Photos of the end of a player's career

[bn2cardz]

Baseball has a lot of historical moments. We focus a lot of the beginning of a player's career and there can be several photos documenting the new rookie. Now we live in a time where we celebrate the retirement of a player with a final season tour, but sometimes a player's career comes to a more sudden end and there is no way to know it is about to happen.

Do you have a photo documenting the end of a player's career?

Here is Mickey Cochrane on May 25th, 1937, the moment he fell to the ground as he was struck by a pitch to the head. This ended the playing career of this HOF Catcher.

[Mark70Z]

A picture from September 18, 1977, of "Thanks Brooks Day".

[Scott Garner]

In July I stumbled on to an original photo of Johnny Vander Meer of double no-hit fame walking off the mound for the very last time in 1951 as a member of the Cleveland Indians.
This was Johnny's only appearance with the Tribe and he got crushed. He was released shortly after this game by Indians GM and HOF'er Hank Greenberg.

[MrSeven]

Been looking for a good autographed copy of this photo. Mantle hanging his jersey up on the day of his retirement.

[yankeesjetsfan]

That's a great shot of Mantle. The one of Vander Meer is a bit heartbreaking. It's almost like he knew it was the end of the line.

Mike

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by yankeesjetsfan

That's a great shot of Mantle. The one of Vander Meer is a bit heartbreaking. It's almost like he knew it was the end of the line.

Mike

Mike,
I believe that Vandy did know that this was likely the end of the line for him. I had the same reaction when I first saw this photo.
The Indians & especially Greenberg had not used him until May & it was obvious that he did not factor into their plans.
Ironically, Vander Meer did play in the minor leagues in 1952 and actually tossed another no-hitter for Tulsa before hanging up his spikes.