Hip Hip! Jorge Posada Officially Retires, Yankees Down Another Legend

By Eric Marmon

Had New York Yankees slugger Jorge Posada wanted to continue playing professional baseball, it seems plausible he could have found a general manager somewhere willing to take a flyer on the 4x World Series Champion. In the end, however, the seventeen year vet opted for retirement, saying he “could never wear another uniform” and that he “will forever be a Yankee.”

Truer words are rarely said.

Another member of the Yankees Core Four has officially retired. Posada joins Andy Pettitte in trading in a baseball glove for a golf club, and while he doesn’t leave the kind of hole on the roster that Pettitte did a year ago, he leaves an immeasurable hole in the hearts of Yankee fans everywhere who vividly remember the nonstop travels down the Canyon of Heroes just over a decade ago.

Posada’s final scorecard will describe him as a .273 career hitter with 275 home runs, 1,065 RBIs, five Silver Slugger Awards, five All-Star game invitations and four sparkling World Series Championship rings. Perhaps more memorable will be the t-shirts he made up with the phrase “grind it” on the front, a tribute to his unquestionable work ethic. While not a sure-fire Hall of Famer, Posada has put his name alongside Yankee catching legends Yogi Berra, Bill Dickey, and Thurmon Munson. He ends his career with more hits than all but 13 Yankees, topping Munson, Paul O’Neill, and Phil Rizzuto, to name a few.

Alas, in the end, Posada’s very existence on the Yankees roster was an awkward one. His final manager was the guy he once replaced, his catching duties were stripped from him due to defensive awfulness, and his once feared bat had become so inconsistent it got him demoted to the bottom of the Bronx Bomber line-up.

Regardless, Jorge Posada will be remembered not by his final season, but by the 16 before it, an unbelievable run for any player, made more remarkable by the physically-demanding position he played for its majority. Posada epitomizes what a “true Yankee” is, a fact made more certain at his final press conference on Tuesday where the pinstriped catcher quoted the great Joe DiMaggio in saying “I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee.”

Take this opportunity to help out The Jorge Posada Foundation, which assists families dealing with Craniosynostosis.

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Tags: derek jeter, Jorge Posada, new york yankees, Posada retirement