in Rickey's #24. There was a little discussion about which number the A's would retire (since Rickey wore #35 during his first stint with the A's), but it looks like it's going to be #24, which is the number that I most associate with his playing days.