(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)
When Joe Kruzel was a walk-on player at the University of Toledo, the only number that was left when selecting uniforms was the No. 13.
Since then, that's been his lucky number.
Come mid-January, the St. Louis Cardinals announced Kruzel would become the manager of the Springfield Cardinals — the team's Double-A affiliate — to replace Johnny Rodriguez.
Shortly after, Kruzel was asked what number he wanted to be.
Of course, he wanted to be No. 13.
But there was a slight problem with that.
Scott Smulczenski, the Springfield Cardinals' vice president of baseball and business operations, had never let anyone wear that number.