Philip Lee Williams

John Cheever once wrote, "All literary men are Red Sox fans--to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life." Well said. I've been a Sox fan for more than 40 years and haven't even liked the Yankees since Steinbrenner bought the team.

But today here's good tidings for your Atlanta Braves, to quote the late, great Skip Carey: Mad Dog and Glavine are in. And they're in with Bobby. If that reads like WWII Code, you can't be a baseball fan.

I think I saw (on TV) just about every game Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine threw. I used to drive my wife crazy by saying, to describe Glavine's plate-magic, "Off the plate, off the plate, off the plate." And of course each one of those pitches was a called strike. Maddux was the best overall pitcher I ever saw. And I saw Koufax and Drysdale and Nolan Ryan. Maddux made Roger Clemens look like a playground bully.

Which was why yesterday was such a great day for those of us in the South who love baseball. The Baseball Hall of Fame just got richer. Hammerin' Hank was already there. And losers like Bonds and Sosa? Called out on strikes.