Alex Gordon is retiring

[ChiefBlueCFC]

After 14 years of hard work and dedication to the #Royals, Alex Gordon is retiring from baseball.

Thank you for always giving it your all, Gordo.#4EverRoyal pic.twitter.com/S5A0Y7ASFq

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) September 24, 2020

Thank you for everything Alex. A great Royal and a Royal for life!

[Redbled]

All Time Royal Great.

[sedated]

Definitely an interesting career. Hyped as the savior of the franchise, spent 5+ years being terrible and hated by fans, turned into a legit All-Star while the franchise was climbing out of the muck to win a championship (and subsequently having some of the biggest plays in franchise history), getting paid and turning back into a pumpkin.

Lining up the best stretch of his career with the World Series runs was very fortunate for his legacy.

[Coach]

Probably Allard Baird's only best draft pick as his tenure as GM.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by sedated

Definitely an interesting career. Hyped as the savior of the franchise, spent 5+ years being terrible and hated by fans, turned into a legit All-Star while the franchise was climbing out of the muck to win a championship (and subsequently having some of the biggest plays in franchise history), getting paid and turning back into a pumpkin.

Lining up the best stretch of his career with the World Series runs was very fortunate for his legacy.

Joakim Soria is very much the yin to that yang.

[sedated]

Originally Posted by Coach

Probably Allard Baird's only best draft pick as his tenure as GM.

Zack Greinke?

[Buehler445]

Big Gordon fan. BIG. He wasn’t the best. But he was the best he could be. Dude never pussed out, never soft, left it all out there every time. I remember reading an article years ago that he had some ridiculous warm up protocol that was harder than most guys workouts.

Accordingly he was a joy to watch. Dude was a straight ****ing sniper in LF. I’m one of the dorks that loves defense and his was filthy.

RE: homer thing. He got the contract over Moose and Hoz and Cain because of the postseason performance. He had ice on his veins the whole time. Dude was a ****ing superhero. Like shit from a movie.

Contract was a bad call, and we pretty much all knew it. But given the way it all went down, I don’t even care. We weren’t winning shit, and it’s like a thanks for that payment.

[sedated]

I remember hearing a story about the Royals locker room during the 2014-2016 era - at a time of frustration, one of the players was getting out of line about something. Hosmer was the usual leader of the team, but more in a jovial way. This particular time, a loud "hey!" came from the back of the locker room - it was Gordon. He didn't say anything else, and everyone immediately shut the F up.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by sedated

Zack Greinke?

Good point, forgot about that one. Thanks for the heads up.

[Bl00dyBizkitz]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Big Gordon fan. BIG. He wasn’t the best. But he was the best he could be. Dude never pussed out, never soft, left it all out there every time. I remember reading an article years ago that he had some ridiculous warm up protocol that was harder than most guys workouts.

Accordingly he was a joy to watch. Dude was a straight ****ing sniper in LF. I’m one of the dorks that loves defense and his was filthy.

RE: homer thing. He got the contract over Moose and Hoz and Cain because of the postseason performance. He had ice on his veins the whole time. Dude was a ****ing superhero. Like shit from a movie.

Contract was a bad call, and we pretty much all knew it. But given the way it all went down, I don’t even care. We weren’t winning shit, and it’s like a thanks for that payment.

Postseason Alex Gordon was just a different guy. He really was a superhero. And on top of that, his defense really speaks for itself, dude had grit. He definitely wasn't the next George Brett, but we very likely don't win that 2015 Crown without him. Awesome player.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

Here's another hit that was just as important and as easily forgotten. It was off of a lefty (David Price), with 2 outs, and in a tie game. We may not even get to the 2015 World Series or Alex's iconic home run without this hit.

I was at that game. Got goosebumps just seeing this memory. Thanks for sharing.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

GOAT

[Mama Hip Rockets]

If you feel like watching 23 minutes of Gordon highlights:

[Mama Hip Rockets]

[lcarus]

Originally Posted by Why Not?

I love Alex but......”triple” ?

Lol well you know what I mean

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Mama Hip Rockets

I was at that game. Got goosebumps just seeing this memory. Thanks for sharing.

Same. Ticket prices crashed that morning (they dropped from $450 to about $100) and I cancelled a test I had paid for at KU to pay for the ticket (needed to pass it by spring to graduate lol). A buddy of mine had driven up to see a KU football game (they were getting shredded by some dude named Patrick Mahomes) and I texted him asking if he wanted to change plans and see playoff baseball. We got standing room only tickets and that whole comeback was the wildest sporting even I’ve ever been a part of - me, my buddy, his Dad and maybe 20 other people were in a stairwell (a poor usher kept muttering we needed to leave but none of us budged) and the moment Gordo ripped that double the entire stairwell exploded. I remember I even went airborne for a moment from a dude who jumped forward and all of us ended up falling down. We all ended up bringing the usher in for a group hug before all of us leapt in just, utter cathartic joy along the hall of fame section. A reporter for the star ended up interviewing us about SRO and said “I’ve never seen a reaction like that covering baseball.”

A lot of people say the rally started with Zo’s pop-up, but lesser known is they put a drunk Eric Stonestreet on the Jumbotron during the 7th inning stretch and he screamed “LETS ****ING GO” and the crowd went absolutely apeshit after being deadened by Price’s 1-hitter to that point. Always thought that may have helped cause the miscommunication with Bautista in the outfield.

I remember just soaking in the moment in after Davis got that final out. Was one of the best days of my life.