Bob CollinsJoe Mauer has decided to retire from baseball, he announced in a letter to fans.
In it, he said the answer to whether he should retire or not came in the last game.
“I realized in that moment that this was how I wanted to finish my career,” he wrote.
Good.
You can’t mess with perfection and for baseball fans, the gift of the sport are the rare moments of perfection.
Jack Morris’ 10-inning game, Carlton Fisk’s 1975 homerun in game six, Puckett’s “we’ll see you tomorrow night” blast, and Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit “I can’t believe what I just saw” World Series homer might rank a bit higher than what we saw in that last game on the scale of perfect moments, but not by much.
That Mauer, too, recognizes when it’s time to go, is a testament to his greatness. That two little girls get a full-time dad is reason for celebration, too.
In just the last game alone, he gave us more than we ever had a right to ask for.
