Thursday, December 27, 2012
Hardball Talk: Hideki Matsui announces his retirement
Not necessarily a surprise, but Hideki Matsui has announced that he is retiring. He will hold a press conference in New York to make it official.
We last saw Matsui when he was released by the Rays last August after 34 games. But before that Matsui had himself a nice career. Ten years in the bigs, mostly with the Yankees, during which he hit .282/.360/.462 with 175 homers and 760 driven in. He was the 2009 World Series MVP too, going 8 for 13 with three homers against the Phillies.
I’ll always remember Matsui fondly for 2009 of course, but the play I think about first—and I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before—when it comes to him is the play where he broke his wrist while diving to make a catch. It was a bad enough injury that it put him out for close to four months and the pain must have been excruciating, but his first impulse was to get the ball back into the infield and not to hold his wrist in agony.
But yeah, 2009 was pretty sweet too.
Farewell Godzilla, and thanks for the memories.
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