One of the best hitters for a generation of baseball fans ready to reportedly call it quits with the rumors spreading today that Magglio Ordonez will officially hang it up this Sunday at Comerica Park. His retirement comes after 15 impressive seasons in the Major Leagues split almost evenly between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. In short, he's tormented the Kansas City Royals pitching staff for a decade and a half now.
Ordonez first made his debut in Chicago in 1997 at the age of 23 and never looked back. Since that moment, he's made six All-Star appearances and finished top eight in MVP voting twice, including the runner-up in 2007 when he led the league with an incredible .363 batting average to go with 54 doubles, 28 home runs and 139 RBI. He has 294 home runs and 1,236 RBI in his career. He retires with a career line of .309/.369/.502.
Against the Royals in his career, Ordonez was right in line with his career numbers, but actually hit with less power. In an incredible 190 career games against KC, Ordonez hit .310 with 31 homers. That sounds impressive, but his career slugging against the Royals was .492. That means the Royals kept Ordonez in check slightly better than the average major league team.
By comparison, Ordonez has a 1.001 career OPS against the Boston Red Sox. Some teams are more happy to hear the news than others, but baseball loses a very good hitter all around.
For more info on Ordonez's retirement, check out Bless You Boys.