Padre Outfielder Calls It A Career

Bad knee forces Brian Giles to retire from baseball.

Former Padre Brian Giles is retiring. It's the pain in his arthritic right knee that's causing him to give up his major league career.  

The 39-year-old outfielder informed the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday of his decision.  

Giles is a career .291 hitter with 287 home runs and 1,078 RBI in 1,847 games. In addition to playing for the Padres, the two-time All-Star also played for Pittsburgh and Cleveland, calling his trip to the World Series with the Indians in 1997 the highlight of his 15 year career.

"That's what you play for," Giles said of the championship series the Indians lost to the Florida Marlins. "I always talked to my brother (former major leaguer Marcus) about coming up, and our No. 1 goal was getting to the big leagues. Our No. 2 thing would be to win a world championship. Getting to experience the World Series was pretty special."

Giles’ deteriorating knee limited him to 61 games with the Padres last season. That’s when the Dodgers stepped in. They were looking for left-handed options off the bench.

Giles right knee started bothering him in 2007 when he had micro fracture surgery during the off-season.

"Obviously I want to play and feel I can play but physically I'm not able to do what I expect myself to do," Giles said.   

He's heading home to San Diego and will start to figure out the next stage of his life. For now, he's looking forward to spending time with his two daughters, ages 7 and 9.  

"I've been doing this, including minor leagues, for 22-23 years now," Giles said. "What do I do now? I'll try to get a really good tan. I'll just hang out with my girls and figure it out, I guess. You really don't know what to do. But I really have no regrets." 

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