Is Mark Buehrle Considering Retirement or St. Louis After 2011?

I decided to jaunt on over to South Side Sox while taking a quick break at work a few minutes ago and saw something that compelled me to fire up the old blog engine and post. According to SSS (via Phil Rogers at the Chicago Tribune), White Sox ace Mark Buehrle, who is signed through the 2011 season, may be seriously considering retiring after his contract runs out.

Here is the link to the Phil Rogers article in the Tribune about Mark Buehrle considering retirement after 2011.

As stated in the article, Mark Buehrle, being the doting husband and father that he is, always comes to Spring Training homesick and missing his family. This very feeling could be what leads Buehrle, who has played with the White Sox his entire career, to hang up his spikes prematurely.

From the Rogers article:

“People may say I’m full of it,” said Buehrle, relaxing in front of his locker at the White Sox’s new Camelback Ranch. “I don’t know. Maybe I am. But as I look at it today, I don’t think you’re going to see me in a baseball uniform for too many more years. I miss my family too much when I’m away.”

…

“I’ve already done a lot of things in baseball, including winning a World Series,” Buehrle said. “I really don’t know if I’m going to have enough reasons to keep playing. I really don’t know if I’m going to want to play after this contract. Maybe I’ll just want a one-year deal.”

If you go to the South Side Sox post, it does not take too long into the comments section to find White Sox fans speculating that Mark Buehrle’s true desire could be to finish up his career in St. Louis, where he is from and where he makes his offseason home. There was a lot of speculation when the White Sox were negotiating with Buehrle on his current contract that he may not re-sign with Chicago because he wanted to go to St. Louis, who would not doubt welcome him with open arms and an open checkbook. But Mark Buehrle did re-up with the White Sox and helped lead the Good Guys to the playoffs last year, displaying the consistent efficiency that is his trademark.

There is no question that I never want to see Mark Buehrle leave Chicago and a long time awaits between now and then end of the 2011 season. Who knows what Mark Buehrle will be thinking about then. What we do know is that his longing to be closer to home is real, and that whether it leads him to retire or move to St. Louis after the expiration of his current contract, White Sox fans should probably at least prepare themselves for the possibility that these will be the last three years we get to enjoy Mark Buehrle on the South Side.

Mark Buehrle is 29 years old right now and will be 30 on opening day. He came up with the White Sox in 2000 and is probably the most defining player during a pretty successful decade in White Sox baseball that included the team’s first World Series in forever. Heading into 2009, Buehrle is 122-87 with a career ERA of 3.80 and a solid career WHIP of 1.27. Unquestionably, Mark Buehrle has been among the top 5 or 10 most consistent pitchers in Major League Baseball this decade, having never started fewer than 30 games since his first full season in 2001. He is one of the few pitchers toeing the rubber in the Majors today with a legitimate shot to get to 300 victories. He would obviously have to pitch into his 40s to do, but no one doubts that if he wanted to, with his rubber arm and sterling injury history, he very well could make a run at it.

I don’t ever want to consider the possibility of Mark Buehrle not being in the White Sox rotation or, even worse, pitching for someone else. It is rare that players stay with one team long enough for fans to develop a true, old-school attachment to them, but Mark Buehrle is one of those guys. In fact, just the other day on Valentine’s Day, my girlfriend gave me one of the coolest gifts ever: a framed authographed picture of Mark Buehrle after getting the final out of his no-hitter against Texas in 2007. It will be adorning the walls of my office as soon as I get the thing-a-ma-bob on the back of the frame to hang it.

But I will say this: if these are the last three seasons that Mark Buehrle pitches in Chicago, and he decides to either retire to for play for St. Louis after the 2011 season, I will not feel one shred of ill-will towards him. We all know that he grew up a Cardinals fan and that it has been dream to someday play there. And we know how important it is to him, as it is to all fathers, to be close to his wife and kids on a consistent basis. By 2011, Mark Buehrle will have given us a solid decade of dedication, loyalty, and excellence. What more could we reasonably ask of him?

In my idyllic view of the White Sox future, Mark Buehrle stays on the South Side his entire career, pitches into his 40s, leads us to another World Series, and makes a serious run at 300 victories. Just thinking about it gets me excited for this season and many more beyond. But the question is what is Mark Buehrle’s ideal vision of the future? At the end of the day, for all that he has given the White Sox and their fans, that is what I would most like to see happen — my own selfish desires be damned.

Either way, we know that we have at least three years left with Mark, and that the White Sox will attempt to defend their 2008 AL Central title with a very good team that is capable of doing so. One of the most important vetern leaders on said team is Mark Buehrle, the White Sox unquestioned ace of the 00s. Once I hit “publish” on this post, I’m just going to focus on cheering for Buehrle and the White Sox to finish out one of the best decades in franchise history in style.

We can worry about 2011 and beyond when it gets here.

Tags: Chicago White Sox, mark buehrle, MLB

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