Posada's passion will be missed

You already knew that Jorge Posada wouldn't return to the Yankees for 2012, so his retirement doesn't shake your system the way that, say, Andy Pettitte's did a year ago. Really, there are few baseball ramifications surrounding Posada's decision.

Nevertheless, we lost something real and cherished Tuesday, when Posada announced at Yankee Stadium that he had played in his final game. We lost one of baseball's last old-school warriors.

You needed only to hear Thurman Munson's widow, Diana, who flew to New York from Ohio to attend the news conference, talk passionately about Posada to appreciate his dying-breed personality.

"Jorge is the one who I admired watching as a player . . . I think he and Thurman would've been best buds," Diana Munson said. "He definitely has the 'It factor.' I think the Yankees fans also realize that. And I think they're sad today, as we all are."

Munson spoke his mind regularly as the Yankees captain, yet he faced formidable competition in that department from Reggie Jackson to Graig Nettles to Goose Gossage to Lou Piniella. In those pre-Internet times, it was nothing special for players to operate publicly without a filter.

In contrast, Posada, who taped a Munson quote (about prioritizing defense over offense) to his locker in both Stadiums, stood out like a dinosaur as he carried his no-spin zone into the Twitter age.

"The thing is, we feel the same way," Derek Jeter said of his longtime best friend. "I'm just better at hiding it. We feel the same way inside. I think that's why we got along so well throughout the years."

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Jeter is the absolute master of moving his lips and saying nothing of substance. His pal Posada seems incapable of uttering an empty word.

On Tuesday, speaking to a large media group and serving as the center of attention, Posada was bound to take some shots at people. And he did, doing it so naturally that he didn't even seem to realize it.

Asked about his two-run, game-tying double off Boston's Pedro Martinez in 2003 American League Championship Series Game 7, Posada recalled, "I thought they were going to take him out."

They didn't, and that decision contributed greatly to Grady Little's dismissal from the Red Sox. But whereas other people might have taken efforts to phrase it in a noncritical way, that thought never occurred to Posada.

His comments about his switch last year from catcher to designated hitter were less subtle. Asked about his relationship with Joe Girardi, Posada said: "I really don't have an issue with him. I really don't. It's one of those things that I felt like he was put in front of this situation. I think it came up from upstairs."

No, the relationship between Posada and Yankees general manager Brian "Upstairs" Cashman will never be magnificent.

Posada can get away with this because of his value to the team and popularity with the fans. He made it this far having survived a clubhouse fistfight with Orlando Hernandez and difficulties working with David Cone, Randy Johnson and even Pettitte, among others. He's respected because that old-school honesty has come with an old-school work ethic.

Mrs. Munson said it was watching Posada play that re-engaged her in baseball, after sitting out for many years after her husband's death.

There will be other great catchers. At least, we think there will. But there won't be too many great players, who approach the game as Posada did.

His departure makes baseball a little less fun, and that's why Tuesday's announcement meant something.