Query: "I've got your number."

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:57 AM -0400 3/17/10, victor steinbok wrote:
>Actually, it's neither--what I understand form the context, it refers
>to the actual NUMBERS, as in "data", provided by the witness. In some
>cases it's an accounting document with monetary figures, or an
>administrative document with the number of employees or recruits, etc.
>It is these NUMBERS that are referred to as YOUR NUMBER.
>
>As for baseball players wanting each other's numbers, I suspect that
>Wellington's usage WRT regiment numbers predates them by close to a
>century (early players were less preoccupied with the numbers--in
>fact, I wonder when the numbering system on uniforms entered sports).

It was after Ruth and Gehrig were already established in the Yankee
lineup (in the late 1920s and early 1930s) as the third and fourth
hitters in the lineup, whence the assignment to them of the uniform
numbers 3 and 4 respectively.  As VS says, long after the Wellington.

LH

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