Meteors Legend Sifiye Retires

[Dembe Kihiga]

MANILA, Philippines: After 20 years and 2,291 WBA games, Melbourne Meteors legend Tamirat Sifiye has officially retired from pro baseball.

Sifiye, of course, planned to retire several weeks ago at the conclusion of the minor league season, but was persuaded by Meteors GM Bob Weinberg to come back to the pros for the final week of the regular season.

On September 28th, his last home game (which the team declared Tamirat Sifiye Day), Sifiye went 0 for 3, but had an RBI and stole a base after a walk, as the Meteors downed the Karachi Falcons 4-1. Just before the first pitch of this game, the team played a 10-minute montage of Sifiye's career highlights.

His last-ever pro game, October 1st in Manila, Sifiye was 0 for 2, and was taken out in the bottom of the 8th inning for Tristan Vantassell. Weinberg later told me "It was a really emotional moment. We were defending in the bottom of the 8th, and I decided to make the substitution to give Sif a curtain call. He knew what was happening, of course. The whole team took the field before him, and he walked out to first base after everyone else. They announced he was being taken out and everyone started cheering. The players in particular, even the ones on the field, just standing there applauding, and then the fans! Of course, we bought 25,000 tickets to the game and resold them at half price, so the stadium was more than halfway filled with Meteors jerseys (most of them were Sif jerseys, of course). But the Manila fans too, they were a class act. Not a single boo, and plenty of them were standing and cheering too. Shaaban Shamsher, who was batting first that inning, was clapping just as much as any of our guys. A real classy organization. So yeah, Sifiye is out on first and everyone's just applauding, a real standing ovation, and he takes off his cap and waves, and honestly I think he was crying a little. And he comes back to the dugout and waits at the top, and Vantassell comes up - he was replacing Sif at first - and they just hugged, and Vanty gestured for Sif to take a bow. And then Sif walked into the dugout. And just like that, the story was over."

After the game, Sifiye had a brief postgame press conference in which he officially announced his retirement. He is expected to make his next public appearance at his jersey retirement ceremony, which has not officially been announced yet, but team insiders tell me should be sometime within the next year.

Weinberg told me "Let's save the sappy stuff for the retirement ceremony... Sif is an all-time great. He got his standing ovation. He got his hero sendoff, and deservedly so. I want to give him some time to himself. But any time you need a quote about how great he is, and how much he's meant to this organization, you just give me a call. Me, or anyone else in the city of Melbourne."

Dembe Kihiga is the beat writer for the Melbourne Meteors. She is definitely not crying while writing this article.