Angels Great Garret Anderson Retires: Apologizes To Halo Fans For Being Misunderstood

Garret Anderson has announced his retirement. GA will easily go down as one of the top Angels players of all time and arguably the most under appreciated. Despite retiring as the Halos franchise leader in games played, hits, doubles, total bases, runs, extra-base hits and RBIs Anderson was often chastised by fans for being too smooth. The game came so easily to him that fans felt Anderson did not always exude maximum effort. This was largely due to the fact that the other Angels in the outfield he came up with : Darin Erstad, Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon were all out hustle, wear your emotions on your sleeve type players. GA was never that but what he was is undoubtedly one of the greatest hitters to ever dawn the Halo cap. The official release reads as follows:

"“It is with mixed emotions that I have decided to retire from baseball. I know I will miss many aspects of the game, the grind of playing every day, hitting with the game on the line, the clubhouse banter, making a good defensive play, the guys, the roar of the crowd after a win, and the friendships made throughout the years. It was truly a privilege to play this wonderful game and for that I want to thank several individuals."

"“To the Autry family, thank you for taking a chance and letting me play at the raw age of 22. To Disney and Mr. & Mrs. Moreno, thank you for allowing me to play most of my career in an Angel uniform. To all the managers and coaches, both in the minor and big leagues, and players that had a hand in my success, thank you. To the Angel fans, I want to apologize for being somewhat difficult to read at times and thank you for your support even still. I’ve appreciated your encouragement over the years. Most of all, I want to thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the talent to play this great game.”"

In the article from MLB.COM Garret also speaks about his being misunderstood by Angel fans saying: “I don’t think I was misunderstood — I know I was misunderstood,” Anderson said. “I’m sorry for that. I was who I was, going out and playing hard every day. I know I’m a quiet person.”

Garret was misunderstood indeed but as the song  ( both the Nina Simone original and the Common version) says:

"No one can always be an angelWhen everything goes wrong you see some badWell I’m just a soul whose intentions are goodOh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood"

Thanks for the great years and memories Garret!