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Former Athletics left-hander Dallas Braden is retiring from baseball, he tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. He had not pitched in a game since April 2011 due to continued shoulder problems.
“There is nothing left in there, it’s just a shredded mess,” Braden said by phone. “I left my arm on the mound at the Coliseum, and I’m OK with that.”
Braden, 30, had surgery to repair a torn shoulder capsule in May 2011, then needed another procedure in August 2012 to repair a torn rotator cuff. He been throwing this offseason and planned to showcase himself to teams in the near future, but he suffered a setback and tests showed more significant damage in his shoulder.
“I wasn’t in a position to repeat my delivery, to pitch with any intention,” he said. “That’s OK, I understood the odds I was facing. You have to face your mortality one day, and I have been so blessed in this game. If I take 10 minutes to be hacked off about it, it would be nine minutes too long. You can’t ask for more than I’ve been given, coming where my grandmother and I are coming from.”
Braden will be best remembered for throwing the 19th perfect game in baseball history, retiring all 27 Rays he faced on Mother's Days three years ago. “That game will always define the one solid day of work I had ... That was living the dream," he said.
Braden also made headlines for yelling at Alex Rodriguez after the embattled slugger jogged across the pitcher's mound following a fly out. He retires with a 26-36 record and a 4.16 ERA (101 ERA+) in parts of five seasons, all with Oakland.
