Injuries and Attempted Comeback
Greer's aggressive style of play took a severe toll on his body, and he spent the remainder of his baseball career undergoing and recovering from surgeries. After first coming off of the disabled list in 2002, he was only able to play one more game, on July 11 of that year, before going back on the disabled list. On August 22, he had surgery to fuse the C5 and C6 vertebrae in his neck; and in the offseason, he had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder. He was then expected to miss the entire 2003 season. While rehabilitating from the rotator cuff surgery, he had to undergo Tommy John surgery and an ulnar nerve transposition in July 2003. He actually was also supposed to receive operations on his right hip and right knee, but he decided against those. He also had surgery in the following offseason to remove scar tissue that had built up in his elbow, and early in the 2004 season he had additional surgery to remove scar tissue from his shoulder.
Nevertheless, he was still determined to come back; and he and the Rangers expected to see him back on the field as a designated hitter during the last month of their season. He worked out at the Rangers' spring training facility in Surprise, Arizona, with the intention of doing a rehabilitation assignment in the minor leagues shortly thereafter. However, his workout was cut short; he returned to Texas, where he had surgery to remove scar tissue on his forearm and was declared out for the season. The Rangers, not surprisingly, decided to buy out the option year on his contract; he actually made almost as much money during the two lost seasons as he did in the rest of his career combined.
Greer received invitations from the Rangers and the Minnesota Twins to go to spring training as a non-roster invitee, but he decided that he would rather retire than move his family to another state. Thus, on February 20, 2005, he announced his retirement, officially ending his comeback attempt.
On August 11, 2007, the Rangers inducted Greer into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame.
Read more about this topic: Rusty Greer
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