For every Mussina and Koufax and Williams, there’s a Willie Mays or Steve Carlton or Jim Palmer, guys who had greatness, lost it with age, but couldn’t let go. Joe DiMaggio had a very good season in 1950 and a pretty good season in 1951, at the age of 36. But he sensed the inevitable and left. He was done. Why tarnish what would soon become legendary?

People are going to look back at Mike Mussina’s 2008 season, as time passes, and consider it a greater achievement than they do now. That’s how history works. Good things become better, bad gets worse.

Remember 2007? Mussina, at 38 years old, went 11-10, battled injuries, only threw 152 innings and had had the highest ERA of his career at 5.15. You think fans wanted him back for 2008? You think the team did? No. Which only will help his legacy. Expectations for 2008 were not such that fans or anyone on that team - they’re lying if they say it - thought he’d win 20 games this year. The hope was for him to not drop off any worse than 2007 because he was done. His body was breaking down. He didn’t have his stuff anymore. You know fans didn’t want him on that staff this year.

But something happened. Mussina defied expectations and had one of the best seasons in his career. The cheers were stronger than since he’d signed his first free agent deal with the Yankees before the 2001 season, leaving the former rival (former because they’ve stunk for 11 years) Baltimore Orioles. He played himself into a career 270-game winner and forced people to ask, “Are you coming back?” It’s better to be asked that than, “Do you have to come back?”

And, apparently, Mike Mussina is not coming back. He’s doing this his way, avoiding more injuries, more time away from his family. He’s got all of the money he and his kids and their kids will ever need. He’s put in 18 years. He missed a perfect game by one pitch. He won 20 games in 2008. He played in a World Series and played for the New York Yankees. The only thing he didn’t get was that ring. At almost 40 years old then, you need to weigh one thing: What’s more important to me now, doing all the work, putting in all the time and effort to hopefully win that World Series ring or staying home and being the husband and father he’s never been before.

Mike Mussina has conquered life on the diamond. It appears his next challenge will be conquering it off the field. Best of luck, because the next 50 years may be even harder. Still, if only we could all go out like Mike Mussina, we’d all go out on top.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of. To read more from Jimmy, just click on his website, Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight, which you can find at www.jimmyscottshighandtight.com. There you’ll hear interviews with MLB players, wives & agents and find new perspectives on this great game some of us call Baseball. You can contact Jimmy through email: jimmy@jimmyscottshighandtight.com.

“You know, if I was a spectator today, I would have rather watched more tennis as well,” Murray said. “You kind of understand why they do it, but the atmosphere was still awesome. They know tennis here. When there was good points, they applauded for both. Obviously they wanted to see more tennis, which was fine by me. By the end of the match, I thought it was pretty even, you know, and obviously finished off well.”

Actually it went very well for the 21 year-old Brit. Up 2 sets to Love but down a break in the third, he was able to finish off Nadal with a 6–2, 7–6(5), 4–6, 6–4 win to advance him to his first Grand Slam Finals.

When the match resumed, Nadal and Murray were both able to stay on serve after Murray was broken yesterday in the third. It resulted in a Nadal win.

“The momentum was kind of with him a little bit in the third set,” Murray said. “He held serve easy the first couple of games, and I don’t think either of us dropped a point maybe the first couple of service games. So, you know, I just had to try and stay aggressive, you know, stay focused. I knew, because of the wind from the far side of the court from where we came out, it’s much easier to return from that end, and I knew I was going to have some chances, so I had to just try and stay focused on that.”

Things changed in the fourth. Up 1-0, Murray had a double break point and seven overall in the 8-deuce second game, but couldn’t close out the No. 1 seed, keeping the match on serve. But Murray was able to come back against Nadal as the Arthur Ashe crowd started cheering for the Scottish national as he shut down the Spaniard later in the match.

“It was quite windy out there as well,” said Murray, whose best finish before the Open was fourth round. Obviously yesterday the conditions were pretty heavy, very humid. Today it was very windy on the court. The ball was flying through the air a bit more. I just had to try and stay calm. I thought I was playing well enough to win the match, but I knew Nadal was going to come at me. There was a few sort of ups and downs even though it was a very short time we were out on the court, but I managed to come through in the end.”

Murray will now face Roger Federer later on today. Lifetime he is 3-1 against the Swiss master, but won’t go into the match too overconfident.

“I’ve played well against [Federer] in the past,” he said. “I think a Slam final is different to the match that I played against him before. You know, he’s obviously won, you know, over 30 matches in a row here, you know, so he’s obviously going to be feeling confident going in. He’s got loads of experience in these situations and it’s something new for me. I know I’m going to have to play great to have a chance of winning, but I’ve played well the last couple of weeks.”