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One final bow Gwynn, Ripken limp toward end of remarkable careers
Updated: Monday July 02, 2001 11:56 AM
Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn are about to embark on the last half of their last season in their respectively remarkable baseball careers. The gifts are being wrapped. The ceremonies are being planned. It should be a few months filled with fun and nostalgia for two of the best players of their time. But, please, don't look for some storybook ending. If their first halves are any indication, if the first half for their teams is a tip-off, the rest of '01 figures to be completely forgettable. Ripken, who made his Hall of Fame mark as an everyday player, has been relegated to part-time status for the struggling Orioles these days. He is hitting .227 in his 21st year in the big leagues. He is 40 years old. Gwynn, a machine at the plate his entire career, still can hit. In fact, he's hitting .333. But he's hurt. Again. So after 20 years as a major leaguer, a career that also will end in the Hall of Fame, he, too, will call it a career when the San Diego Padres end their season. He is 41. People talk, of course -- and by people, we mean fans, the media, people around the game, those confounded radio guys in every city -- about how Ripken and Gwynn are not the players they used to be. They talk about how they may have held on for too long. How they should've known when to quit. Nobody ever goes out on top any more, you know? "That's bull," says Atlanta Braves pitcher John Burkett, who at 36 is having one of the best years of his life. "To me, you've got to play it out." The whole idea that Ripken or Gwynn or any other aging ballplayer can taint a good career, a great career, by hanging on too long is like judging the Beatles on Let it Be or damning Marlon Brando because of The Island of Dr. Moreau. You miss the bigger picture. Beyond the obvious benefits -- Ripken is making $6.3 million, Gwynn almost $2 million -- there are plenty of reasons to stick around. For both the player and the team. "Older players," says Burkett, "add more than just numbers to their teams." In fact, there are almost no drawbacks to sticking around, if a player wants to and he can. What about the player's legacy? Sure, you can think back to Willie Mays in the outfield for the Mets in '73. At the end, the "Say Hey Kid" was stumbling around the outfield, it is said, a shell of his former great self. More likely, though, when you think of Mays you'll remember The Catch in '54, or you'll realize that the guy slugged 660 home runs, for goodness sakes, and what he did in his last year just didn't matter. There are dozens and dozens of Hall of Fame athletes whose last years were anything but Hall of Fame. Babe Ruth's swan song was a .185 year for the Boston Braves in 1935. Hank Aaron hit .229 in his last season, 1976, with the Milwaukee Brewers. Is Ruth remembered for '35, or his 60 home runs in '27 and the number 714? Do you remember Aaron for .229 in '76, or 755 for his career? Are Ripken and Gwynn diminished by this season? Or do you think of Gwynn as one of the best batsmen ever -- certainly one of the best of his generation -- and Ripken for 2,632 and a couple of MVP awards? "I say play till you're 50 if you can," says the Braves' Dave Martinez, a 36-year-old outfielder on his ninth team in his more than 15 years in the majors. "If I'm still capable enough to get people out, I want to keep playing," says New York Mets reliever John Franco, 40. "I don't care what writers or TV people or anyone else is saying." Burkett has a 2.39 ERA this season, second in the National League only to teammate Greg Maddux. When asked if he will know when to give it up, Burkett said, "I doubt it. But a lot of guys would have given it up already." The final act for great athletes like Gwynn and Ripken often times is not very pretty. But for Gwynn and Ripken and so many athletes like them, this isn't about what they did last. It's about what they did. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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