Jorge Posada Says Farewell

Jorge Posada Says Farewell - You already knew that Jorge Posada wouldn't return to the Yankees for 2012, so his retirement doesn't shake your system the way that, say, Andy Pettitte's did a year ago. Really, there are few baseball ramifications surrounding Posada's decision. Nevertheless, we lost something real and cherished Tuesday, when Posada announced at Yankee Stadium that he had played in his final game. We lost one of baseball's last old-school warriors. You needed only to hear Thurman Munson's widow, Diana, who flew to New York from Ohio to attend the news conference, talk passionately about Posada to appreciate his dying-breed personality. "Jorge is the one who I admired watching as a player . . . I think he and Thurman would've been best buds," Diana Munson said. "He definitely has the 'It factor.' I think the Yankees fans also realize that. And I think they're sad today, as we all are." Munson spoke his mind regularly as the Yankees captain, yet he faced formidable competition in that department from Reggie Jackson to Graig Nettles to Goose Gossage to Lou Piniella. In those pre-Internet times, it was nothing special for players to operate publicly without a filter. In contrast, Posada, who taped a Munson quote (about prioritizing defense over offense) to his locker in both Stadiums, stood out like a dinosaur as he carried his no-spin zone into the Twitter age. "The thing is, we feel the same way," Derek Jeter said of his longtime best friend. "I'm just better at hiding it. We feel the same way inside. I think that's why we got along so well throughout the years." Jeter is the absolute master of moving his lips and saying nothing of substance. His pal Posada seems incapable of uttering an empty word. Jorge Posada Says Farewell