Greg Maddux Hall of Fame Induction moved to accommodate demand

The Atlanta Braves have moved their Braves Hall of Fame induction of Greg Maddux to the Omni Hotel at the CNN Center to accommodate the demand. The luncheon and induction was formerly scheduled for Turner Field's 755 Club.

The Braves will honor their former pitcher on Friday, July 17 by inducting him into the Braves Hall of Fame and retiring his uniform number. The induction will take place at the luncheon and the uniform number retirement will occur in a pre-game ceremony that night before the Braves take on the New York Mets.

Maddux's number 31 will be the sixth Braves uniform number to be retired, joining Hank Aaron (44), Eddie Mathews (41), Dale Murphy (3), Phil Niekro (35) and Warren Spahn (21). The Braves also retired the number 42 along with all teams in Major League Baseball to honor Jackie Robinson.

The recently retired Maddux spent 11 seasons with the Braves beginning in 1993, and was a member of the 1995 World Championship team. He was named the National League Cy Young Award winner four times, winning in four straight years from 1992-1995 - the first pitcher to win the award in four consecutive seasons.

With 355 career wins, Maddux ranks eighth on Major League Baseball's all-time wins list. He collected his 18th Gold Glove Award in 2008 - a Major League record. He will join Hank Aaron, Bill Bartholomay, Lew Burdette, Skip Caray, Del Crandall, Ralph Garr, Tommy Holmes, Ernie Johnson, David Justice, Herman Long, Bill Lucas, Eddie Mathews, Dale Murphy, Kid Nichols, Phil Niekro, John Sain, Paul Snyder, Warren Spahn, Ted Turner, and Pete Van Wieren in the Braves Hall of Fame.

Tickets are available for the July 17 game at Braves.com/tickets, the Braves ticket office at Turner Field, by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000, or at all Ticketmaster outlets.

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Braves Hall of Fame Member Pete Van Wieren Announces his Retirem

Pete Van Wieren, a member of the Braves Hall of Fame has announced his retirement, ending his 33 years as a play-by-play broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves. He spent this past season doing radio exclusively for 94.9 the Bull, 640 WGST and the Braves Radio Network, but had been a part of the Braves broadcasts on TBS for many of those 33 years.

"This is something my family and I have been thinking about the last couple of years," said Van Wieren. "It's simply a desire to live my life without the restrictions of a baseball schedule. I want to thank the Braves, my broadcast partners and especially the fans for their support over the years."

Since joining the Braves network in 1975, "The Professor" as he is known throughout baseball, has also covered the Atlanta Flames of the National Hockey League, the Hawks and the Atlanta Falcons NFL pre-season football. He also served as a sports reporter for CNN and served as a play-by-play announcer on TBS's Big Ten Conference college football games.

"This is a monumental moment in Braves history and a sad one for me personally," said Atlanta Braves President John Schuerholz. "Pete has been in our homes and in our lives as one of the great Braves voices, and we will sorely miss him. We wish him many years of good health and happiness in his retirement after 33 years as a beloved and admired voice of the Atlanta Braves."

In 2006, Van Wieren won the Georgia Sportscaster of the Year Award from the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, marking the 10th time he won the honor (1980, 1988-95, 2006). He was dubbed Atlanta's Favorite Sportscaster in 1977 by the Atlanta Journal.

In 2004, he was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame, along with fellow announcer Skip Caray, who passed away this past August. In 2000, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell declared July 30th "Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren Day" in honor of their 25 years of broadcasting Braves games.

Prior to joining Turner, he began his broadcasting career working as the play-by-play man for the Tidewater Tides of the International League for two years. He has also broadcast hockey, college and professional basketball and college and professional football. He also has been a sportscaster for WDHO-TV, Toledo, Ohio; WNBF-AM/FM/TV and WINR-AM/TV, both in Binghamton, NY; WPRW-AM/FM, Manassas, Va.; and WEER-AM/FM, Warrenton, Va.

Van Wieren, who was born in Rochester, NY, attended Cornell University. He and his wife Elaine live in Alpharetta, Ga. They have two children, Steven and Jon.

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Creative Writing Professor to be Inducted into Georgia Writers Hall of Fame

David Bottoms, professor of Creative Writing at Georgia State University and native of Canton, Ga., has been selected for membership in the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Established in 2000 by the University Libraries at the University of Georgia, the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame honors the state’s most influential writers including Margaret Mitchell, Flannery O’Conner, Alice Walker, W.E.B. Du Bois and President Jimmy Carter. Bottoms will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during ceremonies March 23-24 at the University of Georgia.

Bottoms received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets in 1979 for his first book of poetry, “Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump.” His poetry has been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Paris Review and many others. In addition, he has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2000, Georgia Governor Roy Barnes appointed Bottoms the state’s Poet Laureate.

Bottoms holds the John B. and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters at Georgia State, where he is a founding co-editor of the literary magazine Five Points.

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