Jorge Posada announces retirement

Jorge Posada was tired. Not tired of playing baseball. He might never get tired of that. But he was tired of doing everything that he needed to do to prepare himself to play baseball. When Posada didn’t push himself to do baseball workouts in the off-season, his inaction provided the answer that he knew was looming. It was time to retire.So Posada, the passionate player who reveled in being a catcher and being a Yankee, will never play another Major League game. We will never see him trace his children’s initials in the dirt again. We will never see him hold a bat with his bare hands again. We will never see him lumber around the bases like a reckless locomotive again. We will never see him contribute something vital to a win again.
Every player is supposed to care about winning. But there are some players who care more than others. Posada was one of those players who cared a bit more. As a boy in Puerto Rico, Posada watched how his father hated losing in softball and adopted that same feisty approach. If Posada played a sport, he decided then that he was playing to win. Posada carried that attitude throughout his glorious career with the Yankees, a career that began and ended with the same team.
When Posada officially announced his retirement on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees placed five World Series trophies on a table beside him. While Posada was a bit player in 1996, he was an important part of the championship teams in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. The Yankees paid Posada a major compliment by positioning that impressive hardware near him. No one needed a reminder about Posada’s desire to win, but the trophies provided it anyway.
If I had to pick a few words to describe Posada, I would pick passionate, proud, stubborn and honest. Posada was drafted as an infielder in the 24th round in 1990, but he somehow became one of the best offensive catchers of his era. A second baseman from a community college isn’t supposed to forge a career that ends with him being mentioned in the same sentence as Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey. But Posada, the son of a scout, made the unthinkable a reality.
A few minutes into Posada’s press conference, his eyes turned red and he began to weep. Then he cried again and again. It wasn’t surprising that Posada, an emotional man, was emotional on the day where he said good-bye to baseball. It was the only sport Jorge, Sr. allowed his son to play because his goal was to turn the kid into a Major Leaguer. The lifelong Yankee said there wasn’t a Plan B.
Now Posada needs a Plan B. But he doesn’t have a post-baseball plan yet, other than spending more time with his family. He was tired of preparing for baseball, not tired of baseball. But that fatigue helped Posada make his decision. We will never see Posada play again. The player who cared more than most knew it was time to retire, retire as a Yankee.