Maddux was a John Nash of baseball knowledge

Baseball fans will no longer have the honor of watching Greg Maddux on the mound. The four-time Cy Young winner, and holder of 18 Gold Glove awards, will announce his retirement on Monday at the winter meetings being hosted in his hometown of Las Vegas, NV.

Although I still have issues/emotional trauma from the Braves beating the Pirates in '92 (BREAM!!!), I have nothing but respect for Maddux. In fact, I've probably enjoyed watching him pitch more over the last five years than I ever have. He was a surgeon with the baseball and a John Nash of baseball knowledge. Maddux could break down a batters' patterns and weaknesses and exploit them with uncanny precision.

Maddux tallied 355 wins over a 23-year career and is, no doubt, a first ballot Hall of Famer.

I know this may sound odd but... wouldn't it be nice to see Glavine and Smoltz retire this off-season too and see them be inducted into Cooperstown together?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is collecting fans' best Maddux memories.

Other nice posts on Maddux:

• Pat's post at FanHouse
• Big League Stew
• Shysterball
• Sharapova's Thigh
• Rowland's Office
• MVN Outsider
  

Baseball Blues

Sorry in advance for the surly tone... I'm battling a case of the baseball blues.

This time of year is nothing short of brutal. Even MLB talk radio on XM isn't doing much for me right now - yesterday morning, the hosts talked about Plaxico Burress. I guess they're as starved for baseball news as I am.

The winter meetings are going on next week in Las Vegas, so maybe we'll get some news out of that - but probably nothing from my teams.

Here are a few choice nuggets of info:

• It looks like Dusty Baker is still trying to bring no-good/washed-up former Cubs players to Cincinnati. This time it's Kerry Wood. Absolutely brutal. Chris Sabo's Googles expresses my sentiments exactly.
• The Pirates and Neal Huntington (heretofore refered to as "Che" by Pirate Revolution) are, at least, making things interesting by signing some Indian (yes from India) "prospects." Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh have only been exposed to the game of baseball for about 6 months and won some sort of million-dollar arm reality show in their home country. Sounds good to me... at least the Buccos are creatively looking for talent - I certainly can't say that about the Reds (see above).
• Muddy of the Toledo Mud Hens is going to be on hand at the Swamp Shop (at Fifth Third Field in Toledo, OH) this Saturday to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Sounds fun to me. I'm gonna go check it out.

How many days until pitchers and catchers report?