Thanks For the Memories, But...

With each generation comes a new wave of phenoms and potential superstars. In Major League Baseball, Stephen Strasburg and Jason Heyward are leading the pack. But with the arrival of new stars means the departure of old ones, and this year in baseball there appears to be numerous ex-superstars to whom teams need to say good-bye. It's one of the most difficult things a manager or GM can do, but it has to be done eventually. The only question is when exactly it should be done. Does a front office let it fester to the point where it becomes sad to watch, hoping for a sign of life when it matters (think the 2010 Boston Celtics)? Or is it a "Thanks for everything, but..." kind of ordeal right away? For two teams in particular, this issue is becoming more and more prevalent each and every day.

Right now there is no better place to look than in Boston, where David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, and Mike Lowell are all at the we-get-playing-time-because-of-our-past stage of their careers. It has got to eat Terry Francona and Theo Epstein up knowing that, at 19-20 and 9 games out of first place in the AL East, now is not the time to get nostalgic. Big Papi is surely the greatest clutch performer in team history, and his heroics in the 2004 playoffs will live in Sox lore forever, but that was six years ago. Now he is a 34-year-old designated hitter with a mega salary who strikes out 40% of the time (literally... 38 K's in 102 at-bats), can only hit the ball to the right side, and has a ridiculously long and slow swing. He has begun to find his power as of late, but with an unstable wrist, I can't see the power being sustained for five months. Jason Varitek is the team captain and has been the mainstay behind the plate for over a decade. But he is 38, which for a catcher might as well be 100. Victor Martinez is (finally) beginning to hit, which means 'Tek is a great fill-in, but unfortunately that is it. The same thing goes for Wakefield. His arm may be that of a 25-year-old, but with the rotation of Beckett-Lester-Lackey-Buchholz-Matsuzaka, there's simply no room left for one of my personal favorite Red Sox. And Mike Lowell, whom I despised at first because he replaced Bill Mueller, turned into another favorite of mine, but a nagging hip injury and the signing of Adrian Beltre means the end of a somewhat short, yet sweet time.

So what can be done with all of these past-their-prime performers? Unfortunately, the bench seems like the most logical place. I can't see Papi's leash being too long anymore, and Beltre, Martinez, and the rotation appears to be pretty set. All except Papi can be used as trade bait for a contender that needs a short-term, experienced answer at a position (perhaps a San Diego, Cincinnati, Texas, or -- dare I say it -- the 20-19 Washington Nationals?). If anything were to actually happen (which I doubt it would), Lowell would be the most likely to go simply because he is the most dispensable, especially if Boston agrees to pay his salary.

But this issue extends well beyond the borders of Fenway Park. The Red Sox are certainly not the only team struggling to let go of its aging veterans. In Seattle, one of the greatest players ever in Ken Griffey, Jr. is hitting .182 with 0 home runs, 6 runs batted in, and an on-base percentage of .247. To put it kindly, "The Kid" is no longer that by any stretch of the imagination. He is the most compelling "What if?" story in the history of baseball (as in, "What if injuries hadn't derailed his career?", the answer to which is: "He would be one of the Top 3 greatest players ever alongside Willie Mays and Babe Ruth, and the home run king would not need an asterisk next to his name.") He is now a pudgy 40-year-old who can only DH and, apparently, enjoys a nice in-game nap every once in a while. Right now the Mariners might be giving Junior his grand farewell tour in the city where it all began, but right now Seattle is 10 games under .500 and in last place in the AL West, making those who picked them to win the division look pretty damn stupid. The team can't score runs, and it may be time to get a DH who can produce runs, at the cost of its all-time greatest player.

It's something that no team ever wants to think about or do, yet living in the past doesn't work. There will come a time when, one day, the decision has to be made to bench or trade -- just in general go on without -- the players who were once the face of the franchise. Right now Boston and Seattle are the ones who have to struggle with this. In the coming years it will continue to happen, and for some it will hit home really, really hard (I'm talking to you, New York. Jeter, Posada, Rivera, and Pettitte can't play forever. Life might begin to suck at that point in time). But we move on to the next great generation, and create new memories not with the intention of replacing the old ones, but instead adding to the collection that we as sports fans cherish so much.