SAN FRANCISCO (AP)-- Originally, as a young player greater than a years earlier, Buster Posey had a tough time understanding just how the San Francisco Giants strive to humanize their gamers, to attach them with a fan base that desires nothing more than to be familiar with the celebrity professional athletes it supports.
https://www.baseball-humour.com/bust...ys-farewell-3/
He absolutely gets it now. He values his location in leaving enduring memories for family members to value and also give, as well as what he implies to attaching a neighborhood-- and also all those Bay Area dogs out there called Buster as well as Posey.
" It's possibly something early in my occupation that I assumed was a wild-goose chase," Posey shared. "And I really did not comprehend it. But as the years have passed I've understood simply how impactful that can be. If it affects one person in a positive method it deserves your time."
The popular catcher provided a heartfelt bye-bye to baseball on Thursday following an embellished 12-year profession with the Giants during which he won 3 Globe Series championships and assisted a lengthy list of celebrity pitchers, however also an equally remarkable career off the field such as his determined commitment to pediatric cancer and helping others.
" I make sure there are youngsters out there today that have actually viewed me play my entire occupation. They actually may be adults now," Posey stated. "There's parents and also there's grandparents, aunties as well as uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins that can still remember exactly where they were when Edgar Renteria struck the game-winning homer in Texas that led the 2010 San Francisco Giants to their initial World Series title."
Part of the factor he is walking away at 34 after one of his ideal seasons yet is to invest more time with his four children. And no doubt he will be hectic. Posey opted out of the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season after he and other half Kristen embraced prematurely born child ladies to sign up with older twins Addison as well as Lee.
" I intend to be able to do more things from February to November with my family," he stated.
The pull by doing this has been there a while now for the seven-time All-Star.
" I believe the year off possibly did play into the choice a little," Posey claimed. "I didn't approach the season and also state this is most definitely it. ... I can honestly say no, playing the method I did really did not sway me, as well as I believe that belongs to the factor that I do really feel tranquil with my decision."
The Giants had actually been prepared to exercise Posey's $22 million club choice for 2022 if he wanted to play, but he had a notion before this record-setting, 107-win Giants season began this could be it.
" I type of went into this last period feeling like it could be my last," Posey said. "Simply provided myself some area in my mind to be alright with making a decision otherwise if I intended to maintain having fun and also I actually just never ever fluctuated."
Even after he batted.304 with 18 homers and 56 RBIs, resilient down the stretch as his body was feeling it though he revealed his surgically repaired right hip had lastly recovered 3 years after surgical treatment.
Posey said he easily could have called it a job five years ago and attributed the training personnel for maintaining him on the area.
The 2010 NL Rookie of the Year, Posey returned from a destructive, season-ending leg injury in 2011 to win NL MVP the following year.
He tore 3 tendons in his left ankle joint as well as broke a bone in his reduced leg when he was run over by the Marlins' Scott Cousins on May 25, 2011. Posey responded by winning the 2012 batting crown and MVP honors while leading the Giants to a 2nd World Series champion in a three-year span. In all, he won Globe Series titles in 2010, '12 and also '14.
Major League Baseball took on a rule restricting home base crashes ahead of the 2014 period after Posey's injury triggered a reassessment.
" Buster, there's no far better than him for me. I've been lucky to have some fantastic ones on both sides, as far as his presents as well as abilities and the person that he is, he's right up there on top," former Giants supervisor Bruce Bochy claimed.
Posey shared details minutes from each Globe Collection win and indicated Matt Cain's ideal video game, also.
" To me this is what envelops baseball. It's a lot greater than just winning or losing video games," he said. "It's about the moment invested with family members, the countless nights and days pulling for your team, riding the emotions of the highs, riding the feelings of the lows, and inevitably appreciating individuals that you're with in the process and making excellent memories. I'm so very humbled to have played a part in several of those memories. To the followers, thanks for all your assistance I have actually obtained the last 13 seasons."
Previous San Francisco left-hander Barry Zito uploaded a thoughtful tribute to Posey on Twitter.
" You were 60 feet from me in my greatest and also worst moments in baseball. Your rational approach to the game motivated me as well as every other gamer that entered those Giants storage locker areas via the years," said Zito in a section of his lengthy article. "I wager you had no idea."
Now, the Giants should consider life without Posey behind home plate.
" Is this like a precise, for certain thing?" president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi quipped, "I just had to ask."