Earlier today, Curtis Granderson went to Twitter to announce his retirement from the game of baseball. While not the best baseball player on the planet, hearing that he was going to retire really struck a nerve with me. Granderson has seemingly been playing baseball since I started watching; he put together a 16 year professional baseball career.
Granderson was certainly not the best baseball player of his generation, but he was a joy to watch. I can’t recall an at bat that he didn’t take seriously and I can’t remember a better smile in the game of baseball. He was a three time all-star, two of which came as a member of the Yankees. He finishes his career with a .249 batting average, that .001 would really bother me if I was him. He also ended up with 344 career home runs and 937 RBI.
The base statistics are nothing special for his career, but the stats don’t tell the story of what Grandy meant to the game of baseball and to the teams he played for. Later in his career, he developed a real leadership role on the teams he played on and was always a class act. He played the game the right way and was a good teammate for young baseball players to look up to; while also being quite charitable off the field with his money and his time.
While Curtis Granderson certainly will not find himself inducted into Cooperstown, he is a hall of fame caliber person and teammate. In a sports world where it seems like every other day we hear about how athletes are not always model citizens, we never had to worry about that with Granderson; he is a hall of of fame caliber person.
Thank you Grandy, enjoy retirement and please find a job in media!
