Legendary Good Guy And Pretty Goddamn Good Baseball Player Curtis Granderson Has Called It A Career
I know saying that Curtis Granderson is one of the good guys in sports has been said about as much as the phrase "Curtis Granderson is so well spoken". But everything you heard about the guy was glowing, from the media to teammates to fans. I had a couple of buddies that met him in a New York club back when he was playing for the Tigers and they said he was the nicest, most down-to-earth person ever that just hung out with a couple of shleps instead of did whatever millionaires do at clubs.
In case all the stories didn't drive home how well-liked Curtis Granderson was, the fact that barely any Yankees and Mets fans never had any animosity at him when he was in the other team's jersey is almost impossible to believe. I mean look at this quote from noted Yankee hater/critic Kevin Clancy.
Reading that tweet is like watching The Grinch's heart grow three sizes, even thought part of it could be due to KFC having a I Just Made Millions Of Dollars glow to him. Even though Grandy's arm and batting average always left a little to be desired, the long balls, clutch hits, and straight up likability made them easy to overlook.
It's not like Grandy wasn't a good baseball player either. Three All-Star games, 344 YABOs, a Silver Slugger, a 4th place finish in an MVP race, and two World Series appearances is pretty fucking decent I suppose. Oh yeah and he made a cool $110 million for his hard work.
God I love that gif
But despite all that, I think everyone expects Granderson to make a much bigger impact on the world after his playing days considering he is such a caring, charitable, WELL SPOKEN GUY. I don't say that lightly either considering Grandy creating the WeFollowLucasDuda Instagram handle counts as his contribution as a player, which pretty much makes him a borderline Hall of Famer in my book.
Best of luck to whatever you do next, Curtis. You were a real one.