http://www.sportsmedia101.com/newyo...erek-lowe-announces-retirement-from-baseball/
Former New York Yankees P Derek Lowe Announces Retirement from Baseball
July 18th, 2013 at 4:05 PM
By Doug Rush
Long-time major league and New York Yankees pitcher Derek Lowe has announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Thursday, although he's not calling it a retirement, more like he's not playing anymore.
"I'm officially no longer going to play the game," Lowe told Tom Pelissero of USA Today. He later added, "I'm not going to go to the Hall of Fame, so I don't feel like I need to have a retirement speech. But I was able to play 17 years on some pretty cool teams and win a World Series. So, everyone's got to stop playing at some point, and this is my time."
Lowe came to the Yankees in the summer of last season after the Cleveland Indians released Lowe after half a season. The Yankees acquired him on August 13 and put him in the middle of the bullpen after some thought they might make him a starter, but Lowe was effective him his role. With the Yankees, he went 1-1 with a 3.04 ERA in 17 appearances with 14 strikeouts in 23.1 innings and recorded one save. He finished 2012 overall with a 9-11 record and a 5.11 ERA in 38 appearances; 21 of which were starts.
In 2013, Lowe signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers and was 1-0 with a 9.00 ERA in nine appearances before getting released by Texas in May. In June, Lowe told his agent Scott Boras to not look for any work for him, as it looked like he was contemplating retirement from baseball, which he has officially now done.
Lowe was a career 176-157 with a 4.03 ERA and 86 saves while pitching for the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Indians, Yankees and Rangers. He was in the infamous deal that sent him and Jason Varitek from the Mariners to the Red Sox for reliever Heathcliff Slocumb; a trade many consider to be one the worst ever made in Seattle history. Lowe spent three seasons as the Red Sox closer before becoming a starter in 2002; a season he went 21-8 and finished third in the A.L. Cy Young voting.
In 2004, he won all three deciding games for Boston in the postseason en route to the Red Sox winning the World Series, which lead to him signing a free agent deal with the Dodgers. Four years later in free agency, Lowe headed back East and signed with the Atlanta Braves and was traded to Cleveland before the 2012 year.
Before the 2009 season, the Yankees were considering signing Lowe in free agency, but decided to sign A.J. Burnett instead. Before 2010, the Yankees were rumored to be interested in trading for Lowe from the Braves, but they decided to deal for Javier Vazquez instead.
