Maddux: 'Chicago is a special city, a special place'

LAS VEGAS - Greg Maddux announced his retirement from baseball Monday at the winter meetings.

Although Maddux may go into the Hall of Fame with a Braves cap on his plaque, Chicago came up a couple times during Monday's packed news conference, which was well populated by current Cubs front-office people.

Maddux began his career in 1986 with the Cubs and lasted until his bitter departure following the 1992 season.

Maddux rejoined the Cubs as a free agent in 2004 and stayed with them through the middle of the 2006 season.

"Well, it was the only thing I knew when I first came up," he said.

"I spent the first nine years of my baseball life in Chicago wearing a Cub uniform. Chicago is a special city, and it's a special place.

"And the second time, I was received there probably a lot better than I should have been, but I enjoyed going there. I know we came up a little short the first two or three years back there. We came close, but we didn't win, and it was always fun trying."

Maddux said he thought "a little bit" about how things might have been different had he not left Chicago in the first place.

"You know, when I left Chicago in '92, I was not ready to leave Chicago," he said. "But, you know, sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. I got a chance to go to Atlanta and win, and we won a lot. We got one World Series ring, but we won every year."

Although Maddux was booed on his return to Chicago in 1993, Cubs fans for the most part seem to have forgiven Maddux and placed the blame on the front office at the time for letting him get away.

Current Cubs general manager Jim Hendry praised Maddux as a great teammate and added a lighter note on Maddux' original departure.

"I'd like to think that if I was there, it wouldn't have happened," Hendry said.

Tigers get catcher from Rangers: The Tigers acquired catcher Gerald Laird from the Rangers on Monday in a trade that sent right-handed pitching prospects Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo to Texas.

•The Associated Press contributed to this report.