Cal Ripken.
Robin Yount.
Chipper Jones.
Ryan Zimmerman.
And no, if I ask you what they all have in common, it’s not that none of them have ever been in Cliff Clavin’s kitchen.
If you’re a baseball fan, you might realize that all four of these gentlemen — three of them retired, the fourth nearing the end — of outstanding careers. The first three made the Hall of Fame, and Zimmerman probably is fated to reside in the Hall of Very Good.
All four of them did, however, play their entire careers with one team. For Ripken it was Baltimore, for Yount Milwaukee, for Jones Atlanta and for Zimmerman Washington.
You know who didn’t play for just one team? Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Greg Maddux, Tom Seaver … The list goes on and on.
Few people are more associated with one team than Mickey Mantle was, and from 1951-68, Mantle was a Yankee. He didn’t regret that, but he did say he wished he had retired a couple of years earlier so that his lifetime batting average wouldn’t have dipped under .300.
The Washington Nationals have had two players who might have been career guys, but they didn’t sign Bryce Harper when he reached free agency and they traded shortstop Trea Turner a year before he would have been a free agent. Turner in particular had expressed a desire to play his entire career in Washington.
But if Pete Rose played for three different teams, and if even Willie Mays and Hank Aaron didn’t finish in the uniforms they worse for most of their careers, what can you expect?
Harper was a really heartbreaking case.The Nationals reportedly offered him $300 million for 10 years, which you would think he should at least have considered, but some of the money was deferred for as long as 35 years and the real value of the contract was about $230 million.
Still good money, but more than $100 million less than he got from Philadelphia.
And while it was sad to see Harper and Turner go, Washington has the most crucial signing still down the road a couple of years. If the Nats manage to keep Juan Soto, who is three years from free agency, it might be a case of all is forgiven.
Soto pretty much has it all. At age 22, he has already anchored a World Series-winning team. When the stat freaks compare him to past players, their No. 1 comparison is to Ted Williams, maybe the greatest hitter who ever lived.
Put simply, keep Soto and you’re real.
Let him get away and you’re the Pittsburgh Pirates.