Abrupt retirements

[Mizzougrad96]

Brandon Lloyd

 

[JackReacher]

Brett Favre.

 

[Versatile]

Allen Iverson still hasn't retired.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Versatile, your Schmidt stats are wrong. He played 108 games in 1988 and 42 in 89 when he retired. His numbers did drop off dramatically in 88, but they weren't so bad for the year he retired, although not great.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Brett Favre.

And by abrupt, you mean every year for nine years... :D

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Versatile, your Schmidt stats are wrong. He played 108 games in 1988 and 42 in 89 when he retired. His numbers did drop off dramatically in 88, but they weren't so bad for the year he retired, although not great.

I'll never forget that press conference. I've been to a few retirement pressers where athletes just sit there and sob, but I remember watching Schmidt's on TV and it rattled me at the time.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Babe Ruth --- quit on June 2, 1935, following an argument with Boston Braves owner Emil Fuchs, who had supposedly signed him with the promise to eventually make him manager

 

[Versatile]

Versatile, your Schmidt stats are wrong. He played 108 games in 1988 and 42 in 89 when he retired. His numbers did drop off dramatically in 88, but they weren't so bad for the year he retired, although not great.

My stats are not wrong. I left off the zero from 150.

 

[poindexter]

The Bjorn Borg one is very good.

 

[cyclingwriter]

Sidd Finch

 

[Gator]

Tiki Barber.

He was coming off three straight seasons of 1,500+ yards. That was a dispute with management, no? And the thought he could make more money on TV?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Versatile, your Schmidt stats are wrong. He played 108 games in 1988 and 42 in 89 when he retired. His numbers did drop off dramatically in 88, but they weren't so bad for the year he retired, although not great.

My stats are not wrong. I left off the zero from 150.

That seemingly would make them, by definition, wrong.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It's strange that the obsession with Magic was whether he was gay, rather than whether he was an IV drug user.

 

[Double J]

I remember being really surprised as a kid when Phil Esposito retired in mid-season in 1981, less than a year removed from a 34-goal campaign.

Bobby Clarke suddenly retiring three years later at age 34 to become the GM of the Flyers was another such moment.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Another I just remembered ...

Jackie Jensen --- hit 28 homers and knocked in 112 runs with the 1959 Boston Red Sox, then abruptly retired due to a paralyzing fear of flying (this was right at the time when teams were beginning to travel regularly by air)

Came back for a year in 1961, then retired again. He was 34.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Allen Iverson still hasn't retired.

Next week at the Sixers' home opener (so, yeah, anything but abrupt):

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2013/10/18/allen-iverson-to-officially-retire-oct-30-reports-say/

 

[Versatile]

Versatile, your Schmidt stats are wrong. He played 108 games in 1988 and 42 in 89 when he retired. His numbers did drop off dramatically in 88, but they weren't so bad for the year he retired, although not great.

My stats are not wrong. I left off the zero from 150.

That seemingly would make them, by definition, wrong.

The statistics other than games played were not wrong. And the games played statistic was wrong because of a typo (that would have been pretty easily understood had anyone thought about it for 10 seconds). It's fixed, anyway. I apologize for the error.

 

[Riptide]

Mike Reid.

And Double Down.

 

[Sea Bass]

Obviously not nearly on the same level, but Garth Snow retiring as the Islanders' backup goalie to become their GM was, well, unexpected.

 

[cyclingwriter]

I remember being really surprised as a kid when Phil Esposito retired in mid-season in 1981, less than a year removed from a 34-goal campaign.

Bobby Clarke suddenly retiring three years later at age 34 to become the GM of the Flyers was another such moment.

Didn't Clarke win the Selke his last season?

Also, Ken Dryden