Jim Edmonds Announces Retirement

Photo Courtesy: blogs.riverfronttimes.com

Arguably one of the most exciting centerfielders of our generation is calling it quits. After 17 seasons, Jim Edmonds is hanging up the spikes. He finishes his career a 4-time all-star and 8-time gold glove winner, and he won a World Series ring with the Cardinals in 2006. He hit .284 with 393 homeruns, but Edmonds impact was really beyond the numbers. The guy used to make plays that nobody else would make, and he did it with style. The videos speak for themselves:

Edmonds Highlights

This one's a little painful since I'm an Astros fan, as this play arguably saved Game 7 for St. Louis and paved the way for the Cardinals to the 2004 World Series:

Edmonds robs Ausmus

For the last decade or so, Edmonds has been something of a nemesis of mine. With the exception of the Pirates, he played for every team in the NL Central other than Houston, so the Astros got to see plenty of him every single year. And it always seemed like he killed us. On both sides of the ball too. Before he made that catch in Game 7 of the 2004 NLCS he hit a walkoff homerun off Dan Miceli to win Game 6 in the bottom of the 12th. It seemed like he must've hit .600 or so against the Astros. I'm sure it wasn't that high, but you get the idea, he always seemed to come through when he was needed. The guy really was one of the great ones. I don't know that he'll ever be a Hall of Famer, but he truly left his mark on the game.

Photo Courtesy: flickr.com