Friday night in front of a roaring crowd, Nationals #63 took a ride in the cart one last time, to throw out one last pitch.

Sean Doolittle officially announced his retirement from baseball on Friday, closing a storybook career that saw him become a two-time All-Star and World Series champion.

Doolittle ended his career with 112 saves, one of only 165 pitchers EVER to reach 100 saves.  75 of those saves came for the Nationals putting him tied for third in team history.

Doolittle’s incredible career was unfortunately derailed by injuries post-2019 with a partial tear of his patellar tendon ultimately leading to his retirement.

Doolittle’s retirement is yet another sign that this is the end of an era of Nats baseball.  Both him and Stephen Strasburg retired this offseason and with the new wave of Nationals entering the league, it really all wraps up together.

A competitor through and through, Doolittle was instrumental in the Nationals World Series run in 2019, even recording a save in Game 1.

Doolittle was still attempting to make it back to the league, rehabbing an injury in the minors when he knew he was done.

“It just got to the point where I had an outing, which was at the time hopefully going to be my last outing in Florida, (my knee) just wasn’t going to let me do it,”

Alongside the impressive on-the-field accolades, he also did so much in the Washington area off the field.  Winning the Roberto Clemente Award in 2016 and the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award in 2018.

In an interview with the New York Times, Doolittle commented on what drove him to do so much for the community. "When I was a kid, I remember my parents would say, 'Baseball is what you do, but that's not who you are' — like that might be my job, but that's not the end-all, be-all. I feel like I might even be able to use it to help other people or open some doors or explore more opportunities."

His charities continue to do incredible work to this day and will leave an even larger mark on D.C. than his play on the field.

Doolittle will be remembered forever in D.C. not just as an incredible baseball player but an incredible person.  Doolittle said about his career “I don’t have any regrets” and we wish him the best in retirement.

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