Pokey Retires

[albbla2000mu]

Useful backup SS/2B Pokey called it quits...

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5391596

Second baseman Pokey Reese's brief stay with the Marlins ended with an unexplained disappearance, but the reason for his retirement is anything but a mystery.

Reese, 32, simply lost his passion for baseball, his agent, Mike Nicotera, said Tuesday night in an interview with FOXSports.com.

While Nicotera did not completely rule out a comeback, he said that Reese, a nine-year veteran, does not plan to play again.

"As Pokey said to me, ‘I think it's time to go home and be with my family. When I no longer have the love for the game, then maybe it's time to move on,'" Nicotera said.

Thus, new Marlins manager Joe Girardi had it right last weekend when he said that if Reese was trying to determine his future, "maybe he doesn't want any outside influences."

Reese bolted the Marlins last Thursday and ended communication with club officials because he was contemplating the end of his career, Nicotera said.

The Marlins terminated Reese's one-year, $800,000 contract on Sunday, but the move was of little practical consequence; Reese no longer intended to play, anyway.

After leaving the Marlins, Reese drove home to Columbia, S.C., to discuss his future with his mother and grandmother, according to Nicotera. He isolated himself because, as Girardi suggested, "he wanted to see what was in his heart," Nicotera said.

Two days after Reese left camp, Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest told the team's beat reporters that he was "extremely disappointed" by Reese's lack of communication. The next day, Beinfest terminated Reese's contract.

Reese, knowing he frustrated club officials with his abrupt departure, plans to contact Girardi and Marlins assistant G.M. Michael Hill, the team executive with whom he had the most contact, Nicotera said. But as of Tuesday night, Hill said he had yet to hear from the player.

Injuries helped lead to Reese's decision; he missed all of last season with the Mariners after undergoing two operations on his right shoulder. He also missed seven weeks with the World Series champion Red Sox in 2004 due to a pulled ribcage muscle, returning in September as a reserve. Before getting injured, Reese had become a cult hero at Fenway Park while replacing the injured Nomar Garciaparra at shortstop.


Pokey Reese calls that season the most memorable of his career.

Reese's happiest times were with the 1999 Reds, a team that won 96 games. The club, a tight-knit group, featured several high-character players with whom Reese became close, Nicotera said.

"That's what he thought baseball was like," Nicotera said. "Since then, for a number of reasons, I don't know that it ever got back to that for him. In Boston, he definitely enjoyed himself, but then he pulled the ribcage muscle. He didn't complain about being a bench player (after he returned). It was just different. I'm sure that stuff wore on him."

Reese signed with the Marlins in part because his mother could make the trip from Columbia to Miami to watch him play, Nicotera said. He grew up in extreme poverty and endured tragedies in his life, including the deaths of two of his children's mothers. He views his career as a gift.

"Pokey looks at it like, 'I came from nothing. I got more out of the game than I ever thought I'd get. When it's time, it's time. I can step down and know the game has been very good to me,"' Nicotera said.

"That's really the way he sees it. He's at peace with it. I don't want to portray it like he's in major turmoil. This was a very difficult decision for him. But he feels like he did the right thing."

[DirtyKash]