Inspirational Phillies pitcher retires after 13 MLB seasons, 705 games on mound

Jake Diekman was never even supposed to make the major leagues.

The Phillies chose him in the 30th round of the 2007 draft out of Cloud County Community College, a two-year school in Concordia, Kansas. Before that, hd had pitched at Doane University in Crete, Nebraska.

But 705 MLB games later, Diekman more than made it. He outlasted, survived and thrived.

On Friday, Diekman announced that he had pitched his last pro baseball game. In a lengthy social media post, Diekman retired.

Diekman released a long statement on X thanking all the teams he pitched for.

"From American Legion to Doane College to Cloud County Community College, I could not have asked for better spots to be," Diekman wrote. "Those were some of the best times on the field. Those early years in high school and college is where you learn what it actually takes to be your best, grind out a game and learn to fall."

Then he thanked his first team, the Phillies, for whom he pitched 191 games, the most of any team.

"Thank you to the Phillies for taking a shot on a 30th round guy out of small-town Nebraska that looked like Skeletor. Making my big league debut with the most veteran team imaginable at that point was surreal. I'll never forget being a part of the 2014 no-hitter."

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That's some awesome gratitude from Diekman, who finished his MLB career with a 3.91 ERA as a lefty reliever.

He'll move on to the next steps in his life, and he'll do it knowing he'd given everything he had to an incredible baseball journey.

"To the game of baseball, you are extremely hard, but extremely rewarding and full of life lessons," Diekman wrote. "Please stay the same game that we all fell in love with. You rock, don't ever change."

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