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No turning back for hip-hip Jorge

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The trade 11 days ago that took Jesus Montero out of the Yankees’ picture and off to Seattle created the idea that just maybe Jorge Posada’s career with the Yankees might not indeed be over. Perhaps the five-time All-Star catcher could just be what they needed to platoon with Andruw Jones at designated hitter, a role that Montero might have filled before he was dealt for pitcher Michael Pineda.

It was all just wishful thinking. Jorge Posada had made up his mind that 2011 would be his last season. He admitted Tuesday in a moving retirement announcement at Yankee Stadium that he made that decision during last season and shared it only with his wife, Laura, and his longtime teammate and friend, Derek Jeter.

“I knew this would be the end,” Posada said.

So all that talk about the possibility of his signing with the Rays or some other club was just that – a lot of talk. In the end, Posada wanted no part of any other organization than the Yankees, even if his final season in pinstripes was hardly warm and fuzzy. He struggled to get used to not catching on a regular basis, had an invisible year batting from the right side and endured some embarrassing moments as being dropped to ninth in the batting order or lifted for pinch hitters in pressure spots.

Yet through it all, Posada persevered and put a nice finish on his season with some clutch hits in September to help the Yankees clinch the American League East title and a .429 effort against some tough Detroit pitching in the AL Division Series.

“It is a very emotional day for me,” Posada said, fighting back tears. “Since I was a kid all I ever wanted to do was be a major leaguer. The Yankees were my family away from home. I am so proud of the hard work I put in. I could never wear another uniform. I will forever be a Yankee.”

Posada was all about work. Signed originally out of Puerto Rico as a shortstop, Posada was moved to second base and then behind the plate. He recalled leading the league in passed balls his first season as a catcher but was encouraged when the Yankees jumped him to Triple A in 1994 where he continued to improve with the aid of manager Stump Merrill, a former catcher.

Along the way, Posada made connections to the players with whom he would eventually team as the “Core Four,” playing alongside Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera in 1991 at Oneonta, N.Y., and with Jeter in 1992 at Greensboro, N.C. The quartet would all make it to the Yankees in 1995.

Mo and DJ were in attendance Tuesday as well as another teammate, CC Sabathia, and a host of dignitaries: managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, general partner Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal, president Randy Levine, chief operating officer Lonn Trost, general manager Brian Cashman, assistant general manager Jean Afterman, manager Joe Girardi and special advisor Gene Michael. A nice touch was the appearance of former second baseman and coach Willie Randolph, who drove in from his New Jersey home.

“My dad loved warriors, and Jorge was a warrior,” Hal Steinbrenner said. “He loved guys that worked hard and were good role models. Those are the things to be a great Yankee that my dad felt were absolutely essential.”

There were other touching moments from guests who flew in from the Midwest. Diana Munson, Thurman’s widow, came in from Ohio. Lisa Nederer, who works for the Jorge Posada Foundation in Wisconsin, attended with her son, Brett, who suffers from Craniosynostosis, the same disease that Posada’s son has and which inspired Jorge and Laura to form the foundation.

As Posada sat on the podium with Laura, their daughter Paulina and son Jorge Luis, Diana Munson addressed the audience and explained how coming to know Posada renewed her interest in baseball after she had turned away from it following the death of her husband Aug. 2, 1979 in a single-engine airplane accident.

She talked about meeting Jorge in the dugout before a game and his telling her that he kept a quote of Thurman’s in his locker. Jorge left he briefly, then returned to the dugout to show her the newspaper clipping he had saved in which Munson had said batting fourth in the lineup was all right but what he did behind the plate working with the pitching staff was more important.

“I actually got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get the newspaper to read the box scores,” Diana Munson said. “That’s unusual. The only box scores I ever read in my life were Thurman’s, but Jorge stayed very close to my heart. I think he and Thurman would have been best buds. I’m honored to have loved two Yankees catchers in my life.”

Not surprising but when it came to singling out the highlights of a playing career in which he batted .273 with 275 home runs and 1,065 RBI, Posada settled on team-oriented moments. In chronological order, they were his major-league debut in 1995, catching David Wells’ perfect game in 1998 and hugging Rivera on the mound at the Stadium after the final out of the 1999 World Series. He added that his worst memory was from an inter-league game in Philadelphia when he committed three passed balls.

Of course, there are so many other moments than fans will remember, such as Posada hitting the first home run at the new Stadium in 2009. I think the one fans treasure the most is the two-run, game-tying double he hit off Red Sox nemesis Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2003 AL Championship Series. It brought the Yankees even after entering the inning with a three-run deficit and kept the game alive so that Aaron Boone could push the Yankees into the World Series with his walk-off home run off Tim Wakefield in the 11th.

“I thought [Martinez] was going to come out of the game,” Posada recalled. “After [manager] Grady Little left him in, I thought about how he had pitched me inside all game, so I looked for something inside. Sure enough, he jammed me, and it found a lot of grass.”

For all the hard liners Posada hit that were caught, he was happy to accept a bloop hit that broke the Red Sox’ backs.

Posada said he would miss his teammates the most, but he also had a special message to his fans.  

“I thank the fans for all their years of support, the cheering and the ovations,” he said. “You kept me going when I needed it the most.”

As I type this, I am looking up at a photograph of Jorgie and me that was taken before a game during spring training at Tampa in 1997. I was presenting to Posada on behalf of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America the James P. Dawson Award that Yankees beat writers vote on for the top rookie in camp. The award itself is an engraved watch.

I remember that after the game Jorgie came over to me and said that the box was empty. I told him that the watch was being engraved, and we would get it to him soon. The engravers had misspelled his name by using the anglicized George instead of Jorge. Well, the replacement seemed to take forever, which became a running joke between the two of us. Every day for the first month of the season, he’d come up me and ask what time it was.

After Tuesday’s proceedings, I kidded Jorge and asked him what time it was. He smiled and said, “You know. It’s time to go.”



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