Like professionals in many industries*, performers in the field of sport often don't know when to stop. Fans of baseball are no strangers to this social fact. In his last year, Babe Ruth batted .181,** about half of his lifetime .342 average. Willie Mays hit .211 with 6 home runs in close to half a year's worth of games in 1973. Bob Gibson went 5-10 with an ERA over 5 in his last year, 1975. Christy Mathewson was 12-18 with an ERA+ of 74 in his last two years (1915-1916). The names abound. Three-Finger Brown. Lefty Gomez. Robin Roberts. Lou Gehrig. All these men were clearly overmatched before they decided to retire.***
*Think Richard Nixon.
**Though, with a 118 OPS+.
***There have certainly been exceptions. Joe Dimaggio, Hank Greenberg and Tom Seaver were notable players who defied this rule, but the exceptions illustrate the rule.
Were they trying to hold onto the fame that they'd acquired, feeling that retirement would propel them into an abyss of depression? Perhaps. Were they, realizing that their livelihood was nearing its end, desperately trying to stick around and make as much money as possible? Perhaps. Were they, like nearly every other member of the human race, unwilling to admit that age had caught up with them? Perhaps. Were they simply continuing the course of work that they had been involved in for most of their lives? Perhaps.
But when you get down to it, many athletes, many people, stick around at their trade until they embarrass themselves and those who must watch them.
Which brings me to Jermaine Dye.
Coming off a 2009 season in which he batted .250/.340/.453 (103 OPS+), Jermaine Dye found himself without whatever he deemed an "appropriate" job offer. His hitting last year was not without value. Had he made a statement in which he said something about being less than 2 years removed from a 34 home run season, well, that would be a nice marketing job. Had he said something about being less than 4 years removed from a 44 home run season, well, that would seem rather weak, if not entirely irrelevant.
But, no. According to this, Dye said (in February) “It has only been 41/2 years since I was the World Series MVP.” Which, seriously, says just about nothing.
Honestly, for a man who got some MVP consideration in 2008, is he really attempting to get a job because of a good week (4 games, by the way) he had in 2005?
I don't know about you, but if I were him, I'd be talking about the 133 homers I hit from 2006-2009, not the four-game set in Fall 2005 in which I hit one.
