Corner infielder Mike Hessman has announced his retirement, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America notes. Hessman initially tweeted that he was retiring to become a coach, although that tweet has since been deleted.
Hessman’s retirement is a move that is minor by definition but more noteworthy than that term suggests — among fans of minor league baseball, Hessman’s career will be remembered as legendary. No minor league slugger, in fact, has been more prolific — this season, the 37-year-old Hessman topped Buzz Arlett’s all-time record with his 433rd career minor league homer.
The Braves selected Hessman in the 15th all the way back in 1996 — a draft in which they also took Jason Marquis, Mark DeRosa and Marcus Giles, which gives a sense of just how long Hessman was in the minors. He reached Triple-A six years later and made his big-league debut in 2003.
Hessman ultimately played parts of five big-league seasons with the Braves, Tigers and Mets, although he never collected even 100 plate appearances in a single year. Instead, he bounced from one organization to the next, hitting one home run after another for various Triple-A teams and playing in over 2,000 minor league games. The team with which he’ll be most strongly connected is the Toledo Mud Hens, for whom he played from 2005-2009 and 2014-2015. Hessman hit 23 or more homers in his first six seasons in Toledo before finishing with 16 last season. Overall, he hit 20 or more minor-league homers 13 times in his career. He also helped the US baseball team to a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and in 2009 he attracted attention by playing all nine positions in a single game for the Mud Hens.
Kinda wish the big guy could have somehow got a call up in 2014-2015 with the tigers, I was thinking maybe he would have a shot when Miggy went down this year but to eaches own, I really enjoyed watching him hit homers down in Toledo.
He would have been a much better choice than Marc Krauss, who neither got the batting average above his wife’s weight nor looked comfortable chasing a foul pop off first.
This is news worthy? Never heard of the guy. Slow news day on TG weekend.
Yeah, it’s a slow news day. I’m intrigued what his next step is, as I’m a ‘coaches/scouts’ guy.
So what you never heard of him, Monty. It’s newsworthy b/c he is a baseball player. Guarantee more people have heard of him, than have heard of you, even on a TG weekend
The dude is the real life Crash Davis. He hit 433 career home runs, which I’m guessing is at least 432 more than you’ve ever hit Monty. No chill…
Relax Dhut and Rat. My tongue was firmly in cheek. Yes he did have quite the impressive minor league career. I hit a lot of dingers and threw a no hitter in slow pitch. What are your claims to fame? Hope you enjoyed your turkey :). I have been waiting and watching for the Jays to sign Price or some other ace but instead so far have got Happ and Chavez. Not much to be thankful for except Donaldson and Bautista (flips his bat)
Reds fan here.
Skip Schumaker is gone, so I guess I should be thankful for that
Yes you should be and the Jays are finally rid of Macier Izturis 12m/3yr deal. I think he might if played 12 games for us with his injuries. 1m per game played. Not bad work if you can find it.
So noted: MLBTR writers should from now on with Monty to see if he’s heard of a guy and the item is newsworthy before posting an article about someone, regardless of whether any of the rest of us find it interesting.
Farewell and good luck! A lot of great memories. I grew up watch you and your long, amazing career.. (slow clap).
Much respect to a different kind of baseball legend to the ones we normally hear about. Hear hear!
Never really heard of him but props for a great pro career.
Honestly it may not be news to most but to a lot of tigers/mets fans he was a good option to watch him play in the minors, this guy broke the minor league Home Run record which deserves some recognition. Since Toledo is like 30 minutes from where I live and the games are like dirt cheap, I would always go to these games and see him and I was happy when he was signed to a minor league deal 2 years ago for the Tigers, I hope the tiger pick this guy up as a Hitting coach
That’s a lot of riding buses and not a lot of money. Dude obviously loves the game. With those kinds of minor league numbers it’s easy to imagine he could have made a killing in Japan or Korea.
433 homers, majors or minors, is nothing to scoff at. Kinda wish he had been able to hit 500, but I wish him well.
Goodnight sweet prince.