Hanging Up the Spikes

Below are the most significant retirements of this season. These are players who made it to the show, made major contributions, maybe earned some hardware along the way and are now moving on to life after baseball.

Virgil Clark none none Age: 38 B/T: L/L Born: Ottawa, ON Position(s): P View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Ralph Donatello none none Age: 36 B/T: R/R Born: Oklahoma City, OK Position(s): C View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Dennis Garcia none none Age: 36 B/T: L/R Born: East Moline, IL Position(s): C/DH View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Alberto Molina none none Age: 37 B/T: R/R Born: Princeton Junction, NJ Position(s): SS View Hardball Dynasty Profile

For the Love of the Game Award: Many players dream of making it to the big leagues, landing that monster contract and winning the World Series. For every player who makes it big, for every Pedro Pascual there are dozens of other players that you’ve never heard of. Those players who will toil in the experience that is minor league baseball, but never make it to the bigs. Minor league baseball is a grind. Long bus rides, dank hotel rooms, alcoholic coaches, backwater towns, moldy locker rooms and gimmicky promotions all must be dealt with. The “For The Love of the Game Award” is given to the recently retired player who never made it to the bigs, but toiled in the minors. Every season we will giving this award to the player who most reminds us of Crash Davis and takes those blue chip prospects under his wing and shows them the ropes on their way to the top. These are the unsung pros upon which the Satchel Paige League is built. Those players who know they’ll probably never make it all the way, but show up every season and play simply for the love of the game. This season’s award goes to….

Aaron Roosevelt none none Age: 34 B/T: R/R Born: Grandview, WA Position(s): 2B/CIF/OF/DH View Hardball Dynasty Profile

Roosevelt epitomizes what it means to be a minor leaguer. He made his living with his defensive versitility, not with his bat. In his minor league career, Roosevelt spent most of his time at 2B, but also spent major stints at 3B, CF and in RF. His hitting certainly wasn't impressive. Although he did manage to rack up 1539 hits in his 16 year pro career, he was a singles hitter and he struck out... alot. He whiffed 1200 times and only had 171 extra base hits. He did have some speed with 193 steals, but was certainly a bottom of the order type of player. It was pretty obvious early in Aaron's career that he wasn't destined for the majors, but he stuck around anyway. He's now retired back home to coach the local community college baseball team.