Greg Maddux appreciation thread

And he called his own pitches

Any time I see a college kid fail at bunting, I think of him. When he was sacrificing, he would get to the front of the box, square up, and wait for the pitch. His job was to sacrifice, no bs faking and pulling back screwing up his timing. He'd get frustrated when the pitchers would still throw over even though he couldn't be telegraphing what he was doing any clearer.

My favorite player of all time. I hate when others get compared to him because he is truly 1 of 1.

there is an awesome video of Maddux and Bonds going pitch by pitch through an ab and the clarity they both remember it is pretty cool to watch.

Maddux’s memory is insane and makes him a great interview to this day.

Gwynn’s stats against Atlanta's big 3 are just stupid lol.

I’ve seen a comment from Smoltzy where he said between them three, Pedro and maybe another (Randy Johnson?), Tony Gwynn hit like .340 with 12 SO’s in 300 something at-bats

Maddux said Bonds was the easiest guy to pitch to. Walk him and move to the next guy. You have to get 27 outs so you need to know who they are.

Seriously, I struck out 4 maybe in a row. I don’t think that ball landed. The left fielder never moved. It was still rising when it went over.

quote:

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I’ve seen a comment from Smoltzy where he said between them three, Pedro and maybe another (Randy Johnson?), Tony Gwynn hit like .340 with 12 SO’s in 300 something at-bats

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It was Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz and Pedro. Four strikeouts total from guys with over 3,000 K's each.

I’ve told this story before, but it feels like it would be appreciated in here.

I grew up a huge Braves fan and Tony Clark/Tigers fan because of Spring Training here in Central Florida. I was at Joker Marchant Stadium for a Spring Training game and was out in right field trying to get Maddux’s autograph after his start. He sneaks out of a different door and starts walking to the parking lot to drive himself. Eureka, this autograph is mine.

I run out there after him and he drops his water bottle. I scooped it up and handed it to him, and kindly asked for his signature on a card I have somewhere around here. He snatched his water bottle and fricked off to his car and left.


Fast forward 10+ years and he’s coming to town for a few weeks as a roving pitching coach in the Cubs’ organization. Knowing Maddux would be around at some point, I told the guys about getting big leagued and we all got to betting on whether he’d remember that day or not.

We’re all serious at first so it’s business as usual. Picking Greg’s brain, working in the pen between starts, and sitting with him after every inning when we did start.

We fricking know each other at this point.




One night before he leaves, during a game, the guys start getting excited and hyping me up to finally go ask him about crushing my dreams as a kid. So I nervously walk from the far end of the dugout where all 15+ of us are huddled up, down to the front of the dugout and take a seat next to Maddux. I start in on the story, as everyone creeps closer and closer to get within earshot.

I finish the story and ask, do you remember any of this?

He stared at me for an uncomfortably long time and then goes, “..who the frick are you?”

The entire dugout exploded into chaotic laughter. I think I blacked out and walked away

The next day I got to my locker and he left a little note asking if I would play golf with him before he left. I don’t remember a single shot I hit that day but can tell you where he made every single out of pocket joke