Everything we know about American sports tells us that if a player's numbers are starting to bottom out, if he's bouncing from team to team, and if he's practically forty years old, he's done, and that's it. He should manage a minor-league affiliate, or maybe get a job in the broadcast booth. But he should know when he's done. He shouldn't be one of those guys who keeps on trying to play when he's clearly out of gas. It's shameful, and almost sad, to watch those guys desperately cling to what they did as young men.
It doesn't seem appropriate to assume why Julio Franco quit the American game to play baseball in Korea, then Mexico. We'd like to surmise that he wanted to get his game back together, or that he was out to prove everyone wrong, or even that he just wanted to play at a level at which he could compete once again.
Regardless, when we in the States saw pictures like the one to the left of Franco in a Korean uniform, we had the same reaction: "That's almost pathetic. This guy's just running it out as far as he can take it. He needs to face reality and know that he's done. And look! That silly son of a bitch is smiling about it!"