Long-time SF Giants nemesis decides to hang up his cleats after 14 seasons

It was announced on Monday that long-time Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon will retire after this season. While he was a thorn in the side of the SF Giants at times, he does deserve credit for having a long and successful career.

The 38-year-old has played all 14 of his seasons in the big-leagues with the Rockies. He was drafted by Colorado in 2008, the same year that Buster Posey was drafted by the Giants.

Blackmon had a number of solid seasons with the Rockies. From 2014 to 2019, Blackmon made 4 All-Star Games and was the National League batting champion in 2017 when he sported a .331 batting average.

SF Giants nemesis Charlie Blackmon decides to call it quits

He was a career .292 hitter which is pretty solid for the time in which he played when batting averages went down across the game. He also hit 226 career home runs, drove in 797 runs, and stole 148 bases. Of course, those numbers are certainly helped by playing in Coors Field, but they are solid nonetheless.

In his career against the Giants, Blackmon hit .274/.334/.442 with 20 home runs and 93 RBI. Only 4 of those home runs came at Oracle Park which makes sense given that it is much less hitter-friendly than Coors Field. He is the kind of player that you were a little afraid of in the box no matter what his numbers looked like because he always seemed to turn in good at-bats against the Giants.

His numbers were down a little bit the last two seasons as he dealt with some injuries. This season he has hit .249/.320/.398 with 11 home runs and 48 RBI.

It is nice that this news was made public ahead of the end of this season so Rockies fans can show up in these final games and give their appreciation to Blackmon. Giants fans were fortunate enough to send off Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford in similar fashion even though they were not retiring, just in all likelihood moving on to another team in free agency.

Congratulations to Blackmon on a great career. I for one will be relieved that the Giants do not have to face that bearded left-handed woodsman anymore.