Lance Berkman: Saying Goodbye To One Of The Good Guys

Lance Berkman announces his retirement from baseball. Photo credit MLB 

by Steve Painter 

Lance Berkman has had a terrific career in baseball, 15 years in fact, and it all started in Texas, where he played for Rice first and then headed for the Houston Astros, plying his trade with them from 1997 through 2010. After that, he played for the Yankees, Cardinals, and Rangers. 


He is indeed, one of the good guys in all of sports, not just baseball. His ability to banter with the press is well known, and that means he will most likely consider a broadcasting job now that his playing days are over.

Berkman's numbers probably don't reflect a typical Hall of Fame career, he came just shy of 2,000 hits, and the other stats that voters look for fall a bit shy of that recognition but, that is not the only barometer of a great career in baseball.

He made the All-Star team 5 times and played in five postseasons. In fact, without him on their team, the Cardinals would never have won the 2011 World Series. Berkman has said that game 6 of that series is the greatest game he played in during his career. In that contest, he extended the game for the Cards in the 10th inning by getting a two-out RBI single on a 2-2 pitch from Scott Feldman. The Cards went on to win the game 10-9 on David Freese's 11th inning homer, which grabbed all the headlines, but Berkman went 3-for-5 and 3 RBI's and 4 runs scored. The Cards went on to defeat the Rangers in game 7 for the title.

Berkman was a great teammate. He would often face the media and answer all of their questions for his teammates, who sometimes didn't enjoy facing the questions from sports writers. He would carry the day with humor and candor. He would parry with reporters, but in an intelligent, never angry, manner.

He leaves with a solid career batting line of .293/.406/.537 with 366 homers, 422 doubles, 1,201 walks, 1,146 runs, 1,234 RBI's, and he received MVP votes in six seasons. He ranks 43rd in MLB history in onbase percentage and 39th in slugging. He was arguably a top five switch hitter as well. His OPS of .943 ranks 24th in history, ahead of notables like Aaron, Mays, Speaker, Robinson, Schmidt, and Griffey Jr. In 52 postseason games he batted .317/.417/.532 and in the two World Series he participated in, he hit a remarkable .410/.520/.564 in 11 games during the fall classic.

Today, I just want to celebrate a player who did it right and did it well. Congratulations Lance. Thanks for all you did for the game. The manner in which you performed and carried yourself spoke loudly to young and old alike.