Spencer Robert Strider switches to No. 99 in honor of “Wild Thing”

Spencer Robert Strider, an American professional baseball pitcher for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB) has changed his jersey number to No.99

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At the Truist Park’s press conference room on Saturday, Strider bid goodbye to his No. 65 rookie jersey.

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Reportedly he switched to No. 99 to pay homage to his favorite fictional baseball character from the movie Major League.

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He said, “My favorite movie is Major League and I like Rick Vaughn…I see some similarities between Wild Thing and myself.”

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Major League is a classic sports comedy movie of 1989, featuring Charlie Sheen as Rick Vaughn.

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In the movie, Vaughn was a hard-throwing pitcher wearing No. 99 jersey known by his fans of Cleveland as Wild Thing.

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In his high school years, he wore jersey No. 28 which was previously worn by Seth Beer, a prominent college baseball player.

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Later he wore No. 29 which was also taken by John Smoltz, a professional baseball pitcher of his time wearing the number during his hall of Fame career in baseball.

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Strider had difficulty wearing the number of his choice because of its unavailability. So he resided with No. 65 last year. But this year he proved that he is the Wild Thing by choosing to wear No. 99.

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