Gibby retired the same day the team traded Mike Henneman. I think he'd just had enough. He wasn't happy with the organization. They traded David Wells a few days prior. I remember listening to WDFN, Jamie and Gregg, and they were interviewing a Tiger, maybe John Flaherty, and right in the middle they say something like "Uh... Kirk Gibson retired?..." and Flaherty didn't know and he just said he had to get off the phone.