"Where have you gone Greg Maddux..."

Well I've been pretty disallusioned by the news of Maddux's impending retirement on Monday. And yes I understand that my entire view of this situation is completely self-centered.

But I've spent so much time, energy, and effort into following his career that I almost feel that there will be a small void in my life now. That assertion is (almost) completely ridiculous but so be it....it is what it is...or it was what it was. Whatever.

Anyway, it was like clockwork...every fifth (or sixth day...depending on off days) Maddux would pitch. And now that's not going to happen. And what I think that I'm going to miss the most...besides watching him pitch...is conversing about Maddux's games with my dad. That was always a big topic of conversation...and something that we both enjoyed. (And yes...Duane's having a hard time dealing with Maddux retiring as well). But it's not like my Dad and I don't have a lot of common...so we'll be all right.

I did declare last year that when Maddux would retire that my baseball focus would shift entirely to the Cubs. I started liking the Cubs again when Maddux went back there...and although he left there in 2006...I still followed the Cubs. And now that Jenny is a fan of the Cubs...I feel good about making that transition. We'll be able to follow (and suffer) with the Cubs together.

But it's definitely not going to be the same...in terms of my passion. It's going to take some time to deal with it and to allow that passion to fester with the Cubbies. Making a conscious decision to follow a sports team doesn't seem to have the same weight of rooting for a team (or player) that one's always liked--for whatever reason (Although I'm pretty sure that Chuck tackled this same question in one of his books and came to the conclusion that it was somewhat more respectable to choose to root for a given team than to root for a team that one grew up with). But anyway...the transition to the Cubs shouldn't be too difficult because baseball is my favorite sport. But for instance I can't say that watching the Cubs is now my number one sports priority (like it was when Maddux was pitching). That number one spot would now be occupied by the Indiana Hoosiers (boy what a year to make that adjustment).

My sports world is definitely in a reshuffling mode.