The wisdom of Greg Maddux

LAS VEGAS -- Greg Maddux announced his retirement today. As usual with Maddux, it wasn't about him. It was about everybody he thanked, from his family to his teammates to just about everybody in baseball, including the "clubbies," or the clubhouse attendants.

Maddux never shared much about what made him successful. Maybe that why he was so successful. Here are a few good ones from today:

"The best way to learn is to screw up and not do it again."

"You don't have to be 100 percent (physically) to win. You have to take the ball. You have to go out there. In Atlanta, you pitched."

"Movement is more important than velocity."

On pitchers throwing so many pitches in games when Maddux economized, he chalked it up to his "stuff being a little short, and that gets hit fair."

Other gems:

"The game is perfect the way it is."

"I hope I gave back."

I think he did.

My favorite Maddux story happened in Houston a couple years ago, when a local reporter was trying to get him to talk in the dugout one day. "Some people have compared you to Picasso," the reporter said.

Maddux looked straight ahead and said: I never saw the (guy) pitch."