Aaron Boone retires

Aaron Boone is officially calling it a day.  He's hanging up his spikes and going to join ESPN as an analyst on Baseball Tonight, which is the best move I can remember Baseball Tonight making in years.

Boone was always a classy player, and I was glad that he played for Cincinnati for so long, which seems to have a rich tradition of employing generational baseball families.  In seven seasons with the Reds, he had a .785 OPS and a 99 OPS+.  He hit three home runs in one game, joining his brother in accomplishing that feat.  He also joined his brother in the famous Boone-Larkin-Boone-Larkin infield, the only time an infield has been manned by two sets of brothers.  He hit the last home run at old Riverfront Stadium.

Hal McCoy credits Boone with saving his career (and offers up a much better tribute than I ever could).  Some Yankee fans credit Boone with their acquisition of Alex Rodriguez.  After Boone hit his ballyhooed home run in the 2003 ALCS, he tore his knee ligament playing basketball.  Unlike, say, Jeff Kent, Boone didn't hide and took responsibility for what he did, even though it allowed the Yankees to terminate his contract and then trade for A-Rod.  Before last season, Boone signed with the Astros, then had open heart surgery in March.  Amazingly, he came back to play ten games for the 'Stros, including a series in Cincinnati.

If you wanted to pick a baseball player - heck, a human being - to emulate, you couldn't do much better than Aaron John Boone.