[calia]

I understand Smith's feelings on this. After am excellent career, who wants to go out that way?

My dad had something similar happen -- after 35+ years in his remarkable career and 2 months from retirement he had a mild heart attack (thankfully, he was OK, and this was 16 years ago now, and he's not had any follow up issues). But he didn't want to leave on that note, and so after being out for about 5 months, he un-retired and went back to work. In fact, he ended up working for another 7 years or so, and added a number of other huge accomplishments to his considerable list of achievements.

Points being that he wanted to retire on his terms, and probably wasn't ready to leave the career he loved when he was set to retire initially in any event.

I bet that Smith is feeling the same way. And I wish him every success as he pursues that goal. He's surely earned the right to do so.