It’s a glorious autumn morning in South Florida, the kind of weather that an athlete prays for as he’s heading to the ballpark to compete in a pennant race. And today, one of the greatest players in New York Yankees history is educating his daughter on the perils of putting metal in the microwave. “Don’t put any metal in there! Any metal! None,” Jorge Posada says. “I think me being home was tough on my daughter at first,” he says smiling.
A funny thing happened to Posada on the way to a potential Hall of Fame career. After a 17-year major league career as a catcher and team leader on the world’s most popular franchise, Posada decided it was time to say goodbye. Though his powerful, coiled swing was still capable of lifting ball after ball over a favorable right-field wall in Yankee Stadium, the kids were getting bigger. There were other things to be done. And as much as he has been there for his teammates, playing through injuries over the years, it was time to stop playing away games. He wanted to be home.
“Actually, I’ve been surprised how much I haven’t missed the game,” Posada tells us as we sit in his living room, the kids eating lunch and watching television across the hall. “I miss the locker room. I miss seeing my friends every day there. But when you look back, you always remember the good things. When you start to think about the negative things that come with the job, you realize that you don’t miss those at all.”
Posada says he knew after the season that he was ready to retire. His wife, Laura, now a breakout television star on the Fox Mundo channel, says she knew he had made up his mind as soon as he suggested the family go skiing. “Jorge would never do that if he were playing,” she says. “He was so concerned about getting hurt and letting his teammates down, he would never do something like that if he was going to play again.”
“It’s true,” Jorge says. “My daughter made fun of me the whole time, because I was falling down all over the place. I didn’t announce my retirement until the end of January, because I wanted to make sure, but inside, I knew.”
At home, Jorge found himself in a completely different role. In the Yankee clubhouse, he was part of the emotional backbone of five World Championship teams. Along with Derek Jeter, his leadership was unquestioned. But once he found himself back with his family, he felt like a bit of a rookie again. “I had been away several months of the year for so long,” he says. “I wanted to respect that everyone had a routine. I didn’t want to upset Laura or the kids’ routine with my presence. So at first, I had to try to fit into what they were doing. I started taking the kids to school and picking them up. Jorge Jr. started playing football and baseball, so I started going to those games. Being there as just been an amazing experience. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
In this first year away from the game, a year so crucial for the emotional well being of a retired athlete, Jorge Posada has tackled it with the same passion he brought to baseball. With the Summer Olympics in London, he planned a trip for the family to be there from opening and closing ceremonies. “He did it all himself,” Laura says. “He got the schedules for all the events and figured out where we should go and what we should see. It was an amazing time for all of us.”
“For me,” Jorge says, “the highlight was watching Michael Phelps tie the record for gold medals. I mean, we were there! I still get goose bumps thinking about it. And not only that, to see Usain Bolt, the men’s basketball final, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win gold in volleyball. It was nice to be able to sit back and enjoy it all.”
He’s also be able to dedicate more time to his children. His son, Jorge Jr., has a condition known as craniosynostosis, which causes the sutures in the skull to close sooner than usual after birth. Surgical procedures are required to allow the brain to grow properly. “He’s doing great,” Jorge says. “Last year was hopefully the last procedure. We’ve been blessed.” These days, Jorge spends a good amount of time watching Jorge Jr. play baseball.
And Jorge has also enjoyed spending some time on his newest passion—his boat. He took lessons to learn how to take it out by himself and all the safety measures required with it. “Now,” he says, “after I pick up the kids, we can get on the boat, take it out and watch the sunset.”
It’s unlikely that Jorge will catch up on the decade of small moments a player misses while traveling with his teammates, but he’s trying his best. He still follows the game fairly closely. “I still talk regularly with some of my teammates,” he says. “And I would love to stay involved in baseball in some way. But I can’t see myself coaching and having to travel the way I did as a player,” he says. “If I just need to be somewhere for a few days and then I can come back, it’s fine. But right now, what I want to do more than anything else is be right here at home.”
