XM MLB Chat: Thank you Jorge Posada

1/9/12, "And he was constantly underrated."

Above, 2003 ALCS game 7, bottom of the 8th, Posada 2 run double to tie the game. Yankees win in 11, 6-5.

Above Posada ALCS game 3, 8th inning in Anaheim, 10/19/09, getty

Above Posada throwing in Boston, 4/26/09, getty

Above, Posada ALDS game 3 in Detroit, signals to Russell Martin, 10/3/11, ap

Above, Core Four, 9/21/08, getty

Above, 4/4/10, opening night at Fenway Park, Posada's hit clears foul pole for a home run, getty.

Above, Mariano and Posada, World Series game 3, 10/31/09, ap. 5 pitches for Mo, Matt Stairs, Jimmy Rollins, no save.

Above, Mo douses Posada, 9/21/11, after Yankees clinch AL East. getty

9/25/11, "Posada takes a curtain call after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of the first game of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium," ap

Newsday back page, 9/16/2009, Pettitte and Sabathia accompany Posada, 9/15/2009 game v Blue Jays. Brawl happened in bottom of 8th, Cervelli replaced Posada behind the plate in the top of the 9th. Blue Jays 10, Yankees 4. More pictures of brawl.

Letterman hosts Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, and Hideki Matsui, 11/05/09, after World Series win. photo from nyyfans.com

Fan sign from World Series at Yankee Stadium, Nov. 2, 2001

11/2/2001, "Mystique, Aura, and Timely Hits," Tim Sullivan

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Derek Jeter speaks to media after Posada retirement announcement, 1/24/12, getty

Posada family at his retirement announcement, 1/24/12, ap

Posada and his family enter the press conference, 1/24/12, reuters

Posada and Jeter, 1/24/12, reuters

Posada at retirement announcement 1/24/12, getty

11/13/2007, "No Place like Bronx for Jorge Posada," Mike Lupica, NY Daily News

"He sat in the visitors' clubhouse at Comerica Park one year ago, after another Yankee postseason had ended in the first round. To the end, Jorge Posada stayed in there. He kept swinging. There was a two-out single in the seventh inning, when it was already 8-1 for the Tigers. Then came a two-run homer in the ninth, Posada making the last game of the season, 8-3.

To the end, he was a great Yankee.

It was quiet in front of his locker 30 minutes later. It is usually quiet there, unless Posada has something to say. Then he lets you have it.

"It's the thing people don't always see from Jorge," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said yesterday. "How emotional he can be. It's mostly because he's always wanted to win as much as anybody we have."

That day in Comerica Park, some Yankees already were out of the shower and dressed and thinking about the bus to the airport. The first moments of next season are always the same when you lose the last game, whether you are home or on the road. They are looking to go, especially when it ends 8-3 and one of the only ones fighting is the catcher. The catcher wasn't going anywhere. He was still in uniform, sitting there in front of the locker. He had at least made that one last swing. He had not made the last out of the season. A year later, against Joe Borowski of the Indians, he just missed hitting a ninth-inning home run that would have brought the Yankees to within a run and scared the Indians half to death. At Comerica, in October of '06, one of the writers came by and told him that this might not be the time to say it, but he was going to say it anyway,

what a great Yankee Posada was.

Posada thanked the guy, shook his hand.

"You never think it will end this soon," he said. "Not after what we used to do."

He gets paid now by the Yankees for all of it, what he used to be and what the Yankees used to be, for being

one of the last members of the Class of '96 - class in all ways - who is still here."...

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1/9/12, "Jorge Posada career highlights," Chris Jaffe, Hardball Times

"On Saturday, news surfaced that Jorge Posada intends to retire after 17 years in baseball. In that time, he combined two things that rarely go together. He was a longtime New York Yankee, and he was constantly underrated. Players for the game’s marquee franchise usually get at least their share of attention yet, somehow, Posada slipped through the cracks."...