Street finds himself on retirement’s doorstep
AUSTIN, TEXAS — He’s been playing baseball since he was six years old. It would have been five, but those silly Western Hills Little League rules mandated kids had to be six by July 31 to qualify, and his birthday was Aug. 2.
So Huston Street waited a whole year to play for Buddy Dryden’s Cincinnati Reds. He made up for lost time because he’s been playing baseball ever since. At the highest level.
Almost three decades later, the former Texas Longhorns great is shutting it down. Probably. Just not officially. After 13 seasons in Major League Baseball, one of the top closers in the game told the Austin American-Statesman on Monday at his beautiful 11,000square-foot home that sits on his beloved Lake Austin that he is all but announcing his retirement. So like 90 per cent sure? “More like 99,” Street said. But with one exception. Even though Street’s balky shoulder hurt so badly as recently as November that he couldn’t even lift a bag of groceries, the 34-year-old right-hander said he plans to get into shape, continue to rehab and see if a winning team might want him at midseason. Emphasis on the winning team. After playing on losing teams for all but four seasons, he’s tired of losing.
“I think losing is an absolute waste of time,” the bearded, tanned Street said. “Other teams are willing to sign me (to minorleague, make-good contracts). Losing teams. But I don’t want to BS anybody. It’s February, and I’m not ready. But if the phone rings, I want to be prepared.” Hello, Houston Astros.
In fact, Street talked to A.J. Hinch, the manager of the defending world champions, about that very thing, as well as new Hall of Fame inductee Trevor Hoffman and Rockies manager Bud Black.
But his dad once told him the day will come when “you have to make your children’s dreams your dreams.” The appeal of retiring and raising his three sons with his wife, Lacey, and tending to businesses as diverse as commercial real estate and wine-trading and part ownership in the South Congress Hotel may be too great for him to continue what has been a glorious career.
Glorious, but not ultimately successful. He never won a World Series, but knows he won’t get back some of these precious days from his three boys — ages seven, five and two — and he’s conflicted about a final decision.
He talks of “balance in life” a lot. He glows as he watches Ripken and Ryder eating chocolate doughnuts and playing hoops in his driveway with Lacey, who was an all-state volleyball and softball player from Sugar Land.
Huston’s big heart is tugged in different directions. Winning means that much to him, and in a perfect world, he’d join the Astros in late summer and help them toward a second title. He and his wife even bought a house in Houston last summer, a week before hurricane Harvey hit, so you know he’s given this some thought.
He just hates to leave the game. He won rookie of the year. He was twice an All-Star. But he pitched on just four playoff teams and has never thrown a pitch in a World Series game.
But this could be it for him. That notion won’t leave him after days like Sunday when he coached Ripken — who’s named after Troy Tulowitzki’s dog, by the way — in his flag football championship game. His undefeated Thunder Monkeys lost, their first loss in three years. But Ripken had his dad’s bum shoulder to cry on. What price do you put on that?
“He cried his little eyes out on my shoulder,” Street said. “That was his first experience with losing. If I was in baseball, I would have fielded ground balls yesterday, maybe covered first base 30 times, but I wouldn’t have been there to explain to my son the value of losing.
“If you want to be the best baseball player in the world and the best dad in the world, you just can’t.”