After 10 years of playing softball for the pro team Chicago Bandits as well as the U.S. softball team, pitcher Jennie Finch, 29, announced her retirement from the sport on Tuesday immediately following the end of the National Pro Fastpitch season next month.
"I just feel like it gets harder and harder every year with Ace (Finch's 4-year-old son) getting older and time away from my husband and even family events such as birthdays and friends' weddings and things that I've always just missed out on because of softball," Finch said in an interview with The Associated Press.
That leaves her only one more week of playing softball with the U.S. team that is still basking in the glory of winning the world championship for the seventh consecutive year earlier this month.
"This whole career has been way more than I ever even imagined or dreamed," Finch said. "The opportunities that I'd be able to enjoy and appreciate and be a part of, it's been incredible."
Aside from being the Women's Softball World Champions she also helped the U.S. team win Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 and silver in Beijing in 2008. The U.S. ladies took revenge on the Japanese team for swiping gold in Beijing by defeating the Japanese team not just once but twice at the World Championships earlier this month. There is now doubt that Finch is at the pinnacle of her career.
"Right now in my career, it's like I'm having more fun than I've ever had, so it's kind of like, "Man, I can't stop now,'" she said. "I'm playing first base and pitching and hitting. I feel like I'm almost better than I've ever been."
Described as the most famous softball player in history by Time magazine, Finch certainly increased the popularity of softball not only with her impressive talent, but also with her good looks. But ultimately, her priority is her family, and rightly so.
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