Talk:Jerry Remy

From BR Bullpen

Question: The quick end to Remy's career suggests that there must be some story behind the numbers we see here. Can anyone clarify how and why his career ended when it did? Remy's 1984 gamelog shows that he had a strong start in April, then struggled a bit, going 3-30, in his last week as a starter. Marty Barrett took over as the starting second baseman on May 6, and never looked back. Remy pinch hit 6 times over the next couple of weeks, drawing one walk, and played his last game on May 18. How did this all go down? Did Remy suffer an injury that told him it was time to retire? If not, then did he decide to retire once his job was given to Barrett, after some decline over each of the previous years? If so, was this an amicable departure? He was only 31. He was a big name player as I recall, though I was only 13 at the time. It seems as though he should have still had solid trade value - enough to bring in a prospect - and could have started somewhere else. But I also see he was born in Mass. and is still an announcer with the Sox. Did he not want to leave the Red Sox and go somewhere else, but also not want to hang on with the Sox as a backup? Was he immediately offered another job with the organization?

In short, the question is, why did he decide to hang up his spikes after going 0 for 1 on May 18th, when he was a starter up until 2 weeks before that, and seemingly could have kept playing - either as a backup with the Red Sox or as a starter somewhere else?

Thank you, CJS

He had a bad knee. The Sox put him on the DL on 5/22/84. He endured seven knee operations in his career and finally hung it up in spring training 1985. He originally hurt the knee sliding into home at Yankee Stadium on 7/1/79.