Did everybody see that Mark Grace has announced his retirement? Click Here (arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com)
Apparently he opened the press conference on Friday by saying, "I suppose you've all heard by now, but I've signed a contract extension for another 2 years." Which left everybody confused as all get out. He looked over at Jerry Colangelo (who effectively owns the D'Backs) & said, "What? You didn't tell them?" We love Gracie.
Today was supposed to he his last start. (Why they're not starting him tomottow confuses me! But then, I was there today.) He got about 3 different standing ovations, which was very nice. Brenly pulled him out for a pinch runner in about the 6th inning after his second hit, & we gave him a really nice, long standing ovation then. It was all pretty cool.
That's too bad. Grace has always been a closet favorite of mine; it's sad to see him go.
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Every episode has the potential to be the best one ever, and I'll be damned if I'm going to miss it after sitting through this shit.
I'm going to miss seeing Mark Grace. Good quality ballplayer.......but he still ain't no Rafael Palmeiro.
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Gracie came in for 1-1/3 innings in the 6th & early 7th today. Got 2 beautiful plays & another standing ovation. The announcers said that basically Bob Brenley told Mark that it was "his party" & that he could do it whatever way he wanted -- which I thought was hugely classy.
Also very nice was at the end of the game, when pretty much the entire Cardinals team came over to shake hands with Mark. Very, very nice.
Yeah, it's sad, but at the same time he isn't the same player anymore. he'll find something to do, Jay Bell's also supposed to be doing something with the organization...
I have no idea what you're talking about. You won 10-20 years ago, so you're supposed to win now? Players get old... good players often get overpaid and screw up a successful team's salary structure...