World Champion Cardinals Resign Jim Edmonds!

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Though he is getting old, think it is a great move for the Cards to resign their CF Jim Edmonds to a 2 yr 19 million contract. Cards were not going to pick up the option at 12 million for one year but 2 years under 10 million a year is much easier. Though there will likely continue to be diminishing returns, Edmonds has earned the right to retire with the Birds and Bat on his shirt which will likely happen at the end of this contract.
 

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Holla Holla KOJ were still Champs brotha!!

I was glad to see Jimmy resign, he's up there in years and you probably won't get a full year out of him but he's a good leader and has earned the right to retire a Redbird. Now let's hope we can Weaver or Suppan back or land a big arm it seems Walt is wanting to add a bat as well.
 

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http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/35700561/ns/sports-baseball/
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<HR>Blyleven: It’s not easy letting go of the game
Edmonds, Griffey and other vets should keep playing as long as they can
OPINION
By Bert Blyleven
updated 12:39 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 4, 2010
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After missing all of the 2009 season, former All-Star outfielder Jim Edmonds was recently asked by a St. Louis writer why he was attempting a comeback with the Brewers in 2010. His response?
I don’t know.”
Edmonds may have had a hard time putting his thoughts into words, but I’m guessing that he is going through what every ballplayer experiences when he is at the tail end of his career. He loves the game. He probably can’t think of anything he would rather do, and he probably feels too young to be retired (In what other profession would someone retire from a job he loved at age 39?) He may have lost a step, but he still feels good, and his swing still feels strong.
And perhaps most importantly, he knows he can still play.
“I’m not trying to be disrespectful,” Edmonds told the writer, “but if I was healthy, I could do as much or more than 85 percent of the guys out there.”
Most baseball players, like Edmonds, are ferociously competitive, and that fire continues to burn even when the skills begin to deteriorate. That’s why you see so many aging players having a hard time walking away from the game. It goes far beyond Edmonds.
Ken Griffey Jr., 39, has happily taken on a role as essentially a player/coach with the Mariners. Omar Vizquel, almost 43, will stick around to tutor the young White Sox infielders. Tim Wakefield, 43, will continue to toss the dancing knuckler for the Red Sox. Tom Glavine, 43, spent the whole offseason struggling with his decision before finally opting to retire.
And Pedro Martinez, 38, and John Smoltz, 42, will probably find teams by mid-season, if not sooner. As a successful ballplayer, when you feel that you can compete, that’s exactly what you want to do. It’s that simple.
And why shouldn’t you? I’m a believer that if you feel you can be productive for your team, make them rip that uniform off you.
Griffey entered the majors at age 19 and is now entering his 22nd season. For him, like Edmonds, the decision to walk away isn’t so simple because he can still play.
In Griffey, the Mariners are not only getting a power hitter, they’re getting a leader and a guy who can school the younger guys. That’s a huge key. I think Griffey always was a leader, but in a different way. He’s calmed down a bit as he aged and he’s more relaxed, yet he feels he has more to offer. He’s more outspoken than he used to be, in a positive way, as a leader. He’s helping the younger guys and he not only knows what his role is, he’s embraced it. This is his way of giving back to the game.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Griffey stays in the game in some capacity after he retires. Baseball needs guys like him, a star player who has never been touched by the steroid scandal. He did it the right way, and I think anyone who played the game admires him for doing that. And if he hits another 19 home runs like he did in 2009, the Mariners will be very happy with that.
If Griffey stays healthy, it will be tough for him to call it quits. As I found out, it can be difficult to walk away even when not healthy.
Near the end for me, my arm and my body started telling me I was done. The aches and pains and soreness basically told me I just couldn’t continue. I wanted to be the guy who could pitch eight or nine shutout innings, and when the day came when I couldn’t do that, I had to walk away.
I missed the entire 1991 season after undergoing shoulder surgery. The doctor told me I didn’t have much labrum left, as I had pitched almost 5,000 innings in my career. But I didn’t want my career to end that way so I had to give it one more shot. I came back in 1992 with the Angels and started off pretty well, but then it all went south and I ended up 8-12 with a 4.74 ERA.

I didn’t feel like I was pitching up to my expectations. Even then, I still gave it one more shot in 1993 and went to camp with the Twins. By then, I had very little left. I could only pitch four or five innings, after which I couldn’t lift my arm for two days. I had to take pain killers just to lift my arm over my head. The Twins released me that spring, and though they informed me that there were some other clubs interested in my services, I had to say no.
I knew I could no longer go into a game with the possibility of pitching a shutout, and that was the standard I had set for myself. If I couldn’t perform up to those expectations, then I could look at myself in the mirror and know I had given the game everything I had.
Jim Edmonds is going through something similar right now, giving himself one last shot. It has nothing to do with money or glory. It’s about the guy’s determination and his desire to compete.
Making the final decision to walk away is hard. For me, it hurt emotionally. Even though I could no longer compete on a level I was accustomed to, it was still painful to quit. I walked around like a zombie for awhile.
When February rolled around and everyone was off to spring training, my mindset was that I wanted to go, too. I had second thoughts. My mind told me I could still do it, even though my body had told me otherwise. Even now up in the broadcast booth, I sometimes feel like I could do it, and I wish I could just go down onto the field and throw one last pitch in a game situation.
I’m sure that Griffey, Edmonds and all the other veterans can relate. They love the game and the competition. They love to drive themselves to a level only a handful of people on Earth have ever been.
I think it’s rare when a guy walks away from the game and is entirely at peace with that decision. Glavine’s offseason struggle is a good example of that.
This is a hard game, and guys come and go very quickly. For some players, the window closes really quickly, while others keep it open for many years. But no one wants the window to close too soon.
So to Griffey, Edmonds and all the other veterans hanging onto the game, I say go for it. You’ll know when you’re done, and don’t let anyone tell you when you’re finished.
I went through the same thing, and I left on my own terms, not somebody else’s. I suggest you do the same, and keep going as long as you can.

Bert Blyleven writes regularly for NBCSports.com, and is a former two-time All-Star who won 287 games during his 22 seasons in the major leagues. He is currently a broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins.
 

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