All good things eventually come to an end and Hideki Matsui is the latest top player that says farewell to baseball after a stellar career. He was the MVP in 2009 World Series and he remains one of the best players the New York Yankees had in the last decade. He’s now 37 years old and no longer capable of playing his A-game and unlike Tejada he is not willing to play in the minors any longer. His little experiment with Tampa Bay ended this year and Hideki says that it is time for him to accept the fact that he is no longer competitive in the majors.

The slugger played for Japanese clubs as well, which explains why he chose to conduct the news conference announcing his retirement exclusively in Japanese. He said that the Yankees remain his favorite club but since there is no way of returning to his winning ways, he prefers not to extend the agony and quit baseball for good. He was an immensely popular player in Japan by the time he signed a contract with New York, and he is much appreciated by the American audience as well.

Hideki Matsui was one of the most constant players the New York Yankees had and his uncanny ability of performing at the highest level under stressful conditions, recommended him as a great choice for World Series games. He was an All-Star player twice but the injury suffered in 2006 was the turning point in his impressive career. It is uncertain what the former slugger will do right now, and it is quite possible for him to take a job that is intimately linked with the baseball world.