Gil Meche and Integrity

Gil Meche announced his retirement on Tuesday afternoon.  Meche was the butt of more than a few jokes when he signed a 5 year/$55 million deal with the Royals prior to the 2007 season but today he has elected to walk away from $12 million.With the Royals Meche got off to a terrific start.  On Opening Day 2007 he outdueled Curt Schilling with 7.1 innings of one run baseball.  Over the first two years of his deal Meche was quietly worth every penny with a 3.82 ERA with an MLB best 68 starts over those two seasons.Unfortunately Meche struggled in 2009 then missed the majority of 2010 with arm injuries.His retirement Tuesday is likely to be a fairly brief story but I do not think it should be.  This is a day when we should shout Gil Meche's name from the rooftops and applaud his integrity.  All too often we hear about players today who would not live up to the standards set by the players and men of yesterday.Meche has given lie to this idea.It is easy for you or I to sit here and s...