Abrupt retirements

freqposter

 

I think it's fair to wonder if Wagner essentially walked away from a shot Cooperstown. A long shot. But a shot.

 

Bobby Doerr retired at age 33. He had sustained a back injury late in 1951, but didn't need surgery for it and it eventually healed on its own. Just decided he'd had enough.

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/afad9e3d

Has Mike Mussina been mentioned yet?

 

I guess it's not very Abrupt, but this one is for Baron.

Magnum T.A.

 

Allie Reynolds did somewhat the same thing. He went 13-4 and was an all-star in 1954 (age 37). However, he got a fairly large settlement stemming from a bus accident, looked the idea of going to spring training any maybe getting a pay cut and hung it up.

 

I don't think so. He had less than 1,000 career innings, and a couple more 35-save seasons wasn't going to get him in Cooperstown if guys like Lee Smith and John Franco can't get in. (I realize Wagner was a better pitcher than both of those guys, but career saves is all voters would have looked at).

 

Bo Jackson

 

If we're talking about football, that was a catastrophic injury. If we're going to include those, there's hundreds of guys we could mention.

If we're talking about baseball, he hung around another three years after the hip injury. I don't count that as "abrupt."

 

I was thinking Baseball. Would put him pretty much in same category as Albert
Belle

 

Good Lord. Yeah, it was something like that. Oh, and he also returned to the NBA.

Also, abrupt is abrupt.

 

I couldn't recall if that was before or after he retired, smartass.

 

Ok. But retirement is not retirement if you COME BACK to play.
Judging by the responses on this thread it's pretty loose definitions of both.