The all-time great player of the Minnesota Twins officially announced his retirement due to his wife.
It was a harmless play in an unmemorable game, so harmless that the box score doesn’t include it. However, it ultimately altered Twins history.
Joe Mauer announced on Friday that he had played his final game, but the decision dates back to that game in Anaheim in mid-May. Mauer stumbled to the ground, trying to make a lunging catch on a foul pop fly that was just out of reach. The impact had jarred the St. Paul native’s head and stung his neck, but he got up and resumed the game. Within days, the diagnosis was made: another concussion.
It was a harmless play in an unmemorable game, so harmless that the box score doesn’t include it. However, it ultimately altered Twins history.
After suffering multiple concussions in 2013, Mauer had to give up his preferred position as a catcher. He missed a month of action.
In his letter to Twins supporters, Joe Mauer stated, “The decision came down to my health and my family.”
to bounce back and complete the season, even capping off with a spectacular last-day catch behind the plate. But that seemingly insignificant foul ball forced him to make the difficult decision to give up his beloved sport in favor of “what is best for me as a husband and a father,” since he had a wife, two daughters, and a third child on the way.
Former closer Joe Nathan will formally announce his retirement this Friday, September 1st, the Twins announced on Tuesday.
Officially,” in this sense, means that Nathan is scheduled to visit Target Field for a press conference. In addition, the team will honor their all-time saves leader with a pre-game ceremony.
I’m not sure if this also includes one of those contracts that last for one day to “officially” retire as a Twin, but it doesn’t really matter to me. Forever, Nathan will be a twin.
Not only is Nathan the greatest reliever for the Twins ever, but he also goes down as one of the greatest relievers in baseball history. With 377 career saves, Nathan is eighth all-time in Major League Baseball history, and he had just one before turning 29. He was an All-Star six times and twice placed in the top five vote-getters for the Cy Young Award. as a buffer. That isn’t typical.
Indeed, among pitchers with at least 250 saves in their career, Joe Nathan holds the highest career regular-season save percentage, as noted by Aaron Gleenman. greater than even Mariano Rivera, despite the fact that Nathan didn’t pitch as much or for as long as Mo did, and he wasn’t quite as good in the postseason.
While writing this, I found myself crying uncontrollably, even though it is not surprising that Nathan, who is 42 years old and has been trying to make a comeback for a few years, is retiring. The Twins’ success in the 2000s was largely due to Nathan. I got going, considering how amazing it was to watch him pitch and how much of an honor it was. “Stand Up and Shout” would play over the Metrodome speakers as he ran out to the mound for the ninth, and we would all, you know, stand up and shout—or rather, scream. It must have been rather daunting in a location as boisterous as the dome.
