DEC. 26 - Phil Niekro was a baseball Hall of Famer who spent 21 of his 24 years in the majors with the Braves, pitching in a franchise record 740 games for Milwaukee and Atlanta. He made a career perfecting the knuckleball. He won 121 games after turning 40, and retired with 318 victories over the course of 5,404 innings. He was 81.