ESPN’s Mike Greenberg and Paul Hembekides’ new book, Got You Number: The Greatest Sports Legends and the Numbers They Own, provided one of my best hours in recent memory.
On a lazy Sunday evening, without having read a chapter and working from an assumed idea of what Got Your Number was about, I sent a text to my three brothers listing five numbers (12, 27, 41, 72, and 88) and a statement:
‘Bros, tell me who owns these?’
The next hour was spent basically ignoring my wife (oops), kids (yikes), and all household responsibilities to engage in an all-out text debate that ranged from serious to funny to crude to hilarious. There were mentions of Eddie George and William “Refrigerator” Perry, Michael Irwin and Lynn Swann, even Shawon Dunston and Daryl Waltrip, and a bunch of 1985 Chicago Bears.
Yes, it was a glorious hour – all because of Greeny and Hembo’s new book.
I spoke to Greeny about Got Your Number , his first sports book, just the other day:
So sure, Got Your Number is about jersey numbers, athletes, and sports history, but the book provided an opportunity to reconnect – with my brothers, other loved ones, with friends, on social media – through sports. The book will connect people through all sports, in fact, NASCAR to tennis to soccer to America’s pastime.
Greeny and Hembo’s Got Your Number will reach my door on its publication date, Tuesday, April 4. I’ll be done reading it by Thursday. I plan to make my teens read it this summer (they need to understand that MJ is the GOAT!:)
Reading the book, though, is only the tip of the iceberg of its importance for me.
Got Your Number will have a legacy in my house as I check-in with my sports-crazed brothers, my dad, and friends (new and old) to use the book to connect – something that has been pushed aside in favor of soccer practice and dance classes in my life all too often.
I’ll even reconnect with those loved ones over topics the book doesn’t include but fans the flame of – the jersey “owners” of our favorite teams, the greats of college sports, and the players that we’d long forgotten about loving as kids (remember Ron Cey?).
I cannot wait to read Got Your Number.
But, even better, I can’t wait to talk to loved ones about it soon. Because, even if it has been far too long since I’ve used it, I “got” their numbers, too.
Buy the book here.
