The OP made it clear in the OP that he was asking, “What other atheletes had embarassing retirements and what made them so memorably bad?”
Clemente, etc. don’t belong in that group any more than do Jordan, etc.
Derek Bell, “Operation Shutdown”:
There also was Joe Louis. he went on war bond raising tours during WW2. and raised a lot of money. He Heb toured the war camps and entertained and greeted the troops.
Then after the war, the IRS nailed him for back taxes and he was broke. So he came back and ruined his legacy by taking bad beatings. He was a overweight old man fighting on and on.
:rolleyes: Sorry - this is the kind of crap sports fans make up to entertain themselves when they’re bored. It’s a stupid story. Jordan wasn’t a very good baseball player, but he didn’t retire to avoid a suspension.
Jim Brown had his acting career. 
(I only know this because Tick Tick Tick was filmed in the podunk town I lived in and a different second grade class was on the school bus in one of the scenes.)
Ahh, I love the guy, despite my being the antithesis of a pothead.
He was the second coming of Earl Campbell, an early hero for me. GD could he bounce.
What’s his status now? After the Dolphins screwed the pooch he was looking very elsewhere/nowhere bound.
Barry Sanders is the one I’d go with. He was in the prime of his career, millions of dollars in contract earnings ahead of him, no particular non-football activity to go and do, he was just beaten down by the Lions culture of losing and bad management. Not necessarily bad for Barry personally, just a terrible statement about the Lions.
I don’t have the details in front of me, but the precise timing of Babe Ruth’s retirement is a bit embarrassing. By the time he gave it up, it was obvious that he couldn’t play big league ball any more and that there was no manager’s job waiting, so the writing was on the wall. The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was that he wanted to do a personal appearance at a yacht party and couldn’t get the day off. I could be wrong; I dunno.
Being a destitue man and being desperate is not quiet a bad retirement story. IT’s a good ol’ tragedy.
Almost as odd as Michael Jordan’s “retirement” to play baseball was the retirement of Dallas Cowboys star lineman Ed “Too Tall” Jones," who left the NFL for two seasons to become a very bad professional boxer.
My only problem with the Sanders retirement was with the timing. He did it July which is after the draft and teams are just getting ready for training camps. Certainly the Lions were planning on making Bbarry the centerpiece and he retires suddenly and they are left with this huge hole.
I’d give Pete Rose the category championship here.
He was clearly hanging on just to break Ty Cobb’s record for lifetime hits, and it’s questionable whether another manager would have kept him in the lineup long enough. But since he was managing the team he was playing on, he could stay on as an increasingly weak singles hitter in a position (1B) dominated by guys who hit 20-30 HRs a year.
Not only that, he refused to tell the team what his plans were. If you’re going to retire, retire. If you’re going to play, play. What he did was completely ignore each and every inquiry by his team regarding his plans. He made Brett Favre look like a team player.
But he only did it for one season, right? 
:smack:
Don’t know how I managed to read the post about him as being about a player who was killed, when I know better…
Jeebus, that’s embarrassing.
Joe Montana as a contender…he was sent out as a “first line starter” figurehead until the very end, hobbling about in a flak jacket, and protected with touch-tackle treatment by officials and players. Most other quarterbacks could voluntarily sunset their careers in 2nd and 3rd string backup roles, but the league’s thirst for tickets and Joe’s premier ego turned his last couple of seasons into sideshows.
You kind of forget about it but The Gerbil, Don Zimmer, retired as coach of the Colorado Rockies in the 5th inning of a game in 1995. People thought it was a joke. Then the next year out of the blue he got a job offer as Yankee coach from Joe Torre, whom he barely knew, cashed a lot of checks, got to write two books, and is still around.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/08/sports/sports-people-baseball-zimmer-walks-off-field-into-retirement.html
I think Zidane ending his stint with the French national football team with his headbutt (would be a good runner). Thus making sure that his team loses in the finals and that he gets eternally remembered for this. I’m not sure if he didnt keep on playing in club after that (so that would be retirement from national team).
He had, in fact, retired from Real Madrid prior to the World Cup. So that was his last match as a pro. Memorable way to go out.
Don’t forget Ryne Sandberg’s first retirement from the Cubs in June 1994. He quit in mid-season to “spend more time with his family”, while his wife stood by, beaming, at the press conference in a gaudy sundress. Seven days later he got divorced. (That’s right, days, not months or years.)