The 10 Greatest MLB Stars who Finished their Career in a Strange Uniform

Before Hideki Matsui signed a one year, $6.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels, he had never known a major league team other than the New York Yankees.

The reasons that Matsui left New York; injury concerns, payroll, age, meant nothing to the bleacher creatures who worshiped him at the height of his outfield playing days in the Bronx.

Matsui was and will always be a true Yankee, even though he played Japanese baseball for the Yomiuri Giants for nine years before turning down their record offer (6 years, $64 million) to play for the Bombers.

Nicknamed “Godzilla” originally for his skin issues, and later adopted because of his explosive hitting, Matsui cemented his place in Yankee lore last year as he destroyed Philadelphia pitching in the World Series. Because of that he earned MVP honors and re-established his credentials as one of the more feared hitters in the game today.

An extension with New York, a team he had done so much for since 2003, seemed inevitable.

But it was not so.

Afterwards, Matsui said that he "loved the Yankees the best" but that he no longer felt valued and when his agent called to negotiate, "The Yankees had nothing prepared [in terms of contract conditions]." He made up his mind to sign with the Angels quickly. "I really felt their high expectations of me," he said. "They also acknowledged that I want to give fielding a shot."

And so, one of the biggest clutch hitters the Yankees have ever seen, left unceremoniously into the cold night of winter, with not even a pat on the back, but a legacy, indeed, he searched to complete.

Tuesday afternoon marks the Yankees home opener where they will also receive their World Series rings.

It seems only fitting that Matsui and the Angels will be the opponent.

And it would only be too appropriate if Matsui arrives to collect his well-earned ring and then goes “Godzilla” on the Bronx later this evening.

Matsui’s departure left a sour taste in his and fans mouths alike, but baseball is a business, it always has been.

Star players have been shipped, unceremoniously, out of cities where they made their legacy for a century now, is Matsui one of them?

Let’s find out.

These are the ten greatest in baseball history.

Juan Marichal: 14 Seasons in San Francisco, Finished in Los Angeles

After the 1973 season and 14 years with the team, Marichal was sold to the Boston Red Sox where he went 5-1 in 11 starts. He was released a little less than a month after the season and then signed with San Francisco’s rival team, the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 1975 season.

His final season didn't last long; he was lit up for nine runs, 11 hits and a 13.50 ERA in only two starts before he finally retired.

He finished his career with 243 victories, 142 losses, 244 complete games, 2,303 strikeouts and a 2.89 ERA over 3,507 innings pitched.

From 1962 to 1971, the Giants averaged 90 wins a season, and Marichal averaged 20 wins a year.

Steve Carlton: 15 Seasons in Philadelphia, Finished in Minnesota

For starters, Carlton played in St. Louis for seven years before Cardinals owner, Gussie Busch ordered him to be traded after a salary dispute.

Before the 1972 season, Carlton was sent to Philadelphia for pitcher Rick Wise, in one of the most one-sided deals in the history of the game.

In his first year, Carlton threw 30 complete games for Philadelphia. Thirty.

He threw eight shutouts, won 27 games, had a 1.93 ERA and struck out 310 in 346.1 innings. He made 41 starts. A year that effective is inconceivable today, and one of the major reasons that all-time pitching records will never be broken.

By the time he was 42, in 1986, Carlton was failing miserably, with an ERA over 6.00 in 16 starts; the Phillies released him. He was picked up by the San Francisco Giants and made a handful of starts before he fell into a very short-lived retirement that did not even last the year.

He signed with the Chicago White Sox and pitched the remainder of 1986 for the club. He pitched well enough, that he convinced himself that he could continue to play, so he signed with the Cleveland Indians the next year, and halfway through the year was traded to the Minnesota Twins.

He was not offered a contract by anyone in 1989; the closest being the New York Yankees, but it was not a major league contract, and at that point, Carlton was only interested in adding to his major league strikeout total.

He was forced into retirement.

Trevor Hoffman: 16 Seasons in San Diego, Aims for 600 Saves in Milwaukee

I had some reservations in considering an active player to be on this list. For all we know, he will end up again in San Diego before he finishes his career, but the odds are against him doing so; there is a mutual option for him to continue with Milwaukee in 2011. He will be 44 at the end of that contract.

As of publication Tuesday, Hoffman needs seven saves to reach 600 for his career.

In November of 2008, the Padres and Hoffman decided to part ways and he left a one year $4 million contract on the table in favor of a one year deal worth $6 million with the Brewers in the first month of 2009.

Surely, the man who currently holds the major league record for games pitched for any one major league team, the record for most seasons with at least 40 saves (9), and is also only the second pitcher in history with 500 saves (Mariano Rivera is the other), would finish his career with the only team he has ever know?

Alas, this is a business.

Christy Mathewson: 17 Seasons in New York, Finished in Cincinnati

Mathewson’s legacy lies in his pitching performance during the 1905 World Series, where he threw three complete game shutouts. ESPN has since ranked this as the No. 1 playoff performance of all-time.

On July 20, 1916, Mathewson's career came full circle, when he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, along with Edd Roush.

He won one game with the Reds and served as their manager for the next three seasons.

He finished his career as one of the greatest right handed pitchers in baseball history and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1935, along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Honus Wagner.

He is currently tied for third in career wins, with 373, sixth in ERA, with an average of 2.13 runs per nine, and third in complete game shutouts, with 79.

Warren Spahn: 20 Seasons with the Braves, Finished in San Francisco

Warren Spahn threw his first no-hitter in 1960, when he was 39 years old. He had already pitched 15 years for the Braves franchise.
He then went and pitched his second no-hitter the following year. By 1964, Spahn was the oldest active player in baseball, a title he lost in 1965 thanks to a 58-year-young, Satchel Paige.

Following the 1964 season, after 25 solid years with the franchise, Spahn was sold to the New York Mets.

Braves manager Bobby Bragan predicted, "Spahnie won't win six games with the Mets."

He didn’t, although he did take on the dual role of pitcher and pitching coach.

Spahn won four and lost 12 at which point the Mets put Spahn on waivers. He immediately signed with the San Francisco Giants, with whom he finished the season and posted a 3.36 ERA in 16 games.

He retired and managed in the minor leagues for five years.

Yogi Berra: 18 Seasons with the Yankees, Finished with the Mets

A player must be special when you can have nine career at-bats as a New York Met, then go on to coach and manage the team over the next ten years and be considered one of the greatest players in the franchise’s history.

Or you’re just Yogi Berra

Oh, Yogi.

Berra stopped playing baseball in 1963, as a New York Yankee…or so everyone thought.

He took over the reins and managed the Yankees to an AL Pennant in 1964, but due to his lack of control over the team, was fired after they lost the World Series.

He crossed the city to Shea and played in four games for the Metropolitans. His last major league at-bat came three days shy of his 40th birthday.

Ty Cobb: 22 Seasons in Detroit, Finished with Philadelphia

There’s nothing like a good old fashioned bit of blackmail to get you back in baseball.

Ty Cobb finally called his career quits after 22 years as a Tiger, in November of 1926.

He announced his retirement and headed home to Augusta, Georgia. Shortly thereafter, Tris Speaker also retired as the player-manager of the Cleveland team.

The retirement of two great players at the same time sparked some interest, and it turned out that the two were coerced into retirement because of allegations of game-fixing brought about by Dutch Leonard, a former pitcher of Cobb's.

Leonard accused Smoky Joe Wood, a player of Speakers, and Cobb of betting on a Tiger-Cleveland game played in Detroit in 1919.

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis held secret meetings and in the end Cobb and Speaker resigned with no publicity; however, rumors of the scandal led Judge Landis to hold additional talks. Finally, in January of 1927, the players were cleared of all wrongdoing.

Speaker then went and signed with the Washington Senators for the 1927 season; Cobb signed with the Philadelphia Athletics.

Cobb said he came back only to seek vindication, and so that he could say he left baseball on his own terms.

How would this have gone over if they had lived a hundred years later and been part of the Steroid Era?

Cheating is cheating, right?

Hank Aaron: 21 Seasons with the Braves, Finished with the Brewers

It’s hard to believe that a home run king not named Barry Bonds was forced out of his home town at the end of his career.

While Aaron was not, he was given a rather unceremonious exit, considering he had just broken Babe Ruth’s home run record earlier that year.

But nonetheless, Aaron was traded, in November of 1974, to the Milwaukee Brewers of the American League where he went on to hit 22 more of his 755 career home runs.

Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477). Hank Aaron is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (third) and runs with 2,174, which is tied for fourth with Babe Ruth. He also is in second place in at-bats (12,364), and in third place in games played (3,298).

Willie Mays: 21 Seasons with the Giants, Finished with the Mets

Sometimes these things just have to happen.

Money, again, affected the career and legacy of one of the greatest players who ever lived.

This time, the then 41-year-old Willie Mays was traded to the New York Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and $50,000. At the time (the early season of 1972), the Giants were losing money.

Owner Horace Stoneham could not guarantee Mays an income after he retired and the Mets offered Mays a position as a coach when he chose to do so.

So, Mays left the team he spent 21 years with, and headed back to New York, this time to Queens, where he was received exceptionally well among fans and Mets management alike.

Mays played a season and a half for the Mets and during those years, he was the oldest regular position player in baseball. He then became the oldest position player to appear in a World Series game when he did so in the 1973 series against the Oakland Athletics (which the Mets lost).

Mays’s lifetime total of 7,095 outfield fielding putouts remains the major league record.

Babe Ruth: 15 Seasons in New York, Traded to the “other” Boston Team

After the 1934 season, Ruth went on a baseball barnstorming tour in the Far East. Players such as Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Gomez, Earl Averill, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Gehrig were among fourteen players who played a series of 22 games, many of them in Japan.

The tour was considered a great success for further increasing the popularity of baseball in the country, and in 1936 Japan organized its first professional baseball league.

After he returned, he set his heart on managing the Yankees, and he made no secret of his desire to replace current manager Joe McCarthy. But that didn’t work; Owner Jacob Ruppert didn’t care for Ruth and wasn’t interested in getting rid of McCarthy.

After many teams declined Ruth’s services, Boston Braves owner, Emil Fuchs finally agreed to take him on.

On May 25, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Ruth went 4-for-4, drove in six runs, and hit three home runs in an 11–7 loss to the Pirates.

These were the last three home runs of his career. His final bomb cleared the roof at the old Forbes Field—he became the first player to accomplish that feat.

Five days later, in Philadelphia, Ruth played in his last Major League game. He struck out in the first inning and, while playing the field in the same inning, hurt his knee and left the game.

Two days after that, Ruth summoned reporters and announced his retirement.