Baseball’s winter meetings start in Vegas today, and with them all sorts of shit will start to go down. Billions of dollars worth of contracts will be signed. Trades will be consummated that will effect teams for years down the road. But the first order of business is the end of a career, as Greg Maddux is expected to announce his retirement. From STLtoday.com:

“The news that Maddux would retire was an above-the-fold story in Saturday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal. The righthander won four Cy Young Awards, starting with the Cubs but starring mostly with Atlanta, and he won 18 Gold Gloves, including one this past season. He’ll retire seven wins shy of passing Pud Galvin and Kid Nichols for sixth all time and 19 wins short of moving into third-place all-time by leapfrogging Pete Alexander and Christy Mathewson.”

Now, take another look at that quote for a second. When you’re in the neighborhood of Christy Mathewson (Wins) and Ozzie Smith (Gold Gloves), you’re a helluva player. And when you’re passing pitchers on MLB’s All-Time lists with names like “Pud” and “Kid” that probably pitched 500 innings a year from the time they were 15 until their arms fell off at 35, you’ve been around a while. Excellence AND longevity! Plus, look at that mustache up there! That’s Hall of Fame facial hair! There’s no question that he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer when his time comes. It’s just fun to look back and realize that we’ve been able seen a rare talent for so long. I really hope he saved enough money to retire comfortably…