Four years ago I suggested a parlor game of my own devising. As I recall, it came from my staring at a four-digit clock on a treadmill.

Start with a year and match it with any event that happened in the 365/366 days attached to that year. For instance: 2016, Cubs win the World Series … 1941, Pearl Harbor attack.

Whoever can correctly match the highest number of years-with-events in a countback — consecutively, that is — wins. Any incorrect pairing, and the contestant is out of the game.

(This might be fun for history classes in high school or college. I never copyrighted the idea, so feel free. Then again, nearly nothing is new under the sun; somebody probably already has done this, though I have not yet heard of the board game called “Counting Down the Years”.)

Another idea that has been knocking around in my head for a while and, as far as I can tell, I have not suggested previously in the 3,000 or so entries on this blog is this one:

Pair the name of an athlete to every jersey/shirt/sweater number you can manage, starting with zero and working up consecutively. It can be any sport … but it has to be a number you can prove that person wore.

It will be good for figuring how much junk is cluttering your brain … and it also will peg you to a certain era of sports history — probably corresponding to athletes active between your own fifth and 20th birthdays. When you were a fan and when your memory was sharp.

(It also will reveal your favorite sports teams.)

Let’s see who I come up with … and I have done no prep for this.

Here we go!

0 — A bunch of NBA guys have worn 0, but the guy I am most confident about having worn it is a 20th century outfielder named Oddibe McDowell.

1 — Pee Wee Reese, I think. Dodgers shortstop. And so many soccer goalkeepers that I’m not even going to go there. Maybe the most confident/arrogant/presumptuous number an athlete can wear.

2 — Tommy Lasorda, Dodgers manager. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees.

3 — Babe Ruth. When he began wearing a number, about halfway through his career. Or Willie “Three Dog” Davis, Dodgers outfielder.

4 — Uh-oh. This should be easy, such a low number … I’m going to come back to this. A Yankee? A zillion soccer guys … I’m pretty sure Brett Favre wore it. I’m going with him. (Maybe Lou Gehrig, but don’t hold me to it.)

5 — Brooks Robinson, Baltimore Orioles third baseman. I wore No. 5 in high school baseball because of Brooks.

6 — Steve Garvey, Dodgers. Bill Russell, Boston Celtics.

7 — Mickey Mantle, pretty sure. Cristiano Ronaldo.

8 — Kobe Bryant. Also John Roseboro, 1960s Dodgers catcher. It was like they occurred to me simultaneously. Yogi Berra. Clint Dempsey.

9 — Again, a soccer player? Why is it their numbers do not stick with me? I know thousands of really good players have worn 9, but I am having trouble coming up with one I’m sure wore it. It could be I recognize soccer players from their shape, not their numbers? Hmmm. OK, Wally Moon, Dodgers outfielder. Yeah, that’s just weird.

10 — Landon Donovan, Lionel Messi, 10,000 other soccer forwards.

11 — Mesut Ozil, Arsenal forward. (I watch Arsenal a lot.)

12 — Tom Brady. Joe Namath. Lots and lots of quarterbacks.

13 — Wilt Chamberlain. Kinda perverse, for him to do that, but maybe he knew it was his bad luck to be a contemporary of Bill Russell. Dan Marino, too, I think, who never won a Super Bowl.

14 — Dan Fouts, San Diego Chargers quarterback. Took a long time to get that one.

15 — Davey Lopes, Dodgers second baseman.

16 — Andre Ethier, Dodgers outfielder. Joe Montana, quarterback.

17 — Ugh. Lots of NFL quarterbacks, but none I am sure about.

18 — Bill Russell, Dodgers shortstop. Roman Gabriel, Rams quarterback.

19 — Lance Alworth, NFL receiver.

20 — Don Sutton, Dodgers pitcher.

21 — Eddie Meador, Rams safety.

22 — Ack.

23 — Michael Jordan kinda owns this number. Sorry, LeBron.

24 — Walter Alston, Dodgers manager.

25 — You’d think …

26 — Wendell Tyler, Rams running back.

27 — Willie Crawford, Dodgers outfielder.

28 — Wes Parker, Dodgers first baseman.

29 — Harold Jackson, Rams receiver. Had to go away and come back to dredge it out of the memory banks.

30 — Maury Wills, Dodgers shortstop.

31 — Wow. In my mind no one has ever worn 31 — when I know hundreds of NFL guys have

32 — Magic Johnson, Sandy Koufax, O.J. Simpson … a popular number.

33 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

34 — Elvis Peacock, Rams running back. (Not making this up; I promise.)

35, 36, 37 … Wow. I am hitting a wall. From here on I will go only with numbers I’m fairly confident about.

43 — Jim Jodat, Rams running back. Stuck in my head somehow.

44 — Jerry West, Lakers. John Riggins, NFL running back.

47 — Jackie Robinson. (Oops. This is WRONG. It was 42. Subtract 10 points from my total.)

48 — Bill Simpson, Rams safety.

49 — Rod Perry, Rams cornerback.

51 — Dick Butkus, Chicago Bears linebacker.

52 — Rick Kay, Rams linebacker.

53 — Don Drysdale, Dodgers pitcher.

56 — Lawrence Taylor, New York Giants linebacker.

60 — Dennis Harrah, Rams guard

61 — Rich Saul, Rams center.

63 — Me, in high school football. Also Jerry Kramer, Green Bay Packers.

66 — Mario Lemieux, NHL player. Ray Nitschke, who had a great name for a linebacker. NICHE-kee.

70 — Jim Marshall, Minnesota Vikings lineman. (Yet I am not sure what number his more celebrated teammate, Alan Page, wore.)

74 — Deacon Jones, Rams lineman.

75 — Merlin Olsen, Rams lineman. (WAIT. This one and the previous are switched. Jones wore 75, Olsen wore 74. Each is in the Hall of Fame. Subtract 20 points.)

77 — Doug France, Rams lineman.

78 — Jackie Slater, Rams lineman.

80 — Jerry Rice, San Francisco 49ers receiver.

81 — Ron Jessie, Rams receiver. (Where did that come from?)

85 — Jack Youngblood, Rams lineman.

89 — Fred Dryer, Rams lineman.

90 –Uh-oh. Lots of NFL defensive linemen have worn numbers in the 90s, but I am having trouble fixing any of them to a specific number.

99 — Wayne Gretzky, Mark Gastineau, NFL lineman.

100? Has anyone every worn triple digits in a significant sports league? I think not.

Wow. I thought I would do far better than that. I have hunches for several of those blank numbers, but I went only with those rising to the “pretty sure” level.

Pretty much any semi-serious sports fan would do beat my score — which is correctly linking 50 numbers with a player who wore that number.

The thing about being old is … you can dredge up some numbers from 50 years ago, but you don’t have a high level of certainty for anything from the past decade.

Lots of lists are out there, to search, if you want to see … like all the QBs who wore No. 17.