You've studied the numbers--the numbers that tell you Greg Maddux has won four straight Cy Youngs, has become the first pitcher since Walter Johnson to post sub-1.80 ERAs two years in a row, has won 18 straight games on the road, has dominated this decade like no pitcher has dominated any other. Blah, blah, blah.
But did you know he once was mistaken for a batboy . . . is a junk-food addict . . . almost never combs his hair . . . . and has had his now legendary control since he was eight years old?
Here's more about those facts and figures, and a few dozen other things, you might not know about Greg Maddux, some of which will help you understand why he is baseball's most dominant performer.
On Maddux's first day in the big leagues, then Cub manager Gene Michael spotted him in the dugout and thought a new batboy had reported for work. Reliever Lee Smith nicknamed the young pitcher "Batboy"--until he won 18 games two years later.
His current manager, the Braves' Bobby Cox, often refers to him in a rather different way: "Mr. Maddux."
Teammates call him "Mad Dog" because of his ferocity on the mound. (That's "Doggie" for short.)
His intense competitiveness is hardly limited to the mound. It extends to golf, cards, Nintendo, "Jeopardy!" and various games he makes up to pass the time on buses and planes.
He even turns batting practice into a competition against fellow pitchers.
His astonishing control of his pitches dates to childhood, when he was living in Spain. His military-man father, Dave, a fast-pitch softball pitcher, noticed that while playing backyard catch at home, no matter where he placed the mitt, his eight-year-old son would hit it with the ball.
Greg is as much a student of hitting as of pitching. He rarely watches videotapes of himself, but often studies tapes of opposing hitters, looking for weaknesses.
Teammates tell stories of Maddux sitting in the dugout, intently watching the game, then saying: "Watch out. The next pitch is going to be fouled your way." And, they report, it invariably is.
Some believe he remembers every pitch he's ever thrown. He admits to remembering the ones on which a hitter looked bad, sometimes calling upon the memory as much as two years later in a crucial spot.
Among the factors that induced him to sign with the Braves as a free agent: The manager had no restrictions on how much golf his pitchers could play . . . and no rule against junk food in the clubhouse. (More important factors: He preferred a National League team that already had great pitching and likely could win a World Series.)
His average fastball: 85 miles per hour.
He thinks he could throw harder if he wanted to do so, "but what's the point?" he says. He observes that most pitchers try to throw harder when in a jam, but he does the opposite. "I try to locate better."
He got this good advice at age 16, from a coach : "An 80-mph fastball that moves is harder to hit than a 90-mph fastball that doesn't."
His standards are high. He once allowed two hits in nine innings and said, "That was like a high school game. Ball one, ball two . . . "
He is a big fan of the Las Vegas Thunder, a minor-league hockey team.
He shows up on any listing of baseball's worst dressed.
He almost always wears a cap because, according to his wife, Kathy, he doesn't like the way his black hair looks when combed. "He's not going to try to make anyone believe he's Mr. Smooth."
Now I bet you didn't know that!
May 3, 1996
Though Atlanta Braves' ace pitcher Greg Maddux is king of the hill, home is his castle.
James C. Roberts
James C. Roberts is president of the Radio America network and a contributor to Radio America's ``Talkin' Baseball'' program. He has written on baseball for numerous publications.
May 3, 1996. Atlanta--Fulton County Stadium. Braves pitcher Greg Maddux carries a 3-1 lead against the Philadelphia Phillies into the top of the ninth inning. Maddux has been superb and appears on his way to a complete-game victory.
Then the improbable happens. The Phillies load the bases against Maddux, who then gives up a grand-slam home run to the Phillies' Benito Santiago. The Phillies go on to win six to three. For the stunned Braves fans, it's the equivalent of the mighty Casey striking out.
The grand slam is the first given up by Maddux during regular season play in his nine-year major league career, a span covering 308 games and 2,174 innings. It's the first time, moreover, that Maddux has given up six earned runs in a game in five years.
The fans are well aware of Maddux's incredible record and of the key role he played in Atlanta's 1995 World Series championship. Indicative of their appreciation for the all-star right-hander, the fans give Maddux a standing ovation when he is removed from the game by Braves' manager Bobby Cox. (Phillies fans, by contrast, once booed Santa Claus.)
Quiet and unassuming, Maddux is uncomfortable with interviews. But the next day in the Braves' locker room, he is courteous and generous with his time, as he speaks in a soft, barely audible voice about the ninth-inning letdown.
``I made a mistake with [Todd] Zeille; I made a bad mistake with [Benito] Santiago,'' he says, ``but you move on, and hopefully you get better. You want to get something positive out of every game. I learned a lot of things about certain hitters over there that hopefully I can apply the next time I face them.''
Maddux's modesty belies a strong-willed competitiveness, honed as he grew up in places including Madrid and Las Vegas, that has helped make him the best pitcher of his era. But, in the age of megastardom and ubiquitous celebrity endorsements, Greg Maddux is still rather anonymous. Says Braves announcer Skip Caray, ``He's a very average guy, just a good guy. He's got no ego problems at all. With his glasses he looks like Mr. Peepers, and he can walk down most of the streets in the National League and not be recognized.''
And that, all observers agree, is just the way he likes it. The only reason more people don't recognize this future Hall of Famer, who can still walk unacknowledged down the streets of cities in the national league, is because he likes it that way.
In a league of his own
Maddux hardly looks the part of a baseball player, much less a superstar. He is slightly under six feet, 175 pounds or so, a little soft in the stomach. Dressed in casual clothes, sporting his trademark horn-rimmed glasses and a day's worth of beard stubble, he looks like his own description of himself--``your average Joe.''
Any pretense to average disappears, however, when he climbs the pitcher's mound. There, Maddux dominates the game as few others have done, ever.
How good is he? Maddux has won the National League Cy Young Award--given annually to the circuit's best pitcher--four times in a row. Only one other pitcher in history, the Phillies' Steve Carlton, has won four Cy Young awards, and no other pitcher has won it three times consecutively, let alone four.
Among right-handed pitchers, Maddux's 1992-95 ERA (earned run average per game) of 2.02 is the lowest since that of Walter Johnson, who pitched for twenty-one years with the Washington Senators before retiring in 1927. Among left-handers, only Dodgers hurler Sandy Koufax's career-best years of 1963-66 rival Maddux's '92-95 streak.
Maddux is also one of the best fielding pitchers the game has produced, chalking up an impressive six Gold Glove awards as best fielding pitcher in the National League. As a result, Maddux is frequently mentioned in the same breath as such pitching legends as Johnson, Carlton, Koufax, and Bob Gibson. Sports Illustrated summed it up in an August 19, 1995, story that declared Maddux ``the best pitcher you'll ever see.''
But when asked about such comparisons, Maddux says simply, ``It's a very high compliment to be associated with them.'' He seems curiously uninterested when asked about studying their techniques and approach to the game, however, adding, ``As far as going back into the past, I haven't had a chance to do that.''
Speaking of the pitcher's craft, Maddux says with deceptive simplicity, ``There's no secrets. To pitch, you have to do two things. You have to locate your fastball and change speeds. That's all you have to do. If you can do those two things, you can pitch.''
This is no doubt true, but it's a little akin to Beethoven saying, ``All you need to have to write symphonies is a pen and a sheaf of paper.''
If he is no student of baseball history, Maddux is nonetheless probably the keenest observer of the game as it is played today. He loves to pitch, and he loves to watch other pitchers at work. Jimmy Key, David Cone, Randy Johnson, and Roger Clements are among his favorites.
Maddux's success is the subject of much analysis because he is considered a very cerebral pitcher. Caray says of Maddux, ``He doesn't have the best fastball in baseball. You don't gasp like you did when Gibson and Koufax pitched. He doesn't have the best curveball. But he does have the best control in baseball, and I think he knows more about pitching.
``He's almost a savant of baseball,'' adds Caray. ``He sees things other people can't see--and I know that all of our other pitchers have learned a lot from him.'' Caray recounts an incident to illustrate his point.
One day last year, when Maddux had the flu, ``we had to call him about something. He was watching the game on TV, and he began analyzing things that nobody else knew about.''
Illuminating Maddux's famed control, Caray says, ``The quietest time at the ballpark is just after the pitcher has released the ball. And with Maddux at times, just after he releases the ball you can hear him say `oh, rackafratz' or something. I mean, the ball hasn't even started on its way to home plate, but he's got his [pitching mechanics] down so well that he already knows that he's made a mistake. I don't know of any other pitcher you could hear cursing himself before the ball got to the plate.''
A sportsmanlike childhood
To pitch like Maddux, Cox says, takes a combination of intangibles. Among them are competitiveness, confidence, resilience, and a strong work ethic, which in Maddux's case can be traced to his childhood.
``I think our household was like every other American household,'' says Greg's mother, Linda. ``It was routine. They had school, homework, baseball practice, and chores around the house.''
One of the values that David and Linda Maddux tried to instill in Greg and his two siblings was a ``good work ethic.''
``Each one had his jobs around the house,'' she says, ``and they did them without question.''
Sports, though, were always a passion of Greg, his brother Mike, almost five years older, and their sister Terri, two years Greg's senior.
``It consumed most of our time,'' Linda says, ``because there was always one child on a playing field someplace. Dave coached, and I baked cookies and cupcakes [for] fund-raisers and after-game snacks and that sort of thing.''
Baseball, in particular, was the game of choice for the Maddux kids. Linda says, ``You could always tell our house because it was the one with the bare spots [in the yard] where the kids always had the baseball games.''
Greg's father, David, was in the Air Force. As a result, the family moved around a great deal.
The Maddux kids could fit in wherever the family lived, remembers Linda. ``The traveling was easy for them. I think they grew up learning to adapt.''
When Greg was two, David began playing catch with the youngster, inspired, in part, by brother Mike, who is now a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. ``He was always trying to keep up with his older brother,'' Linda says.
When young Greg was six, David was assigned to a duty station in Madrid and the family moved to Spain. Linda fondly remembers their four years there.
``We loved it,'' she says. ``It was a great atmosphere for the kids. The school was good, and, fortunately for the kids, many of the children there were their friends. They had transferred nearly at the same time and were there for the four years together.''
As usual, sports was the main activity. Even then, David saw signs that Greg was destined for stardom. ``He was always so far ahead of anybody else he played,'' David says, ``especially his own age-group. Continuously, since the time he could walk, he always played with Mike, and he was as good as most boys four years older or so. In some cases, he was better.''
As a six-year-old, Greg was the right age for tee-ball, but his father realized that the youngster was far too advanced for kiddie baseball and tried to get approval for him to play peewee ball (one level up).
When his request was rejected, David called the president of the league and asked if they needed managers for peewee baseball. Told yes, he volunteered--on the condition that Greg could be on his team.
Although he was the smallest kid on the team, Greg became the starting pitcher. ``He was the best player on the team,'' his father recalls, ``even though he was two years younger than everyone else.''
Asked what personality trait best describes his son, David Maddux answers without hesitation: ``He's competitive.''
But his dad sees it almost as a family trait. ``We were all very competitive when we played board games as a family, or when we played cards like Crazy 8, Old Maid, Concentration, and all those. We were always very competitive to win.''
A family man
Twenty years later and four thousand miles away, Greg Maddux would win his fourth Cy Young Award and pitch a masterful two-hitter in the first game of the World Series.
Despite the distance of time and space, there was a linear connection between the little boy desperate to win at the Maddux family card table in Madrid and the champion on the mound in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
On the mound, Maddux has an intense, burning passion to be the best. Out of uniform, he just wants to blend in with the crowd. ``I like to spend time with my family, hanging out with Kathy and Amanda Paige,'' he explains.
Greg and his wife, Kathy, a strikingly beautiful woman with a warm personality and an easygoing sense of humor, have been married for seven years. It's clear that his family is the center of his universe, the thing that gives his life stability, happiness, and meaning.
``People are always saying how serious Greg is, how competitive he is,'' says Kathy, ``but I see the playful jokester, the man who is never serious, who's always kidding.''
Kathy says that when she was pregnant, her prankster husband gave her pause. ``It was hard to picture him as a responsible dad,'' she says.
But since Amanda's birth three years ago, ``he still likes kidding, but he takes his responsibilities as a dad very seriously. He devotes a lot of time to her and to me.''
During the season, Kathy divides her time between Atlanta and Las Vegas, and she sometimes accompanies her husband on road trips. But during the off-season, the couple stay at home in Las Vegas as much as possible.
There, the routine rarely varies. Greg and his brother play golf every day, and Greg spends much of the remainder of the time ``hanging out'' with Kathy and Amanda Paige.
Greg is a Nintendo nut, and Kathy calls the two of them ``Siskel and Ebert'' because of the number of movies they rent from the local video store.
Even in these small pleasures, however, Maddux's competitiveness comes through. ``Not too long ago, my wife beat him at pool,'' Ed Orsi, Kathy Maddux's brother-in-law, says of Greg. ``And it bugged the heck out of him.''
Orsi adds, ``He applies a lot of what he does on the mound, like the killer instinct and the will to win, to golf games, playing cards, playing Monopoly, playing video games. It's a challenge to him, and he wants to win every game of pool like it's his last game of pool.''
The same drive comes through, Russell Bay says, with cards. ``Nine out of ten times, he wins at poker,'' Bay says. Noting that Maddux is excellent at reading other players' body language, Bay says that Maddux has an uncanny ability to ``psyche out'' another player when calling his bluff.
Another quality frequently noted by Maddux's friends is his generosity--to his family, his friends, and even people he does not know.
``When we and the Orsis vacation together with Greg and Kathy, you have to fight with him to pay for anything,'' says Bay.
He adds that when they go out to sports events in Las Vegas, ``some kid will recognize him, and pretty soon there will be 20 kids around him asking for autographs. But he never gets mad. He's always happy to talk with them.''
Orsi says that Maddux and his brother are very active in the community. ``They are very involved volunteering their time in baseball activities for kids,'' he says, ``and on many occasions they have gone over to the hospital to visit sick kids.''
Two years ago, Greg and Kathy established the Greg Maddux Foundation. ``We put some of our money into it,'' she says, ``plus money Greg receives from appearances. And we use it to support children's homes, domestic crisis shelters for battered women, and boys and girls clubs'' in Atlanta and Las Vegas.
The two hope to expand the foundation's activities in the near future, adding a golf tournament and other fund-raising activities.
In an era when drug and alcohol abuse, multiple divorce, and scandals of all kinds are epidemic in the celebrity world, the fact that Greg and Kathy Maddux can maintain a healthy perspective on life is no small accomplishment. Greg and Kathy work hard ``to keep their family values intact,'' says Greg's father.
Maddux refuses to do endorsements for any products and has absolutely no use for the glitz and glamorous life that his money could certainly buy for him. ``I just like staying at home doing the family stuff,'' he says.
It's an interesting turn of phrase for a pitcher. In baseball lingo, ``stuff'' is a pitcher's form on a given day. For Greg Maddux, the pitcher, the relentless competitor with the killer instinct, having good stuff on the mound is a high priority. But just as surely, it's not the highest priority.
Watching Maddux on the mound, Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone says he is well aware that he is seeing Hall of Fame stuff. For winning the Cy Young, Maddux's glove and spikes are already in the Hall, and Maddux almost surely will be voted in five years after he retires.
But while pitching a no-hitter and winning a World Series ring are both a thrill, they pale in comparison to the deeper satisfaction of ``hanging out'' with his family and friends. For Greg Maddux's thoughts don't end at home plate in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. They end in Las Vegas--at home.
March 31, 1996? by the Associated Press:
Magnificent Maddux
By the Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.- The Greatest Pitcher in the World is holding
court in the bullpen early one morning.
Greg Maddux hasn't even put on his cleats yet. Still, when he toes the rubber in his tennis shoes and begins a discussion about his favorite mounds in the
National League, it doesn't take long to draw an audience.
Journeyman Rod Nichols watches intently. Youngsters Tom Thobe and Chris Brock wander over, perhaps hoping that some of Maddux's genius will rub off.
This is where it all begins for The Greatest Pitcher in the World. Even in the early days of spring training with the Atlanta Braves, Maddux is seeking perfection.
Four straight Cy Young awards are nice. His first world championship meant a lot. But those are things he considers beyond his control. Maddux gets ultimate pleasure seeking that moment in time when he puts together the perfect windup, the perfect delivery, the perfect follow-through.
"I think if you do everything mechanically correct, it's impossible for the ball not to go where you want it," he said. "It really is. It's just like a golf swing. If you make the absolute perfect golf swing, the ball is going to go where you're aiming it.
"Pitching is no different. If you make the absolute perfect windup and delivery, whatever, the ball is going to go where I want it to. It has to."
Of course, perfection is an elusive thing. While Maddux may be coming off the two greatest seasons in pitching history - it's right there in the numbers, but more on that later - there's always some little nuance, some little movement that can be done a just a little bit better. He operates in a world that no one else, not even a seasoned baseball person, can possibly comprehend.
"He's the most intelligent individual in pitching that I've ever been around," said Leo Mazzone, the Braves pitching coach. "His thought process about the game of baseball, about how he approaches hitters, knowing how hitters approach him and how he thinks about what they're thinking, is the smartest I've ever been around. What separates him is his intellect."
Maddux also conceals a fiery temper beneath the shoulder-shrugging, "Who, me?" persona that makes his one of the most approachable players in the clubhouse. Fans sitting behind home plate have been warned to expect a flurry of expletives when he's on the mound. Even on swinging strikes, he's liable to curse himself unmercifully because the pitch wasn't in the exact location where he wanted it.
"Here is a guy who doesn't have that many bad games," said teammate Tom Glavine, the last pitcher to win the NL Cy Young before Maddux began his amazing streak in 1992. "He doesn't appear to throw too many pitches he's not happy with. But when he does, you know about it. He can have a temper tantrum with the best of them, a lot of times better than any of us can have."
Temper tantrums? From a pitcher who is most dominating in the history of the game? Two years ago, Maddux had a 1.56 ERA while the cumulative NL average was 4.21 - a staggering 2.65 differential that is the best ever recorded. The second-best came last year, when Maddux had a 1.63 ERA - 2.55 below the league average of 4.18.
"Sometime you say to yourself, 'How can this guy be so mad? He's just had 14 complete games in a row, he has his first bad game and he gets mad like that?' That just tells you what kind of competitor he is. He expects himself to go out there and do it perfect all the time," Glavine said.
Standing 6 feet tall and weighing 175 pounds, Maddux hardly looks like The Greatest Pitcher in the World. With his glasses (Maddux wears contacts on the mound), he could pass for an accountant or high school history teacher. On his way to a game, he can stop at Wendy's for a hamburger without fear of being mobbed by autograph seekers.
Instead of being limited by his unimposing physique, Maddux turned it to his advantage. Instead of trying to throw harder, he learned to throw softer.
"Everybody is capable doing it," he said with shrug. "You can't learn to put more on the ball. That's a different kind of thing. But anybody can learn to take more off. Some just do it better than others."
No one does it better than Maddux.
"Mentally, you really have to trust yourself," he continued. "It takes a little more trust in yourself than throwing hard. I lost enough games trying to put more on the ball, so finally I said maybe I should try to take more off. If you get beat enough trying to do something, you eventually change. I was pretty much forced to change."
Off the field, Maddux comes across as a mischievous, Eddie Haskell-type character. You know, the type of kid who would say "Mrs. Cleaver, you look so nice today," while plotting some nefarious action behind her back.
"I have a sense of humor that the more disgusting it is, the more funny it is to me," Maddux admitted, saying it probably stems from his affection for older brother Mike, also a major league pitcher. "You know how you always look up to your big brother. If you see him doing something vulgar and enjoying it, you learn to enjoy it and appreciate it, too. We had a lot of fun seeing how vulgar we could be in front of our sister."
Said Glavine, "I don't know if you would classify him as the type of guy who's a good practical joker, always trying to get things going. But he certainly does some things around here that make you look at him and just kind of shake your head. You want to say to him, 'If people realized how you really were, they probably wouldn't like you as much as they do."' The vulgar humorist is just as much a part of Maddux's persona as the soft-spoken, bespectacled man who enjoys sitting at home with his 2-year-old daughter, watching TV and playing video games. While Maddux is the last player you'd expect to say something controversial after a game, he's not turned off by someone like Bryan Cox, spouting a string of obscenities after a game.
"I enjoy watching his interviews because they are different, they are controversial, they are emotional," Maddux said. "I'm guilty of that myself. If I was the producer and I had my choice of running an interview like that or a guy saying nice things about everybody that we've heard a million times in a row, I'd pick Cox."
You begin to realize there are no simple definitions to Maddux's psyche, just as there is no simple way for hitters to figure out what pitch they might see next.
It's all part of being The Greatest Pitcher in the World.
Last updated at 3/31/96 by mark_mccallum@ajc.com
March 31, 1996? by Mark McCallum:
Maddux is among the all-time greats
By Mark R. McCallum
The Interactive Studio
Since 1991, Atlanta Braves right-hander Greg Maddux has ascended among baseball's elite.
A precious few could match his effort, prompting many to wonder if the eight-year veteran could be the sport's greatest pitcher.
Not so fast.
Maddux still must endure to make the joke that Cy Young never would have won a Greg Maddux Award even plausible.
But the recent evidence offers Maddux considerable support. He's, at least, among the greatest.
The Las Vegas native producedthe finest four-year performance by a right-handed pitcher in 75 years. Since 1920, he became the second pitcher ever to post four consecutive seasons with an earned run average under 2.40. Sandy Koufax (1963-1966) is the other.
Through 1995, Maddux possessed a 1.63 ERA and set a Major League record with 18 consecutive road victories.
Maddux' 1.56 ERA last season, the third lowest since the Dead Ball era ended, set a Major League record for the greatest differential between the year's second-best ERA. It also was 2.65 below the combined leagues' ERA, the greatest differential in modern day history.
Even using the researchers' tool to evaluate pitchers of different generations (contrasting an individual's ERA against the league ERA) favors Maddux. From 1991 through 1995, Maddux posted a 2.27 ERA while the league ERA stood at 4.17, just 54.4 percent of the league's ERA. Since Walter Johnson, who compiled ERAs below 2.00 in 10 of his first 13 seasons, only Koufax beats it. His average ERA from 1963 to 1966 was 1.84, 52.7 percent of the league's 3.49.
And Maddux, who has succeeded more with guile than power because of a fastball in the low 80s, won his fourth consecutive Cy Young Award. Only four pitchers -- Koufax (1965-1966), Denny McLain (1968-1969), Jim Palmer (1975-1976) and Roger Clemens (1986-1987) -- have won even two consecutively. Only Steve Carlton has four Cy Young Awards over a career.
But being dubbed baseball's greatest takes time. While Maddux' four-year stretch has been phenomenal, the sport's elite dominated the opposition for longer periods.
In 19 seasons, Cy Young averaged an ERA that was 52.9 percent of the league's average ERA. He also won 63 percent of his decisions during that span.
In 10 seasons, Johnson's average ERA was 1.59, 54.5 percent of the league's average. He won 65 percent of his decisions.
In 14 seasons, Whitey Ford's average ERA was 60.4 percent of the league's average as he won 72 percent of his decisions.
In six seasons, Koufax' average ERA was 61.4 percent of the league's average. He won 73.3 percent of his decisions.
In 10 seasons, Bob Feller's average ERA was 61.5 percent of the league's. He won 64.9 percent of his decisions.
In his eight seasons, Maddux' average ERA is 2.89, 76 percent of the league ERA. He's won 66 percent of his decisions.
Baseball's Greatest Pitchers
Pitchers-------------SEASONS------------WIN%---ERA----LG ERA---%LG ERA
Cy Young----------(19 yrs, 1891-1909)----63%-----2.57-------4.86------52.9%
Walter Johnson-----(10 yrs, 1910-1919)----65%-----1.59-------2.92------54.5%
Whitey Ford-------(14 yrs, 1950-1964)----72%-----2.53-------4.19------60.4%
Sandy Koufax------(4 yrs, 1963-1966)-----73.3%---2.24-------3.65------61.4%
Bob Feller---------(10 yrs, 1938-1948)----64.9%---2.36-------3.84------61.5%
Lefty Grove--------(7 yrs, 1927-1933)-----76%-----2.75-------4.31------63.8%
Tom Seaver--------(6 yrs, 1968-1973)-----65.4%---2.33-------3.56------65.4%
Mordecai Brown---(8 yrs, 1904-1911)-----69.4%---1.74-------2.65------65.7%
Juan Marichal------(4 yrs, 1963-1966)-----73.3%---2.24-------3.65------61.4%
Sandy Koufax------(7 yrs, 1963-1969)-----70.3%---2.36-------3.42------69%
Christy Mathewson-(12 yrs, 1903-1914)----71.5%---2.01-------2.76------72.8%
Greg Maddux-------(8 yrs, 1988-1995)-----65%-----2.89-------3.79------76%
March 28, 1996 by Peter Gammons in ESPNet:
Breakdown: Gwynn vs. Maddux
One is the best pitcher of his generation, the other the best hitter.
Atlanta Braves righthander Greg Maddux has won four straight Cy Young Awards; over the last four seasons his ERA is a stingy 1.93.
San Diego Padres rightfielder Tony Gwynn has won as many batting titles as Ted Williams (six) and is a lifetime .336 hitter.
So what happens when the best meets the best?
Mind games. Pitches around the plate but never over it. Line drives sprayed left to right. And a lot of mutual respect. "When the ball's in his hands, he's the one who's in control," says Gwynn. For his part, Maddux says, "I try to get the two or three guys out before he comes up. I try to pitch him with no one on base. Seriously."
Gwynn had a good run against Maddux early on (he's a career .431 hitter against him), going 25 for 58, but he's hit just .250 (6 for 24) in the last four years.
ESPN's Peter Gammons sat down with the two superstars in Palm Springs, Calif., to watch tape of their confrontations and talk about the art of hitting and pitching.
Gammons: When you're facing Greg, what kind of preparation do you do?
GWYNN: I try to keep it simple. You go up thinking, 'Get a ball the other way, you go that way.' When he cuts a ball in on me, I have to keep that pitch on my mind. I can hit the other pitches. But the one inside is a tough pitch for me to handle, especially in Atlanta. At home I feel I can just react and hit it. But in Atlanta, I have a little trouble seeing the ball, so I have to concentrate more.
Gammons: The night before, are there certain things you look for from Tony?
MADDUX: Sure -- whether he's pulling off the ball a little bit, if he's covering the outside part of the plate better than the inside ... the things that change from month to month. There are times when hitters are on your slow pitches and not your fastball, and you turn around and face them the next month and they're on your fast pitches, not your slow pitches.
Gammons: How do you pitch to Tony with the bases loaded when a single to the opposite field could decide the game?
MADDUX: I don't pitch to him. I just don't do it. There are certain hitters you don't allow to beat you, so I don't give him the chance. Face him with nobody on. I'll let him get his singles. I don't mess with Tony much, because he'll end up messing up my head. I try to make him hit the ball the other way. I try to take away his power, and take the chance that he'll hit the ball at someone. Sometimes I try just to get him a little out in front or a little late.
GWYNN: Greg is really good at pulling the string and messing up your timing. He can throw you a changeup and get you thinking about it, then take just a little bit more off, then take a little bit more, and boom! he can throw a fastball in or run it back, or cut the cutter in on your knuckles. When you do battle against Greg, sometimes you want to do so well so badly that he takes advantage of you.
Gammons: Greg, have you ever thrown four straight changeups, gotten the hitter out, then had him yell at you from the dugout, "Challenge someone!"
MADDUX: Yeah, it's great.
GWYNN: He probably cracks up inside.
MADDUX: You know there's a good chance you're in their head, and it's not going to go away the next at-bat. It might stay one at-bat, one game, longer. As a pitcher, you always want to know what the hitter is going to remember about you, and when you get that kind of reaction, you don't have to wonder anymore. You know.
Gammons: Tony, do you ever have pitchers yell at you?
GWYNN: Yes. You see, I always feel that the pitcher is in control. But if he makes a halfway decent pitch, you have a good swing and get a hit, and instead of giving you credit he barks at you, then you know you've gotten into his head. So the next time, there's a chance he'll make a mistake.
Gammons: The day after you pitch, don't you check the box score for that 1.62 or 1.56?
MADDUX: Sure, I always look at it, but I can't get caught up in it. I either love to look at it or hate to look at it.
GWYNN: From the hitting perspective, it's a little different -- it's going to change every day. For me, I just want to get in a good position to get a good swing, and if I do that every day for 162 days I'll be happy, although I won't know what the numbers will be.
Gammons: Tony, when you first saw Greg back in 1986, how good did you think he'd be?
GWYNN: I thought he'd be successful because he always kept his composure. But I never would have imagined he'd be this good. His last year with the Cubs he went from a guy with decent movement and decent command to a guy who had both. Earlier, I could always count on getting a fastball up from Greg Maddux that I could take to leftfield. All of a sudden, he was keeping it down.
Gammons: Is there any one at-bat you remember over the years?
MADDUX:Yes. I remember a fastball I threw him down and in. I threw it exactly where I wanted it, and he kinda inside-outed it right back at me. If you throw that pitch down and in, they don't hit it at you. They either take it or they pull it. He was quick enough to get inside that pitch and hit it up the middle. It made me think how much better he is than anyone else. No one else could get that much bat on that pitch.
Gammons: Is there anything you can take out of a scouting report and use in a game?
GWYNN: From video you can get an idea of how his ball runs, because no one else's ball has that kind of movement with that kind of location. He can nip the outside corner and bust you inside, but a lot of times he gets hitters out with the pitches he doesn't throw for a strike. Seeing it on video can give you some idea of that and of the movement. But they can send around all the scouting reports they want -- there's no substitute for the opportunities you've had to face him.
Gammons: Greg, do you read and listen to scouting reports about Tony?
MADDUX: Yeah, I do. When I first came over to Atlanta, I really enjoyed the reports, because they were so different. But you really learn by experience. The best way is to face someone five or six times, make some good pitches, and see how he reacts, especially how he reacts on the bad pitches. The best way to learn is to make a mistake and learn from it.
Gammons: How different is starting Strike 1 instead of Ball 1?
MADDUX: When you're 0 and 1, the pitcher is the aggressor; 1 and 0, the hitter's the aggressor. But that situation isn't that big a deal. At 1 and 1, now it's huge: Go to 1 and 2 or 2 and 1. That pitch is almost as big as Strike 3.
Gammons: Much was made of pitching inside in the World Series. Greg, some people say you chop hitters off the plate as well as anyone around. What's your philosophy?
MADDUX: I think you get a hitter's attention if you get him out pitching inside. Anyone can throw a pitch in and try to scare someone. I'm not going to scare anybody -- I weigh 180 pounds. I think they remember being jammed a month from now, as opposed to a pitch up and in where they just lean back.
Gammons: Is there a big ego thing in being jammed?
GWYNN: I think so. But I try to turn it around. Instead of looking at getting jammed as an embarrassment, I look at it like this: I stayed back, I just stayed back too long. Most hitters want to hit the ball out front, and the hardest thing to do is back up a little and hit the ball the other way. For me, getting jammed isn't a bad thing, it's a good thing. In fact, I try to get jammed.
A lot of hitters have their egos bruised when the bat shatters in their hands or someone gets them out inside. I have an advantage because I'm not a threat. When I come up to the plate there isn't a pitcher in the league who thinks I'm going deep. That works to my advantage, because they won't get real tricky, so I can just concentrate on execution.
Gammons: How many times a game do you throw a pitch you think was a mistake and get away with it?
MADDUX: If I throw 100 pitches, I'll probably get away with 30 bad ones. How many hanging sliders do they foul off a night? How many times do you try to throw a fastball away and get it in? A lot, and you get a foul ball or even an out with them. This is not a game of perfection; it's a game of consistency.
GWYNN: Every time I face him is a battle. When he was with the Cubs, I must have hit .580 against him. Since he's been in Atlanta, he's turned the tables and shoved it down my throat. I just try to think about the next time I face him and how I can't be too aggressive, just play the part of the counterpuncher.
Gammons: What in sports is comparable to the confrontation between a pitcher and a hitter?
MADDUX: Nothing. None of those other sports have the fear and intellectual factors. Personally, I like the mind games.
GWYNN: I do, too.
Gammons: What are the elements that make you respect another player?
MADDUX: Mostly the way they play the game. There are guys who hit .220 for whom I have more respect than some who hit .300, with the way they carry themselves and the respect they have for the other team, their teammates, and themselves. Tony is a great example. He has respect for the game, the opponents, his teammates, the fans; he doesn't walk around as if everyone came to the park to see him, even if they did.
GWYNN: I'm an old-schooler. You're supposed to go out and do the best you can. There are lots of guys who are successful, but the ones who take care of business the way it's supposed to be done are the ones who get my respect. The game is too difficult not to treat everyone's ability with respect. You know how much I respect Greg.
This article appears in the current issue of ESPN Baseball '96 magazine. To buy copies of the magazine, call: 1-800-925-0485.
March 13, 1996 by Paul Hagen in ESPNet:
MADDUX: Four consecutive Cy Youngs; Any more questions?
By Paul Hagen
Special to ESPNET SportsZone
Poll No. 8: Maddux or Johnson?
Johnson: 'The defense can go out there without gloves'
Greg Maddux has won the National League Cy Young Award the last four years.
Nobody has ever done that before, ESPNET SportsZone has learned.
Over the last four seasons, Greg Maddux has a record of 75-29, an ERA of 1.97 and a trophy case that contains four NL Cy Young Awards.
Last season, Greg Maddux became the first pitcher since Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators in the deadball era of 1918-19 to have an ERA of less than 1.70 in consecutive seasons. Both the deadball era and the Washington Senators disappeared decades ago.
Greg Maddux, for four consecutive years, has routinely posted an ERA that is a couple runs a game less than the league average and is 46 games over .500, sources say.
So, let's see. Who would I want to send to the mound for Game 7 of the World Series? Hmmmmm. Just a minute. Let me think. Don't rush me now. Um. Wait, here's a thought.
How 'bout that Greg Maddux?
I'll admit, choosing the most dominant pitcher in baseball over the last four years, a future Hall of Famer at the absolute peak of his profession who doesn't even turn 30 until next month and a guy with a wealth of big-game experience might sound preposterous. Bold even. But, hey, sometimes you've gotta take a chance.
Oops, the Randy Johnson Fan Club doesn't seem to have much of a sense of humor today. Glad you could all show up anyway.
Please try to compose yourselves and remember to phrase your questions in the form of a question. OK, then, the guy in the back with the hair down to his shoulders. ...
I knew somebody would bring up that Maddux has a reputation for becoming merely mortal when the postseason rolls around. Let's get that one out of the way right now.
Maddux wasn't very good his first time out in the National League Championship Series. Fair enough. But that was seven years ago, for crying out loud, when he was still with the Chicago Cubs. Last year, he gave up just one run in eight innings of his only LCS start against the Reds and then, in the World Series, set the tone for Atlanta's first world championship with a complete game two-hitter against the Indians in Game 1.
Not only that, Maddux has proven himself over and over in big games down the stretch of the regular season. Taking nothing away from Johnson, who was practically heroic when it meant the most last season, but that's the first time he ever has been in a real pressure situation. And he still has never pitched in the World Series.
The Greg Maddux file
Has won an unprecedented four consecutive NL Cy Young Awards and led the league in ERA for three straight seasons.
His 1995 ERA of 1.63 was 2.55 below the league average of 4.18.
Has an 18-0 record in his last 20 road starts with an ERA of 0.99 dating back to July 2, 1994.
Tossed 51 consecutive innings without allowing a walk last season.
His 19-2 mark in 1995 established a new major-league record for winning
percentage in a season (minimum of 20 decisions).
Concluded last season with a streak of 21.0 scoreless innings.
Next? You, in the corner, wearing the Seattle Mariners cap. ...
So what if Maddux doesn't throw as hard as Johnson and doesn't strike out as many batters. He doesn't walk as many, either. I'll bet you didn't realize that last season Johnson allowed more baserunners (224) than innings pitched (214 1/3). Maddux, on the other hand, allowed 170 baserunners in 209 2/3 innings. A player who doesn't get on base can't score. It's in the rules.
He also had 10 complete games, four more than Johnson. That's not surprising because Johnson throws more pitches and is more prone to tire in the late innings.
"He can spot the ball better than any pitcher I've ever seen."
So, when I start Maddux, I've got a lot of things going in my favor. He's going to throw more strikes, meaning the fielders will be more on their toes. There will be fewer baserunners, which automatically gives the other team fewer chances to score. And since there's a much better chance that he'll finish what he starts, I won't have to be as dependent on the bullpen.
Maddux also has a better chance to help himself. He has won six consecutive Gold Gloves, and he's not a bad hitter. If the designated hitter isn't being used, Johnson is at a big disadvantage because he hasn't batted in a real game since 1989.
Anybody else? Down front, wearing stilts. Oh, you're really that tall? Go ahead. ...
You actually make a pretty good point. Maddux relies on an almost uncanny ability to know what a hitter is looking for and throw something else.
It's true that Johnson doesn't adjust to the hitters. He makes the hitters adjust to him. And that's fine as long as he has his best stuff.
But no pitcher has his best stuff every time out. And Maddux has a much better chance to find something that works on a day when he might not have all his weapons.
Just ask Pete Incaviglia, who has faced Maddux while with the Astros and Phillies, but batted against Johnson during stints with the Rangers and Tigers.
"Randy Johnson can rear back and throw it by you," he said. "But Greg Maddux has great control. He changes speeds and can spot the ball better than any pitcher I've ever seen. He can make adjustments from pitch to pitch."
No more questions? I guess we all agree than. For the ultimate game, Greg Maddux is the pitcher we'd want to start.
All right, just one more from that tall guy with the glove on his right hand and the baseball in his left hand. ...
No, I don't want to bat against you. But thanks for asking.
Paul Hagen, who covers baseball for the Philadelphia Daily News, writes regularly for ESPNET SportsZone.
1996
The answer: Confidence, concentration, consistency and control of every pitch. Lots of people believe that the Atlanta Braves’ Greg Maddux is a magician. How else can you explain how a 6-foot, 180-pound regular-looking guy could become baseball’s most dominating pitcher over the past four seasons. How did a hurler without a Nolan Ryan fastball or a devastating curve become the first pitcher to win four straight Cy Young Awards and the first hurler in 76 years to have back-to-back seasons with an ERA below 1.80? There must be something up this 30-year-old’s uniform sleeve or inside his baseball cap. But according to Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone, Greg Maddux’s greatness is no illusion.
Everybody’s looking for the secret of how Greg Maddux does what he does," Mazzone says."The secret is this: There is no secret. He does all of the basic things very well and constantly practices them."
Maddux has become a master of the basics or what could be called"the five Cs of pitching"—confidence, concentration, consistency, control and change of speeds. But a pitcher can’t excel at the those basics unless he first possesses picture-perfect pitching mechanics. "Greg is mechanically sound and smooth all the way through his delivery," Mazzone observes."He is very compact. There’s no high leg kick, wasted motion or body english. Start to finish, he leaves no margin for error."
Maddux has understood the importance of pitching mechanics since becoming a professional in 1984. Greg was just a 5-foot-11, 150-pounder after graduating high school and had to compete with bigger, more powerful pitchers in the minors. So what he lacked in power, he learned to make up for with razor-sharp control. Even now, he wouldn’t be ranked among baseball’s fireballers."I could probably throw harder if I wanted, but why?" Greg told Sports Illustrated."When a lot of pitchers, especially young pitchers, are in a jam, they try to throw harder. Me, I just try to locate my pitches better."
And his smooth, flawless pitching motion enables him to do just that. Maddux concentrates on being consistent in every aspect of his delivery—where he takes the ball out of his glove, where he positions his arm to throw, and how he releases the ball from the right slot for each pitch Mazzone says Maddux also has an extraordinary knack for locking on a target.
If you look at pictures of his release—with head and shoulders over the front leg—you see that he moves his head right to where he wants the pitch to go. Lots of pitchers see big, wide areas. Greg narrows his focus down to a very small area and locks on it." Once he’s locked, the guy seems to throw nothing but strikes. Maddux has issued fewer bases on balls every season since 1992, when he walked 70. Last season, he walked just 23."He has a great knowledge of the strike zone," Roger Clemens told The Sporting News."You rarely see him throw a pitch down the middle. He works the corners as good as anyone."
And it doesn’t matter if his fastball tops out at a moderate 87 miles-per-hour."Pitching is the art of messing up the hitter’s timing, of outguessing the hitter," Maddux has said. He varies the speed of his pitches to make his fastball appear faster and to throw off the hitters’ timing."You never feel like you’re getting a real good swing," says the San Diego Padres’ Tony Gwynn, one of the game’s all-time best hitters."He makes you hit his pitch, a pitch in his zone, not yours."
Maddux doesn’t have a devastating signature pitch like those hurlers who are known for a screwball or split-fingered fastball. One pitch that makes Maddux’s fastball look more like a heatball than a meatball is his great changeup. While power pitchers often resort to body english or use too much force when throwing the off-speed pitch, Maddux delivers the ball with a light touch—as if he were holding an egg—which means that hitters are unaware that the change is coming. The curveball and slider round out Maddux’s masterful repertoire. He has command of them all, which makes pitches that are aren’t very threatening by themselves much more dangerous when mixed together.
If Greg gets narrowed down to throwing just one pitch, he’s going to lose," Mazzone says."If he’s got two good pitches working, he’s going to win and if he gets three, he’s going to throw a shutout." But that varied pitching arsenal would mean nothing if Maddux weren’t confident enough to throw each pitch in any situation, confidence enough to attack the hitter from the first pitch to the last."Greg’s a gambler at heart," Mazzone says."He’s not afraid of anything and he loves the idea of outfoxing hitters."
You’ll often see Maddux get ahead of hitters with a strike down-and-away, which gives him the advantage for the rest of an at bat. In 1994, for example, batters down 0-1 in the count to Greg managed to hit only .163 against him. He’ll also try to learn the weaknesses of each hitter. He’ll watch how they react to a certain pitch and he’ll use that knowledge when choosing his next pitch. Or he’ll just store the information in his memory bank to retrieve later.
And on those very rare occasions when Maddux gets into a jam, he never loses his focus. He just concentrates harder. When the heat’s on for real, he’s ready."Some pitchers get all upset when they get into trouble," Mazzone observes."Then they get ultra-aggressive only to end up getting clobbered. Greg may get upset, but he channels it in the right direction. It helps him concentrate and execute better on the very next pitch. He actually makes the best clutch pitches I’ve ever seen."
So what makes Greg Maddux great? Is he a mound magician? A pitching artist? A baseball superhero? According to his pitching coach, Maddux is none of those."The thing that separates Greg from everybody else," Mazzone says,"is that he is an intelligent student of baseball. And he understands the art of pitching completely, maybe better than anybody in the history of the game."