Remember that scene from “A League of Their Own” when Walter Harvey offered Jimmy Dugan—down on his luck and over the hill, but looking for a way to get back into baseball—a second chance by managing the Rockford Peaches?
“You go out, wave your cap, give the people a thrill,” Harvey told a reluctant Dugan.
“Why don’t you get an organ grinder, I could do a little dance,” Dugan replied.
“If your knees are up for it, go ahead,” Harvey shot back.
Derek Jeter was Jimmy Dugan this past season, an aging star nowhere near the Hall of Fame–form that made him one of the best (but never the best) of his generation. As the Yankee legend was trotted out at ballparks across the league, collecting lavish gifts along the way while dutifully waving his cap to give the people one last thrill, there was never a sense that he still had plenty left to give, but rather that the game had passed him by.
Jeter’s retirement tour wasn’t about him trying to go out on top. It was purely about nostalgia. He had been reduced to a circus act—minus the music from the organ grinder—and not even a walk-off, game winning RBI in his last at-bat could change that.
The same cannot be said about Thierry Henry and Landon Donovan, one of them arguably among the best players of his era and the other unquestionably the greatest American ever to play the sport.
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Donovan, at 32, is calling it quits at the end of the current Major League Soccer season. He plans to hang up his cleats just as soon as the LA Galaxy are eliminated from the playoffs or once they win the MLS Cup, whichever happens first. Henry, 37, is out of contact with the New York Red Bulls, also still in the playoffs, and although he hasn’t publicly said he plans to retire, the general belief is the Frenchman will likely walk away from the beautiful game.
It’s a shame. Both Donovan and Henry are playing their best soccer in quite some time, and neither are showing signs of slowing down. They’ve been feted—not to the degree that Jeter was, but still—on their travels this season. For Donovan and Henry, though, it’s about competing and going out on top, and not indulging in some nostalgic stroll down memory lane.
The other difference is Donovan and Henry can still cut it. Yes, it’s MLS, not exactly the highest standard in world soccer. But critics who think they couldn’t walk into most clubs in Europe and be a contributor are either fooling themselves or haven’t been paying attention. Donovan and Henry are retiring before their time is truly up, depriving fans the pleasure of witnessing their wonderfully skilled play for many more years.
Donovan is coming off a marvellous showing in LA’s 5-0 shellacking of Real Salt Lake in the second leg of the Western Conference semifinals on the weekend. The former American international, who ranks as MLS’ all-time leader in goals (144) and assists (136), was a one-man wrecking crew against the Utah club, scoring a hat trick and assisting on a Robbie Keane goal.
Donovan’s dynamic and insightful attacking play was too much for Salt Lake to handle. His rampaging runs, link-up play with Keane and sublime distribution tore apart the league’s third-best defence, which entered the contest on the back of four consecutive clean sheets.
At times, Donovan toyed with Salt Lake, his constant movement off the ball keeping them guessing, making it nearly impossible for them to anticipate what’d he do next. In what could have been his last game as a professional, Donovan came up with one of the best playoff performances in league history, extending his MLS record to 25 career playoff goals before leaving the pitch to a standing ovation.
“It’s pretty amazing a player like him can have a game of that quality, and he’s going to be done in a month,” LA defender Robbie Rogers said afterwards.
“I don’t think any of us were worried about this being Landon’s last game.”
What’s interesting about Henry this season is that he has reinvented himself as New York’s chief orchestrator. It’s not that the Frenchman wasn’t a capable playmaker during his glory days with Arsenal. He was. But his ability to burn defenders with his pace and score loads of goals always overshadowed his creative gifts.
Henry wasn’t New York’s go-to guy for goals in 2014 like he was in his first two full years in the league when he found the back of the net 29 times. His modest scoring record (10 goals) this campaign paled in comparison to that of MVP candidate Bradley Wright-Phillips, who tied the league’s single-season record with 27.
But his 14 assists ranked him as the second-best provider in the MLS regular season, behind only Donovan, who had 19. Of Wright-Phillips’ 27 goals, Henry assisted on seven of them—and he could have had more had the Englishman been more clinical in front of goal.
Henry has been even more devastating in the playoffs, continuing his effective partnership with Wright-Phillips and linking up with Peguy Luyindula. The Frenchman has had a hand in creating four of New York’s five goals in the post-season, assisting on pair of strikes each by Wright-Phillips and Luyindula as New York has advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Both New York and LA are now two games away from meeting in the MLS Cup final. It’d be a dream scenario for MLS—its two marquee clubs facing off in its championship match.
If it did happen, it would bring together two of the league’s biggest stars, two of its best players squaring off against one another in their last game as professionals—and they’d do it while still at the height of their powers.
Now that’s going out in style.
John Molinaro is Sportsnet’s chief soccer reporter. Follow him on Twitter