This week in baseball headlines we learned that Mark Mulder
was forced to give up his comeback attempt after a five year hiatus due to yet
another injury. It called to mind the
great many players who retired too soon from the game after showing great promise.
Ryan Dempster was also in the news this week, voluntarily
walking away from $13.25 million for the 2014 season to spend more time with
his family and to work on the foundation honoring his daughter who is suffering
from DiGeorge Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that makes muscular control
extremely difficult, requiring a feeding tube and therapy simply to
swallow. Between a nagging neck injury
and his 10 month old daughter’s situation, Dempster felt he could not devote
the proper focus to play at a professional level. By walking away, he’s actually going to lose
money as his agent still gets his cut despite Dempster being put on the
restricted list.
In 2011 Gil Meche felt he was not earning his $12 million contract and told the Kansas City Royals he would instead retire rather than take their money for a subpar performance.
About seven years ago Keith Foulke reached a similar
conclusion while playing for the Cleveland Indians. After serving as a leading closer in Boston,
he realized that his body was just not up to the challenge and felt it was
wrong to take Cleveland’s money for the duration of his contract.
Closer to home, we saw that uber-prospect Reese Havens also
hung up his glove this year after realizing that the injuries that plagued him
throughout his career curtailed his big league career even before it got
started.
I’ll never forget as a child when Johnny Bench decided to
hang it up at the age of 35. Unlike
others who walked away due to a myriad of injuries like Ralph Kiner and Sandy
Koufax, Bench simply felt he could no longer perform at the Hall of Fame level
he’d established throughout his career.
As a child I was disappointed to see such a huge star bow down, but as
an adult I realize the courage and fortitude it took to make that
decision.
Al Rosen once hit 43 HRs and drove in 145 for the Cleveland
Indians while hitting a robust .336 but three years later at just age 32 he gave
up the game.
Original Met Jay Hook lost 19 games in the inaugural 1962
season and then retired at age 28 to take a job with Chrysler instead of
continuing his baseball career.
Hall of Famer Al Spalding walked away from the game in his
20s not due to injury but because he felt his future was better with his
fledgling sporting goods company that bore his name.
Of course, there are others who persist through a multitude
of health maladies, determined to make it back.
Grady Sizemore is one example of someone with a world of talent who has
not been able to play steadily since 2009.
Jenrry Mejia is another example of someone who was no longer in fans’
heads, yet last year put on a Matt Harvey-like show in five starts before yet
another injury felled him for the rest of the year.
Who are some of the players that you were impressed that
took the high road when they realized they just couldn’t do it anymore? There are probably far more Frank Franciscos
who urged others to do as little as possible and just keep collecting a
check. Former Met Derek Bell was pretty
public about his “Operation Shutdown” with the Pirates who eventually cut him
but were still obligated to pay him.
3 comments:
back in the day when $$ was less of an issue, a run-of-the-mill lefty named Sandy Koufax packed it in, but he was not on a multi-year.
Stan Musial I believe suggested a 20% pay cut for himself after a mediocre (for him) year.
Kershaw makes more to pitch one inning than Stan did for playing an entire season (of course, I am leaving out inflation).
Then there's the flip side, exemplified by Willie Mays (and, more recently, Jason Bay, who stayed around too long and embarrassed themselves and their team when it should've been obvious they were done.
I was trying to stay away from the huge number of players whose career was cut short by injury. That was true of Sandy Koufax, Herb Score, Ralph Kiner and many others. That is a circumstance that can't be helped. I was pointing out there were many others who left the game of their own volition not necessarily directly related to injuries.
To Metsiac's point on Mays and Bay, there were many others who hung around too long. Steve Blass was another one...Robbie Alomar, George Foster, Mickey Lolich and a few other Mets for sure.
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