Troy Tulowitzki retires. Here’s what he said. pic.twitter.com/Poae1QHMl6 — Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) July 25, 2019
An extremely talented shortstop during his 13-year playing career that was unfortunately too often riddled with injuries that kept him off the field. A 5-time All-Star, and a career .290/.361/.495 hitter with 225 HR and 780 RBI’s, he hit his way to two Silver Sluggers (2010 and 2011), while also being a top defender with two Gold Gloves (also 2010 and 2011), and was voted within the Top-5 for the MVP award in two separate years (2009 and 2010). A player who liked to do things in ‘2s’, he was also 2nd in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2007, behind Ryan Braun.
With this announcement, Troy Tulowitzki finishes his career with 44.2 bWAR (34th for Shortstops) and 38.2 fWAR (48th).
In Yankee pinstripes (remember, the Colorado Rockies also wear pinstriped uniforms), he only managed to be able to play 5 games before succumbing to the injury-bug that loomed over his career, but did collect two extra-base hits, a very special double and an opposite-field home run.
Was Tulo emotional and soaking in his first hit as a Yankee and after all the injuries or is he just cold and looking around pic.twitter.com/7wJ9eXpaT0 — Jomboy (@Jomboy_) March 28, 2019
Outside of just collecting his first MLB hit in two years- Tulo didn’t play in 2018 because of injuries- and collecting a hit with a team that he had always wanted to play for, this double also served of a much cooler and emotional purpose for Tulowitzki and his family.
Michael Kay announced on the broadcast that night that a big reason as to why Troy Tulowitzki worked so hard to come back and make it another year in the big leagues was because he wanted to give his 5-year old son a memory of him playing Major League baseball.
That alone makes him a guy to root for.
He also collected a good-ol’ fashioned Yankee Stadium ‘cheapie’ home run, which I’m sure is something he enjoyed tremendously. And he got a John Sterling call to boot…even if ‘Tulo-Hits-ki’ is pretty bland.
And, in 2019 Yankees Trivia, something that I’m sure most fans (myself included) forgot, is that Troy Tulowitzski was the Yankees Opening Day shortstop, which is when he collected his emotional double. That’s a pretty cool way to end a career.
Yankees vs. Orioles today at 1:05 pm on @YESNetwork, ESPN and @WFAN660 pic.twitter.com/bvK4TSaBaK — Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) March 28, 2019
