After 355 wins, putting him at 8th all-time, Greg Maddux has decided to retire.

Despite the fact that the man has pitched for the two teams at the top of my “Most Hated List” Greg Maddux has always been, and probably will always be my favorite pitcher of all time.  Why? Because every time he was on the field, he was the smartest guy there.  

Here are two great Greg Maddux stories:

The first is a quote taken from Bleed Cubby Blue, but I’ve heard this story many times before:

There are literally dozens of famous and funny anecdotes about Maddux, many having to do with his downright spooky control and his amazing ability to outthink hitters. One involves a close game in which there were runners on first and third, one out and a left handed batter due up. Braves Manager Bobby Cox came out to the mound to ask him if he wanted to intentionally walk the batter to set up a double play. “No thanks,” Maddux replied and went on to describe theexact sequence of pitches he would throw the next two batters and what they would do. As a stunned Cox watched, he did almost exactly what he had said he would (the third out was a pop up that went just fair of third while Maddux had said it would be on the foul side of 3rd).

The second is a quote from a great ESPN the Magazine story on the magic of Maddux:

[W]hen Brad Penny and Maddux were teammates on the Dodgers, during the last two months of 2006, they had a conversation one day that led Penny to reach a stunning conclusion: This guy knows my stuff better than I do. It was eerie, really, how easily Maddux dissected Penny’s repertoire and suggested ways to maximize it. Penny, figuring he’d take advantage of the situation, asked Maddux to call a game for him against the Cubs. And so, on the night of Sept. 13, Penny glanced into the dugout before every delivery and found Maddux, who signaled the next pitch by looking toward different parts of the ballpark. Penny threw seven scoreless innings with no walks and beat the Cubs 6-0. “Maddux probably won’t tell you that story,” Penny says. He’s right.

Below is some of Maddux’s old baseball cards (I love that kind of stuff):

Lastly, I will leave you a video.  Somehow after all these years and all those wins, Greg Maddux slipped by the commercial appeal that a Roger Clemens has had, but in this famous commercial Maddux and is rotation partner got themselves famous enough that even my Mom remembers it:
I present to you, “Chicks Dig the Long Ball”