Any Regrets?

Regrets?

There used to be two wrongs that made a bond between baseball players and fans—each group got the short end of the stick from their employers.  Money didn’t get in the way of rooting for a guy who would have to take a regular job come the end of the season and the end of his career.

Free agency and broadcast revenue broke that bond.  Now, a journeyman can enjoy multimillionaire status while the proverbial “cup of coffee” can translate into a pension to die for (or not).  The “boos” come out of the stands a little quicker these days as the unrich lose their patience over the on-field performance of the young rich.  So it goes.

   One of the risks of being an MLB ballplayer today is falling victim to the temptation of calling it quits, on the game, the season or a career.  As a kid, I can remember all sorts of players hanging on—Charlie Maxwell, Curt Simmons, Frank Lary.  As a hitter in the 1960s, you pretty much knew you were at the end of the line when the White Sox released you, as they did to the likes of Rocky Colavito and Ken Boyer.  Anybody in his mid-30s playing today is a fitness-freak and/or a lefty reliever.  When you’re a millionaire, it’s easy to walk away.  The Sox have had three pretty good players do that since Clare first started hitting a ball.  For openers, there’s Jack McDowell.

McDowell pitched 12 years amassing a 127-87 record, mostly with the Sox.  A feud with the front office led to a trade to New York and infamy as the “Yankee Flipper.”  (It had something to do with Yankees’ fans, wouldn’t you know.)  McDowell retired at age 33, in part due to arm injuries and a belief in his talents as a rock musician.  It didn’t hurt that he’d made just over $28 million during his career, either.

Jon Garland made nearly double that, $52 million over a 13-year career that saw him go 136-125.  Garland forever irritated me with an Alfred E. Neuman “What, me worry?” attitude on the mound.  I thought he could’ve been great, rather than merely good.  It seemed Garland was in it more for the money than anything else.

And then we have the now 38-year old Mark Buehrle, two years retired with a 214-160 mark over a 16-year career.  Buehrle retired four outs short of pitching 200 or more innings a season for 15 straight years.  As it was, he had two no-hitters, one of them a perfect game.  Thirty-five more wins from the age of 36 on and Buehrle would merit serious consideration for the HOF in Cooperstown.  But, hey, he made $138 million.

In fairness to Buehrle, he’s a Missouri boy who never took to the spotlight or city life.  He never really wanted to leave the White Sox in free agency after the 2011 season, but GM Kenny Williams knew better (yeah, right).  I have a hunch Buehrle would still be pitching, if it always could have been on the South Side.

Will he regret his decision to retire early?  McDowell and Garland seem to.  McDowell recently coached in the Angels’ system, and he’s now going to head up a brand new baseball program at Queens University of Charlotte, with the intent of having it ready to compete as an NCAA Division II program in 2019.  Garland was in Chicago last month for Buehrle’s retirement ceremony, pitched a little and said he’d like to come back at the age of 37.

Or maybe he shouldn't have retired in the first place.