Red Sox incredible comeback story retires after 9 rollercoaster MLB seasons

The yips are a baseball curse that pitchers rarely made it back from.

Daniel Bard made it back. 

Bard's triumphant, improbable return happened with the Colorado Rockies, so maybe it flew a bit under the radar. But after Bard appeared to lose his career with the Boston Red Sox, he regained it in Denver, an absolutely inspiring story of perseverance.

That journey ended for Bard officially on Sunday, when he announced his retirement.

Bard broke through with the Red Sox in 2009 as a reliever for three seasons effectively.

In 2012, Boston stretched Bard out as a starting pitcher. In 59.1 innings, he walked 43 guys and had a 6.22 ERA.

The next season, Bard made two rough appearances, and then he was out of MLB.

That was 2013.

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Bard didn't make it back until 2020 with Colorado.

In four seasons with the Rockies, exclusively out of the bullpen, Bard had a 3.83 ERA and made 61 saves. He struck out more than a batter an inning.

Between those points, Bard was truly broken.

In 2014, he had an outing with the Single-A Hickory Crawdads in which he walked nine batters, hit seven more and only got two outs.

In 2016, he pitched for the High-A Palm Beach Cardinals and allowed eight earned runs in three innings.

In 2017, Bard threw for the Gulf Coast League Mets and allowed four runs while getting two outs.

Bard retired from professional baseball once before, on Jan. 4, 2018.

He threw for scouts in February 2020, and he impressed enough to get a minor-league deal from the Rockies.

He made it up on July 25 and threw 1.1 scoreless innings in relief.

From there, Bard proved he did indeed belong in the big leagues. He closed out his pro career with two runs in 5.2 innings for the Mariners' Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma this season before deciding to hang up his spikes.

What an incredible story.

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