10 Worst Career-Ending Performances of All-Time
From SABR member Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times on September 26, 2011:
It’s that time of the year again. The regular season is winding down, and with it quite a few major league careers will come to an end.
Everyone wants to go off with a nice storybook ending where you get the bit hit or throw the perfect strikeout pitch to win the game at the end and then walk off into the sunset with a John Williams score playing in the background. Or something like that.
But, of course, that really almost never happens. In fact, a player is far more likely to go out quite differently than that. After all, if you’re still capable of hitting the big blast or making the clutch out, someone will take a chance on you next year.
Thus, most guys have a sad final act to their careers. Sad, but true.
But not all finales are equally sad. The question arises: Which players had the worst endings to their careers? On a literal level, I’m sure the answer is a bunch of guys you never heard of before. The worse the player, the more likely his last game wasn’t very good.
But who cares about those guys? Let’s look at the better players. They’re the ones that matter. Which one of them had the worst ending?
Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ten-worst-career-ending-performances-of-all-time/
Originally published: September 26, 2011. Last Updated: September 26, 2011.