>>>Once again, the Doc shows what class really means.
>>
>>It takes guts to retire when you no longer have it rather than dragging it out. He also paid for a full-page ad here thanking the fans and the city. I assume he did something similar up there?
>>
>>And fwiw, the most exciting ballgame I ever attended was his no-hitter in game 1 on the NLDS. I was looking for something else earlier in the week (before he announced) and ran across some messages I wrote at the time. Among them that instead of being nervous in the final innings, we just considered completion of the no-hitter inevitable.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>I feel badly for Doc, because he never got to pitch in a World Series. He had 2 outstanding seasons (2010 and 2011) where the Phils dominated, but their offense seriously sputtered when it counted.
>
>I remember that Game 1 no hitter - the post-game analysts were talking about Doc's cutter, and how it should be illegal for a pitcher to have stuff that nasty. I used to think Greg Maddux was the best at throwing pitches that seemed to defy nature, until I watched Doc's cutter that day.
>
>But after last season I figured he was done - his velocity was just not there. So it's a bittersweet ending for him. I'll never forget Scott Franzke's radio call on the final out of Doc's perfect game in Miami.

It's always a shame when someone that good retires. At least he was smart enough to retire before things got really bad. Willie Mays is on anyone's list of great baseball players but he didn't do his reputation any good by hanging around two or three seasons too long.