Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times makes the best lists. No, they may not get the kind of traffic that lists like “the 101 hottest wives and girlfriends of relief pitchers” get, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worthy.
Today’s list: the ten worst career-ending performances of all time. Specifically, the worst final games of guys who were otherwise awesome. No, the list doesn’t purport to make some grand assessment -- the fact that Yogi Berra struck out three times in a game in the mid-60s means nothing for him as a player -- but it is worth noting that not every Hall of Famer ends his career Ted Williams-style. And it’s kind of fun to remember where some of these dudes ended up playing at the end, both geographically and existentially. Everyone likes to remember Bob Gibson on top of some tall mound in the 1960s. The image of him ending in the mid-70s while wearing double-knits isn’t one that readily computes.
Like with most of Chris’ work, the background and story is more interesting than the list entry itself. What can he do? Dude’s a historian, and that’s just how good historians roll.