Former Brave Maddux retires

Las Vegas — He walked and talked in the most unassuming manner, always acting as if he were just any old Greg. But the common-man demeanor stood in stark contrast to the sheer brilliance and impeccable precision that Greg Maddux produced on a pitching mound.

Maddux, among the most popular players the Atlanta Braves have had, announced his retirement Monday here in his hometown of Las Vegas, ending a remarkable 23-year career that established “Mad Dog” as one the greatest pitchers in baseball history.

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AP

Greg Maddux said it’s ‘time to say goodbye’ to baseball and thanked his longtime Braves skipper Bobby Cox in his retirement speech, ‘Bobby, thank you,’ Maddux said, ‘for everything you taught me about the game.’

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“He was unbelievable, the greatest control of any pitcher probably in the history of baseball,” former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone said of Maddux, 42, who won four Cy Young Awards and ranks eighth in career wins with 355, more than any other living pitcher.

“He is the best artist I ever saw paint a baseball game,” said Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, a former Braves broadcaster. “I wish I could have played with him. By osmosis I probably would have won 50 more games.”

After averaging nearly 18 wins a season during an 11-year stint with the Braves through 2003, Maddux finished his career over the last five seasons with the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, going 8-13 in 2008 for the Dodgers and Padres.

“I came up here just to say thank you,” Maddux said to a crowd of media members and team officials at the Bellagio Hotel on the first day of baseball’s Winter Meetings. “I appreciate everything this game’s given me. It’s gonna be hard to walk away. But it’s time.

“I have a family I need to spend more time with. I still think I can play the game, but not as well as I’d like to. So it’s time to say goodbye.”

He said he might consider coaching or managing in the future, but was looking forward to taking a year off and spending it with wife and children, who attended Monday’s news conference.

Maddux went 194-88 with a 2.63 ERA in 11 seasons with Atlanta through 2003, forming with Tom Glavine (through 2002) and John Smoltz the dominant “Big Three” unit that won six Cy Young Awards for the Braves and sparked their run of 14 straight division titles.

“It’s hard to describe how good the guy was,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said of Maddux, who won 16 or more games 10 times in 11 seasons with the Braves, including 19 or more wins five times.

“There’s certainly no superlative you can use that would adequately describe his career and what he was about,” Glavine said. “He’s arguably the greatest pitcher of our generation, obviously, and one of the greatest right-handers of all time.”

Smoltz said, “It was absolutely beyond the word ‘pleasure’ to have played with him for so long. We look back now and realize that it was pretty incredible. It’s a shame it couldn’t last forever. But it was the 10 greatest years of my career.”

Glavine agreed: “No question about it. That’ll be the 10 best years of my career, and certainly the years that define my career and to a certain extent the [Atlanta] Braves and all three of us. We’re linked to that time when we were all teammates.”

The Braves have missed the postseason each of the past three years, in part because they haven’t been able to replicate anything close to their former pitching dominance or durability.

Ready for the postseason

From 1988 to 2008, Maddux made at least 33 regular-season starts every year except for the shortened 1994-95 seasons. And in those 1994-95 seasons, he was a cumulative 35-8 with a microscopic 1.60 ERA — more than 2-1/2 runs below the league average.

“Very special,” Maddux said of his time with the Braves. “We won all 11 years I was in Atlanta. They won before I got there and won every year I was there. And just to be around that atmosphere — I remember Bobby talking about in spring training, that we were getting ready for the postseason. We weren’t getting ready for the season, we were getting ready for the postseason.

“We did a little bit less in spring training because we knew our season was going to be seven months, not six. We had that winning attitude back in February.”

Then he looked across the room at Cox, who attended Monday’s news conference with Braves president and former Braves general manager John Schuerholz, team trainer Jeff Porter and travel director Bill Acree.

“Bobby, thank you,” Maddux said, “for everything you taught me about the game. Leo as well, and all the coaches. … I just had a lot of coaches that taught me so much about the game, that hopefully I’ll use in the future and pass down as time goes on.”

Cox said Maddux not only had “as good a control as I’ve ever seen, but also the most movement on a baseball of any pitcher I’ve ever seen in my 50 years in the game. Absolutely. I’ve never seen life on a ball like Greg had. Ever.

“He was probably the smartest player I’ve ever been around. But he had talent, too. And the guy never missed starts.”

Maddux said Glavine had a lot to do with that.

“I think probably the biggest thing I learned pitching alongside Glavine was to realize you don’t have to be 100 percent to win,” he said. “You have to take the ball and you have to go out there. That’s what he taught me.

“Sometimes it’s really easy to say, I need another day or two. But in Atlanta, we pitched. I think Tommy led the way with that. He showed everybody that if you go out there, if you could throw the ball over the plate you had a chance to win, no matter how bad you felt.”

Some believed Maddux would outlast the others from the Big Three, but he’s retiring first, his arm unscarred by surgery. Smoltz, 41, and Glavine, 42, are rehabbing and trying to continue pitching for the Braves after career-threatening arm surgeries last season.

Barring a change of mind about retirement, Maddux is a lock for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in five years when eligible. Some think he could be the first unanimous first-ballot pick.

Not missing a start

“I look back on it now, Maddux’s practice sessions and games, and I’m still in awe of what he was able to do with the baseball,” Mazzone said. “Tremendous. I get goose bumps thinking about it now.”

Maddux was signed as a free agent by Schuerholz after a 20-win 1992 season with the Chicago Cubs.

“Throughout the years of free agency, I think he was the greatest free agent ever signed,” Schuerholz said, “and I was proud to be a part of that.”

After winning his first Cy Young Award with the Cubs in 1992, he proceeded to sweep the next three awards in his first three seasons with the Braves. All without bringing much attention to himself.

“He wanted to quietly stick it to you and go unnoticed,” Mazzone said. “He had a fire in him that nobody saw unless you were down in that tunnel once in a while. And he pitched when his arm hurt, too.

“I’ve seen him get cortisone patches put on his arm between innings, stuff like that. He took great pride in going to the post, as they [Braves starters from that era] did. They used to tell me, ‘[Bleep] you, I’m not going to be the one to miss a start.’”

For Maddux, it was a period of utter dominance the likes of which has rarely been seen in baseball’s live-ball era.

“Every time he went out there you felt you were gonna win,” Cox said. “We had to mess something up not to win when he pitched.”

After going 20-11 with a 2.18 ERA in 263 innings for the Cubs in 1992, Maddux was 20-10 with a 2.36 ERA in 267 innings for the Braves in 1993, his third season in a row of more than 260 innings pitched.

“He told me one time, ‘Everybody thinks I’m the smartest pitcher in baseball and that I outsmart everybody,’” Mazzone said. “He said, ‘Well, it’s amazing how smart you can look when you can put your fastball where you want it.’

“His game was simplicity, he commanded a moving fastball, but he could move it and cut it, and he threw a great changeup and occasional slider. And repeat, repeat, repreat — repeat a high standard of excellence on every pitch.”

Very unassuming

Maddux’s legendary control was never more apparent than in the next two seasons, when he had fewer walks than starts — 28 walks with 172 strikeouts in 35 starts (245 innings) in 1996; 20 walks with 177 strikeouts in 33 starts (232-2/3 innings) in 1997.

“He’s like a meticulous surgeon out there — he puts the ball where he wants to,” Hall-of-Famer Tony Gwynn once said of Maddux.

Both were regarded as cerebral craftsmen who studied their opponents, looking for their weaknesses, filing away mental notes and cues for use in later matchups.

There are legendary stories of Maddux’s baseball IQ and instincts, such as the time he observed something in a hitter’s swing and a pitcher’s pattern and predicted the next pitch would be a fouled line drive that might put the first-base coach in a hospital.

The next pitch was lined off the coach’s chest, according to a few people who swear in amazement that they witnessed it and that the account is accurate.

“Greg is extremely intelligent,” Glavine said. “You can never underestimate that. Sometimes, maybe some things weren’t quite true, or were overblown, things he made up maybe. He would come up with stuff to see if people would bite on it.

“His whole persona is of being this tremedous athlete, but you’re never looking at him and thinking that’s what he was … he was very unassuming.”

Maddux also finished with fewer walks than starts for the Braves in 2001 and 2003. He returned to Chicago as a free agent after the payroll-conscious Braves didn’t try to re-sign him.

Maddux ran his record-breaking streak to 17 consecutive seasons with at least 16 wins when he went 16-11 for Chicago in 2004, but with his first 4.00 ERA since his first full season in 1987.

His 13-15 record in 2005 with the Cubs was his first losing season since 1987.

After his last Braves season in 2003, Maddux had a 289-163 career record and 2.89 ERA. He’s 66-64 with a 4.16 ERA since then, leaving him with a 355-227 career record and 3.16 ERA.

“When I heard he was going to retire, it brought back tremendous memories of a 10-year period,” Mazzone said. “You think back to the practice sessions in the bullpen, the mindset, the control, the athletic ability. …

“I wish we could do it all over. I’ve never seen a pitcher hit a target like he could. He’d be [ticked] if he missed by an inch. Most pitchers would be thrilled.”