I care that Mike Mussina is retiring.  Who knew?

When you draw a line between the home-grown Yankee dynasty of the late 90s and the parade of all-stars that failed to live up their legacy in the aughts, that line starts at Mike Mussina.  He signed an 8-year, $88 million deal after the 2000 season, the year of the last championship.  He won 123 games as a Yankee over those 8 years in the regular season, but only 5 in the postseason (in 17 starts).  

He was paid ace money, but was never the ace.  There was always Roger Clemens or Andy Pettitte or Chien-Ming Wang there to take the ball on opening day, or game 1 of a playoff series.  Even his signature performance, a 1-0 shutout victory over Oakland in Game 3 of the 2001 divisional playoffs, is remembered as the Jeter Flip game.  Mussina might make the Hall of Fame on the back of his 270 wins, 3.68 career ERA, and 2813 strikeouts, but I don't think I ever felt watching him like I was watching an all-time great. 

Mussina never seemed comfortable in the public eye.  He was often described by the New York media as "cerebral" and "thoughtful", which is another way of saying "boring".  His biggest media appearance was when he was featured in Wordplay, the documentary about crossword puzzle enthusiasts.  Compared this to Pedro Martinez, another future Hall of Famer from his era, who brought a midget into the locker room as a good luck charm.

But he'll get into the Hall of Fame, because being loud and flashy isn't a prerequisite for being great.  (And yes, I just wanted an excuse to use this picture again.)

I remember Mussina pitching against the Red Sox on September 2nd, 2001.  Mike Mussina had retired the first 24 batters in a row - 8 perfect innings.  I had missed both Davids, Wells and Cone, throw their perfect games in '98 and '99, but I had a chance to watch one here. 

But in the 9th inning, the broadcast showed the strangest graphic.  Mike Mussina had already taken a perfect game into the 9th inning before.  He'd also taken one into the 8th inning before.  He'd also pitched another one-hit, no-walk game earlier in his career.  Three performances that were almost perfect games.

Carl Everett broke up the perfect game with 2 outs in the ninth inning.  2 strikes, too.  Bloop single into center field.  Another one-hitter.  Another almost perfect game. And it was only the second hit Carl Everett ever got off of Mussina.  It was like he wanted to keep his greatness as below the radar as possible.  A perfect game would have been too ostentatious.

That's how Moose played his whole career.  Last season was the first time he ever won 20 games in a year, and now he retires, as if to say, "Uh oh, I'm making it too obvious how great I am, I better get out of here before I get to 300 wins."  I just wish that more people had realized how great he was while he was here.  Myself included.