HOUSTON -- When it was over, Chuck Knoblauch simply walked away.

Baseball had become a paradox -- a game that gave him joy, yet caused him pain -- and when he'd had enough, he moved on.

He bought a lot at the end of a cul-de-sac in Houston's Bunker Hill neighborhood and built a sprawling, stone-set home, where he lives with wife Cheri, 2-week-old daughter Charleigh and stepdaughter Raegann.

The house holds no reminder that, 20 years ago, Knoblauch was a feisty 5-8 second baseman wrapping up a Rookie of the Year season with the Twins. There are no mementos from the 1991 World Series championship that followed, from the three titles he won in New York or from his four All-Star appearances. There are no hints of his 12 seasons in the majors at all.

The memories on his walls are of smiling faces in family photos. His living room is filled with board games.

Fifteen miles away, in the condo where Knoblauch spent his offseasons as a player, boxes line the walls. All of it is junk. That's what he told his real estate agent when he gave her instructions to toss the stuff.

She opened one of the boxes and found a Gold Glove.

"He doesn't like a lot of shine on him at all," Cheri said. "He probably hasn't even been through that stuff. It's probably just been there from when it got sent there. It's never been unloaded from the box."

He is 43 years old, nine years into retirement after earning slightly more than $42 million during his playing career. He spends his days like any retiree, mostly relaxing at his home with his family. He has no involvement with any organization and does no promotional work or speeches. He has spoken to only one ex-major leaguer since he stopped playing.

He's found comfort in seclusion, but the memories -- both good and bad -- are still firmly intact.

The boxes are there. All you have to do is open them.

• • •

Knoblauch is sitting down with a reporter for the first time in a decade. His Wikipedia page is displayed on an iPhone, chronicling what would hastily be called the full story. Won in '91 with the Twins. Whined for a trade until he went to the Yankees. Was hit by hot dogs and beer bottles from Minnesota fans upon one return. Won three championships in New York but lost his ability to throw to first. Retired. Named for HGH on the Mitchell Report. Arrested for and convicted of domestic assault. All you need to know.

Knoblauch has been content to leave his public life in Cliff's Notes form. No one outside of his family, he says, needs to know more.

This August, when the Twins hosted the 20-year reunion of the 1991 team, only five players weren't there: the late Kirby Puckett, Steve Bedrosian, Carl Willis, Shane Mack and Knoblauch.

Knoblauch's wife was eight months' pregnant at the time, and heading north was not an option. But even Knoblauch's not sure what he would have done without that ready-made excuse. Those who know him say he is uncomfortable in the spotlight; he calls the attention of a reunion "embarrassing."

And a return to Minnesota brought another concern.

"I don't know what the reception would have been, to be honest with you," said Knoblauch, who lingers as one of the most reviled athletes in state history. "What if I took my [kids] with me out there, and I get booed by a whole stadium? What do I say to them? That was my biggest fear."

At one point, a hero's homecoming seemed inevitable. When Knoblauch made the team out of spring training in 1991, he won over the fan base with his hard-nosed attitude and fireball personality.

In his second year, he was an All-Star. He finished in the top 20 in MVP voting three years in a row. He signed a five-year, $30 million contract extension in August 1996. By '97, he was a Gold Glover, a Silver Slugger and one of the best second basemen in the game.

But he was also increasingly frustrated by a Twins team that had slipped to the middle of the pack. They were a second-place team in '92, fell below .500 in '93 and settled into last place by '95. Knoblauch remembers moping around the house after every loss, unable to hide his resentment from his then-wife, Lisa.

Finally, late in 1997, the Twins were swept in Kansas City, and on the long, depressing ride from the ballpark to the airport, Knoblauch called his agent and said he wanted a trade.

"I was just dejected," he said. "The losing got to me. I wasn't handling getting beat up on a pretty consistent basis."

When the request leaked to manager Tom Kelly, any vision of a graceful exit vanished, Knoblauch said. He remembers the manager suggesting to the media -- Kelly doesn't remember saying this -- that Knoblauch wanted out of Minnesota because he didn't think his teammates were good enough.