The Crane Pool Forum

Michael Brantley kicks off the hanging ’em up this year.

Nice second act in Houston after it looked like injuries had derailed an early promising career.

Ex-Met Collin McHugh hangs 'em up after an 11 year career.
https://www.si.com/mlb/mets/news/ex-met ... areer-pat3

Later

McHugh was running second to Justin Turner in the ongoing Longest Ago Met Still Active (LAMSA) derby, having made his Met and MLB debut on August 23, 2012. Unless Jeurys Familia gets another shot, we can bestow the 2012 Last Met Standing crown to Turner, who already owns the 2010 and 2011 versions.

Collin kept a blog in his minor league and rookie days. His wife’s Twitter was/is a trip. Baseball is better off with people like them.

Buzzy McHugh is the very model of the modern Metwife.

G-Fafif wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 3:11 pm McHugh was running second to Justin Turner in the ongoing Longest Ago Met Still Active (LAMSA) derby, having made his Met and MLB debut on August 23, 2012. Unless Jeurys Familia gets another shot, we can bestow the 2012 Last Met Standing crown to Turner, who already owns the 2010 and 2011 versions.

Collin kept a blog in his minor league and rookie days. His wife’s Twitter was/is a trip. Baseball is better off with people like them.

Oldest Typewriter Chewing Gum card of an active MLB'er:
2010 Rock and Roll Total Mets set



2023 Typewriter Chewing Gum Total + Mets set, Code Name: Mexico

Joe Smith, the last active Shea Met, has officially retired.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/ ... ement.html

Are you telling me that JJ Putz isn't still the best set-up man in baseball

2x CY Pitcher Corey Kluber decides to spend more time with his family ... or at least with somebody's family.

2015 World Series villain Eric Hosmer has announced his retirement.

Josh Donaldson has signed with the Baseball Retirements in 2024 thread.

Tony Wolters:

https://denversports.com/2110456/tony-w ... t-chapter/

The Nationals have slipped Stephen Strasburg's retirement onto the MLB transactions page.

Wonder if we'll ever get any of the details of that ugly breakup?
From a retirement day at the park all planned until a sudden cancelation leads to it all eventually winding up
two years later as the equivalent of an agate type announcement on the your local paper's legal notices page.

Talk about long-term contracts going bad. Ouch.

The thing is, while a mediocre reporter should be able to sniff out the details, there is financial motivation for all parties to stay silent.

As in the David Wright retirement, when a guy gets what looks like a career-ending injury in the midst of a long-term deal, he has a motivation to keep rehabbing, keep rehabbing, keep rehabbing, even if the work is futile and farcical, because just walking away would leave too much money on the table.

So the guy pretends he wants to get back on the field, the team pretends they care, the insurers pretend they don't notice everybody pretending, until a deal is finally negotiated where the team can claw back some of their commitment, the insurer can claw back some of their obligation, and the player can claw back some of his dignity. He finally gets to retire after a few years of silliness, having earned 65 cents on the dollar by playing no baseball, but everybody's got to stay hush-hush about the terms, because the agreement sort of means everybody agrees to look the other way at everybody else's fraud.

According to Bob Nightingale the contract wasn't insured

Even more reason to be bitter and detached.

The retirement ceremony probably was planned based on a buyout plan that fell through.

He instead stayed "active" and kept collecting.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/m ... 232676007/

Bob with the details, seems messy indeed