Greg Maddux debuted Wednesday as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers front office at their Glendale, Ariz., spring training site.
The former Braves star wore a uniform and carried a fungo bat as he roamed the fields at Camelback Ranch, where he will be for the duration of the camp in his role as a special adviser to Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations.
Maddux was the first pitcher in major league history to win the Cy Young in four successive years (1992-1995), and he had 355 victories and 18 Gold Gloves. Other coaches might use similar words, but Maddux can give those ideas special meaning.
Maddux is now a Hall of Famer and the players are certainly going to listen. See a photo gallery of Maddux's time with the Braves.
Maddux joined the organization after an inquiry from President Stan Kasten. The two knew each other from their glory days together in Atlanta. Maddux spent the majority of his Hall of Fame career pitching for the Braves, where Kasten ran the front office.
Maddux weighed in on his role, one he previously had with both the Cubs and Rangers, and also about the dominant pitcher of the day, the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, who debuted in 2008 at age 20 when Maddux was 42 and pitching for L.A. He spoke to several reporters including Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times and an Associated Press reporter.
On helping L.A. pitchers: "I'll probably just say the same thing the other coaches have said to them the last five years or 10 years. Maybe I'll say it a little different. Who knows? But the goal is to make the players better."
On Kershaw: "You never think anybody is going to be that good. I mean, you knew he was good and he was going to pitch for a long time. He's been able to turn into a winner. I think a lot of guys have the stuff or the makeup. But not everybody's a winner. He's been able to win and stay healthy and win a lot."
On agreeing to be in uniform: "Stan kind of asked me about it a few months ago. I wasn't doing anything. I had planned to watch my kid play a little college ball. So, I figured, OK, this will be a good opportunity. Another team. I'll just kind of see how it goes."
On what he knows now that he didn't use to know: "There's always stuff to learn. There's stuff I didn't hear until I was 40 that I wish I had heard when I was 20. There's stuff I hear now that I've never heard before."
