Two Retirements

Mike Sweeney, one of baseball's good guys, signed a one-day contract with the Royals in order to retire with the organization he spent most of his career with. Injuries took their toll in him but when he was healthy, he was lethal with the bat. He ends up with 215 homers, 909 RBI's and a very healthy .297 average. He'll be a Hall of Famer...the Royals Hall of Fame that is. Sweeney also played for the Athletics, Mariners and Phillies. In his only post season at-bat, he singled for the Phils. Hopefully Sweeney will stay in the game in some capacity.
Another guy who announced his retirement today was Mike Hampton. Frankly, I forgot he was still pitching. He won only 10 games in the past 5-seasons. Overall, Hampton won 148 games, lost 115 with an ERA of 4.06. At times a very good pitcher, as evidenced by his 22-4, 2.90 season in 1999 with the Astros. But injuries took their toll and he missed a ton of action. Hampton, addition to the Astros, pitched for the Mets, Rockies, Braves and Diamondbacks. He was also a great hitting pitcher.
The lefty also made a ton of money, over 124-million in his 16-year career.
While baseball will miss Sweeney, I'm not sure how many people will miss Hampton. I've never met Sweeney but have heard only good things about him. I have met Hampton, since he was a Rockie for two seasons in 2001 and 2002, and I found him to be a paranoid, salty, little jerkoff. He was always very skeptical of the media in my opinion and even when things were going very well, he seemed to be miserable. I just didn't like the way he treated people. If I made the kind of money he did to play baseball, I'd like to think I'd enjoy it more then Hampton did.
I won't miss Mike Hampton and I'm glad I won't have to read about him going on the disabled list again.