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Julio Franco played professional baseball for over 25 years. That is a long freaking time to be a professional athlete. He has now retired, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Franco wasn't ever truly dominant; he maxed out at 20 home runs in one season and only once hit over 200 hits, but that only makes his .298 batting average and 2,500 plus career hits an even more impressive sign of his ridiculous durability.

'It was the hardest decision in my life,' Franco said in an interview published Saturday by Mexican sports daily Record. 'I always said I would be the first one to know the exact moment. I think the numbers speak for themselves, the production speaks and this is the right moment.

'I understand that my time has passed and the great men and athletes know when to say enough.'

I'm not sure how Julio is classifying himself or his production -- the quotes stem from a Mexican newspaper and would presumably be translated -- but I know that he will always be remembered as one of the longest tenured professional baseball players in the history of the game.

Additionally, he will probably hold the record for "oldest major leaguer to hit a home run" (48 years) for quite a while. And that says nothing for the endless, good-natured humor that baseball fans could find in seeing him continue to rake pinch hits despite having played the game longer than many of us were alive. He defined "wily veteran".