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 What's will all these comeback attempts? Eric Gagne, Jim Edmonds, Preston Wilson, Paul Lo Duca.... the list seems to go on and on with someone new coming out every day?
These guys just can't seem to let it go and turn the page. Heck, I guess if I could have the fame and fortune I wouldn't either.
There have been no real notable successful comebacks in baseball that I can think of.
Some have stayed around too long. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays come to mind. If they were not the icons they were, they wouldn't have even made their teams It was a shame watching them play towards the end, they were merely a shell of their former selves.
For the most part, the really great ones knew when to leave and there was no return to the game for them when the tyrant of age has diminished their skills. They knew when to call it quits forever -- Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and all the others. They would not risk disgracing themselves by playing the game too long, and knowing that unlike basketball one misplay by a ballplayer, one insufficiency, could cost his team the game. DiMaggio wouldn't even suit up for those old-timers games towards the end.
Pride has always been a factor with baseball players. Cobb quit, at 41, after hitting a decent .323 for the Philadelphia A's but that number was intolerable to a man who had a .367 career average. Mention of Cobb recalls the colloquy of the two fans that went like this: "How much do you think Ty Cobb would hit against today's pitching?" . . . "Oh, about .300." . . . "Is that all?" . . . "Well, remember that Cobb today would be 100 years old."
Almost every year it seems that someone gets the bug and gives it a whirl. Some actually make it back for a bit. Recently there have been a few noteworthy players that have attempted comebacks and made MLB rosters. They weren't the All-Star players we remembered, but they contributed. Juan Gonzalez is one that comes to mind that played for a bit, Carlos Baerga is another.
At least the guys that are trying now will be going to spring training, and if they make the team, will have made it on their own merits. I always hated the way Roger Clemens went about it.
Ricky Henderson tried to prove himself in the independent leagues with the Newark Bears, but he gave up after they put him in the HOF. Dennis ‘Oil Can' Boyd tried last year at 49 years old 18 years after he turned in his spikes. The guy thought he was, Satchel Page!
The worst attempted comeback I can remember though was by Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. Palmer won three World Series, three Cy Young awards and was elected into Cooperstown in 1990. But still he wasn't satisfied. In 1991, he attempted a comeback, six seasons after he had retired, at 45 years old.
When he was trying to come back, while working out at the University of Miami, Hurricanes assistant coach Lazaro Collazo approached Palmer and said, "You'll never get into the Hall of Fame with those mechanics," to which Palmer replied, "I'm already in the Hall of Fame!"
The Orioles felt obliged to give him a chance during Spring Training, but after giving up five hits and two runs in two innings of work, Palmer subsequently gave up on his comeback, and retired.
Most of these comebacks fail with the player never walking away in spring training realizing that he's wasting his time. I can remember thinking "what the heck is he doing?" when HoJo tried to comeback with the Mets in '97.
I don't see any of these guys making any type of impact even if they do make rosters, but I guess it's better to be in the show in any capacity you can then to not be there at all. Hey who knows, perhaps one of these guys will show up on my Rotisserie team this year? - Peter Costa (a.k.a. Roto Loser)
Pete is a serious Rotisserie participant playing the same league with the same guys for 18 years. Not only has Peter never finished in the money; he's now finished last 14 times and no higher than 10th (in a league with 14 guys). Join us in following Peter's trials, tribulations and frustrations, as he attempts to navigate his way out of the basement again in 2010.
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