By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
It’s time, in Jay Buhner’s words, to go fishing.
The popular veteran outfielder for the Seattle Mariners apparently has decided to retire.
Buhner, who endured months of recovery from a foot injury to finish his 14th major league season, has told Mariners officials that he has played his last game.
After the Mariners were eliminated by the New York Yankees in the playoffs last month, Buhner said he would decide soon on his future.
“Based on the way I feel right now, I think I got just about everything out of my body that I could get,” he said on Oct 22. “I want to talk to my family and fish a little bit. But who knows, I may be fishing for a long time.”
Buhner has spent the past several days in Montana fly fishing with Mariners trainer Rick Griffin, a close friend.
If this is it, Buhner will have finished with 310 home runs, 965 runs batted in and 1,273 hits in his major league career. He won a Gold Glove in 1996.
Buhner hit five postseason home runs, including two of the most dramatic in Mariners history – a three-run homer in the 11th inning of the Mariners Game 3 ALCS victory at Cleveland in 1995 and a solo homer to break a tie score and lead Seattle to victory in Game 2 of the 2000 division series at Chicago.
Buhner’s last home run was a mammoth blast in Game 3 of this year’s ALCS against the Yankees. The ball landed in a vacant bleacher area that serves as the hitting background at Yankee Stadium, making him one of only two players to hit a ball that far in the storied ballpark in postseason play. Reggie Jackson homered there in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.
In recent years, Buhner has endured injuries to nearly every joint in his body. The latest was an injury to the arch in his left foot that required surgery last June.
He played three games with the Class A Everett AquaSox on a rehab assignment in August and was reinstated from the disabled list on Sept. 1. Buhner batted .222 with two home runs in 19 regular-season games this year, then went 2-for-9 in the postseason.
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