Braden, pitcher of 19th MLB perfect game, retires

Former A's pitcher Dallas Braden told the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday he is retiring from Major League Baseball after multiple surgeries have rendered his left shoulder a "shredded mess."

The 30-year-old Braden is best known for authoring the 19th perfect game in Major League history on May 9, 2010 -- Mother's Day -- in a 4-0 Oakland victory over Tampa Bay.

"There is nothing left in there, it's just a shredded mess," Braden told the Chronicle. "I left my arm on the mound at the Coliseum, and I'm OK with that."

Braden finishes his career 26-36 with a 4.16 ERA in five seasons, all with the A's. He last pitched in the Majors in 2011.

The game is truly gonna miss you #longlive209 @dallasbraden209 #19thperfectgame

- Gio Gonzalez (@GioGonzalez47) January 15, 2014

Braden told the Chronicle he was working out this offseason in hopes of a comeback but suffered a setback. An MRI showed his shoulder was too damaged to fix, he said.

"I wasn't in a position to repeat my delivery, to pitch with any intention," Braden told the newspaper. "That's OK, I understood the odds I was facing. You have to face your mortality one day, and I have been so blessed in this game. If I take 10 minutes to be hacked off about it, it would be nine minutes too long. You can't ask for more than I've been given, coming where my grandmother and I are coming from."

His biggest moment will be that perfect game on Mother's Day. Braden's mother, Jodie Atwood, died of cancer when he was a teenager but his grandmother, Peggy Lindsey, was in attendance for the perfecto.

"That game will always define the one solid day of work I had and the fact that I got to share it with my grandmother, only a few people appreciate the magnitude of that," Braden told the Chronicle. "That was living the dream."