Bret Boone, who had been planning a comeback into baseball from his retirement by going through the Washington Nationals farm system, has recently ended his attempt and retired. During his brief tenure in the minor leagues, he recorded a .261 batting average over 13 games. The last time he played professional baseball was in 2005. His younger brother, Aaron Boone, plays for the Nationals at first and third base, and his father, Bob Boone, is assistant general manager for the team.
Bret Boone has never played for the Nationals, but his recent bid has been part of a convergence of the Boone family onto the Nationals team. Bob Boone - who retired as a player in 1990, and departed his managerial position in 2003 at the Cincinnati Reds - seems to have been attracting some of the other Boone boys to the team. Aaron Boone currently has a batting average of .265, and he has a one year, one million dollar contract with the Nationals.
Bret did play for the Nationals for a brief period in the last season, but after an underwhelming performance with a batting average of only .189, he dropped back into the AAA team of the Columbus Clippers. Although he performed well in Major League spring training last year, it soon became apparent to him that he would likely not be able to play at the level that he and his team expected from him at this point. His retirement caps a career that began in 1992 with the Seattle Mariners.
