Peace Out, Brad Lidge

He's retiring, per Jayson Stark. Lidge posted a lifetime 3.54 ERA with 225 saves in 603.1 career innings, and, somewhat incredibly, he retires with the all-time major league record in strikeouts per nine innings among all pitchers with at least 600 career innings:

Rk	Player	SO/9	IP	From	To	Age	G	ERA	ERA+
1	Brad Lidge	11.92	603.1	2002	2012	25-35	603	3.54	122
2	Billy Wagner	11.92	903.0	1995	2010	23-38	853	2.31	187
3	Francisco Rodriguez	10.96	720.2	2002	2012	20-30	682	2.70	159
4	Armando Benitez	10.93	779.0	1994	2008	21-35	762	3.13	140
5	Octavio Dotel	10.83	946.1	1999	2012	25-38	752	3.73	121
6	Randy Johnson	10.61	4135.1	1988	2009	24-45	618	3.29	135
7	Ugueth Urbina	10.51	697.1	1995	2005	21-31	583	3.45	128
8	Mark Prior	10.37	657.0	2002	2006	21-25	106	3.51	124
9	Kerry Wood	10.32	1380.0	1998	2012	21-35	446	3.67	117
10	Pedro Martinez	10.04	2827.1	1992	2009	20-37	476	2.93	154
11	Eric Gagne	10.04	643.2	1999	2008	23-32	402	3.47	119
12	Robb Nen	9.98	715.0	1993	2002	23-32	643	2.98	139
13	Troy Percival	9.92	708.2	1995	2009	25-39	703	3.17	146
14	Tom Henke	9.81	789.2	1982	1995	24-37	642	2.67	157
15	Tim Lincecum	9.76	1214.0	2007	2012	23-28	189	3.31	120
16	Dick Radatz	9.67	693.2	1962	1969	25-32	381	3.13	123
17	Brandon Morrow	9.63	648.0	2007	2012	22-27	208	4.10	104
18	Rafael Betancourt	9.57	617.2	2003	2012	28-37	603	3.15	142
19	Nolan Ryan	9.55	5386.0	1966	1993	19-46	807	3.19	112
20	Joe Nathan	9.51	794.0	1999	2012	24-37	647	2.87	153

Three things come to mind when I think of Brad Lidge ... first, there was the Albert Pujols home run that never landed with the Cardinals down to their last strike in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS:

Second, there's this throwback (and appropriately vague) rumor from 2006 where there appeared to be some talk of a Brad Lidge for Hank Blalock trade that never materialized ... Texas did manage to squeeze another 1.2 fWAR out of Blalock from 2007-09, but Lidge, following a disappointing 2006 season, rebounded to enjoy a decent 2007, got traded to Philadelphia in the Michael Bourn trade, and then posted up a monster 2008 season with the Phillies, which brings me to my third memory of Lidge:

Much love.