Comments on: To Greg Maddux- You Were Easily One of the Best

By: soapbox » Blog Archive » Honoring a Legend

soapbox » Blog Archive » Honoring a Legend — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:45:14 +0000

[...] had a foresight: Braves catcher Eddie Pérez tells the story of Maddux intentionally allowing a home run to the [...]

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:06:29 +0000

Maddox is one of the greatest. I loved watching him pitch—he made it look easy and he always had fun with it. I always knew we would win the game when he was pitching for the Braves. Yes, I was a bigger Glavin fan, but cannot escape the realization that Maddox was greater during those years. I’ll miss him, but am glad he is going out on top. BTW in Cooperstown, you’ll notice that Maddox has donated a lot of his old cleats for the museum. Funny.

By: Arnold Thomas

Arnold Thomas — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:26:10 +0000

The thing that was so impressive to me about Maddux was the fact that he never overpowered anyone. they used to say his best fastball would not break a plate glass window. His ability to get inside the hitters head was like nothing else. I have heard some other interesting stories about Maddux that I can not mention on here. As for the thing with Lemke, next time you visit Turner Field, you might try asking “The Lemmer” about it. He is usually out in the plaza pre-game doing the radio show.

By: Stephen VanNuys

Stephen VanNuys — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:03:02 +0000

Arnold- I agree he is definitely one of the best I have seen. He’s certainly the smartest. But we’ve had some great pitchers in this era. I struggle to say he was absolutely superior to Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson (at RJ’s height of performance). The stretch RJ had from the late nineties through about the middle of this decade was almost as good as the stretch Koufax had in the mid-60′s. And Clemens took 7 Cy Youngs (though I hate he was a roider). That’s absolutely unbelievable.

And what about a healthy Pedro Martinez? That guy was impressive too.

But Maddux wins on longevity and consistency over and against these guys. And Maddux’s numbers when he won those 4 straight Cy Youngs are unreal. Particularly in the era he was pitching in (the start of the roids era).

So- this is all debatable. Maybe I’ll tip this in favor of Maddux, but I’m not sure yet. Clemens and RJ still rattle around in my head when I think about this…

By: Stephen VanNuys

Stephen VanNuys — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:59:07 +0000

Cool story on Brad Penny, TP. I had never heard that one. I was actually googling to see if I could find that one Mark Lemke used to tell about how Maddux once called him aside in the middle of a game and told him to change his position b/c he was going to get a guy to hit to that position so he could get the double-play. Lemke said he followed Maddux’s advice and on the next play the ball was hit right to him- he turned a double-play and the inning was over. There was much more drama to the moment than that so wish I could find the story. But cool nonetheless.

By: TennesseePaul

TennesseePaul — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:53:07 +0000

There was that time in San Diego he threw to the bullpen catcher, as the catcher had his eyes closed. He hit the glove square on… showing a catcher could catch Maddux with his eyes shut.

And this one:

…when Brad Penny and Maddux were teammates on the Dodgers, during the last two months of 2006, they had a conversation one day that led Penny to reach a stunning conclusion: This guy knows my stuff better than I do. It was eerie, really, how easily Maddux dissected Penny’s repertoire and suggested ways to maximize it. Penny, figuring he’d take advantage of the situation, asked Maddux to call a game for him against the Cubs. And so, on the night of Sept. 13, Penny glanced into the dugout before every delivery and found Maddux, who signaled the next pitch by looking toward different parts of the ballpark. Penny threw seven scoreless innings with no walks and beat the Cubs 6-0. “Maddux probably won’t tell you that story,” Penny says. He’s right.

By: Arnold Thomas

Arnold Thomas — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:40:20 +0000

Greg Maddux was easily the best I have ever seen. He made it look so easy. His fastball never reached more than about 90. He was in my opinion the smartest athlete ever. There will never be another pitcher quite like him. Hopefully he wears a Braves cap into the Hall of Fame in 5 years.