NewsChopTalk: Maddux reflects on career
Retired ace to have number retired by Braves on Friday
By Patty Rasmussen / ChopTalk Magazine
07/13/09 5:51 PM ET
On Friday, Greg Maddux will be inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame during a luncheon at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center. Prior to that evening's game (7:30 p.m. ET vs. Mets), the Braves will make Maddux just the sixth player in franchise history to have his uniform number retired. In 11 seasons with the Braves (1993-2003), Maddux won 194 games and three of his four consecutive Cy Young Awards 1993-95). He owns club records for season ERA (1.54 in 1994), career ERA (2.63) and career winning percentage (.688, 194-88).ChopTalk: How did you originally get uniform No. 31? Did you ever have another number before 31?
Greg Maddux: It was hanging in my locker when I came up as a rookie (1986). I was a 20-year-old kid walking down the steps at Wrigley and saw that jersey hanging in the locker. I was lucky enough to have it most of my career, except for San Diego (No. 30 in 2007-08) and Los Angeles (No. 36 in 2006, '08).
ChopTalk: If you had it to do all over again, would you do anything in your career differently?
Maddux: Hmmm. There are probably a couple of pitches I wouldn't throw!
ChopTalk: Which ones?
Maddux: There was a fastball to Will Clark that wasn't very good. He hit it in the [outfield] basket [at Wrigley Field] and got a grand slam. There was a pitch to Doug Bell in the Astrodome during a tight game that I would like to have back. And there were a couple of balls that I tossed that I probably should have just let the guy take the base.
But overall, I think I was pretty fortunate. I got to pitch in Chicago two times in my career (1986-92, 2004-06). I spent 11 years pitching in Atlanta (1993-2003), and we won most of those years, and I got to finish my career on the West Coast. It was weird... I loved Chicago and never wanted to leave when I was there, but when I got to Atlanta, I found out that maybe the grass was greener on the other side. Then playing in San Diego and L.A., I was close to our home in Las Vegas, so we had a home close to our home. It was a great place, almost like a vacation. And don't underestimate the weather. Atlanta had rain, heat and humidity. It was cold in Chicago during the first two months of the season and usually the last month. But in Southern California, almost every day it was 70 degrees and beautiful. I had very little adversity in my career. I was lucky to play where I wanted to play and for as long as I played.
ChopTalk: It's just your first year out of the game, but do you have any interest in getting back in baseball in any capacity someday? Managing? Coaching? Front office?
Maddux: I don't know. Maybe in the future, but not right now. I'm enjoying my children, enjoying watching the second half of their lives, since I missed most of the first half. I enjoy watching my son, Chase [12], play baseball, coaching a little bit -- I don't coach very much. And I like seeing my daughter, Paige [15], do the things she does, cheering and picking out prom dresses. She'll be driving soon, so watch out Las Vegas!
ChopTalk: What about your career are you most proud of?
Maddux: I'm most proud of winning the World Series in 1995 and having 20 great years in baseball. People don't realize what a great game baseball is. Something different happens every night. So much goes into those nine innings that people don't see -- whether it's the managers making moves, a pitch, a hit, a foul ball, a call by an umpire.
In any given game, something will happen that you probably will never see again. There's always the thinking involved with it. Maybe there's a situation where everyone, including the fans, know the pitcher should throw a curveball, but the pitcher doesn't throw it. Everyone's wondering why, but they don't know that he's got a blister, or he knows his curveball wasn't called for a strike two pitches before, or whatever. And that pitch was just one of 200 or so pitches that night.
That's the beauty of the game. And you know what? It's the same game, even when I'm watching 12-year-olds playing. It's exactly the same game. Sometimes you see the same mistakes that the 30-year-olds make. The only difference is that one game is played at incredible speed! Everything else -- the emotions, the thinking, the failures and success -- are the same.
ChopTalk: How difficult was it to decide to retire, and when did you actually make that decision? How much consideration did you give to playing again this year?
Maddux: It wasn't a difficult decision at all, because it was time. Anyone who could feel my legs would know it was time! I ran out of gas and still managed to play for two more years. I didn't want to stay in the game and embarrass myself. I have too much respect for the game to not play it at a high level, and I knew I wasn't capable of that. I didn't want to use my past performance to hang on. I'd seen players that played longer than they should have, and I didn't want to do that.
ChopTalk: How old were you when you lived in Spain? Is that where you were when you started to play baseball?
Maddux: The first team I ever played on was in [Madrid,] Spain. My father was in the Air Force, and we were stationed there. He was the coach. I was six at the time, and because my dad was the coach, I got to pitch and play shortstop.
ChopTalk: Were you any good?
Maddux: I don't even know. All I remember was that the shirts were green! We moved to Vegas next. My dad got stationed there. I played baseball when we lived on base, and then he retired and started dealing poker, and I played baseball off base. I was a normal kid. I was playing JV basketball, and our last game was on a Friday, and one of my buddies said, "Baseball tryouts are on Monday. Want to go out for baseball?" So I did, and I realized that I threw harder than most of the other guys.
When I was a sophomore, I made the JV team. My brother, Mike, got drafted by the Reds and was offered a college baseball scholarship. My dad said I threw harder than my brother had at the same age, and that's when I thought maybe I could get a baseball scholarship. I had a great coach at the time -- Ralph "Rusty" Medar -- who held Sunday workouts. So when I was 16 years old, I would pitch to guys from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and other guys, like Marty Barrett who was in Triple-A in the Red Sox organization at the time.
I started to understand how to pitch -- that you couldn't just throw hard. It was a good learning experience for me. I learned that location was more important than velocity. I didn't understand how great a lesson that was for me until I got to the Minor Leagues and saw guys doing all sorts of things to try to make a baseball move.
ChopTalk: Do you think the fact that you were a location pitcher rather than a power pitcher had an impact on the longevity of your career?
Maddux: I think more than anything it was because I was mechanically very sound when I signed. I never had a coach at any level try to change my mechanics. I never worried about my stride or my release point. The only thing I ever really worked on was my alignment. How you pitch every time out, your mechanics, plays a big role in staying healthy.
ChopTalk: What's a typical day like for you now?
Maddux: I get up in the morning and take the kids to school, around 7:30. Then I go play golf. I'll have lunch with my wife, Kathy, or maybe my buddies. I pick up the kids around 3:30, and then it's time for their activities.
ChopTalk: How many days a week do you golf? Has your game improved since you retired? What's your handicap?
Maddux: I golf three or four days a week. Our weekends are usually taken up with tournaments or kids activities. I don't think my game has improved that much. I have a 6-handicap right now. Golf is a hard game. It's easy to get OK at it, but hard to get good at it.
ChopTalk: How do you want to be remembered as a pitcher?
Maddux: I don't really think about that. I just remember watching guys as I was coming up. I watched Orel Hershiser, Mario Soto, Dwight Gooden, Nolan Ryan, David Cone ... all those guys did things with a baseball that I couldn't do. But they also did things that I could do, and I wanted to learn that. So if there were things that I've done in my career that make a young guy want to learn something or that helps a young guy, that would be great.
ChopTalk: You're eighth all-time in wins with 355, second since World War II to Warren Spahn (363), and first over the last 45 years, so you're an automatic Hall of Famer. If you could write the inscription on your Hall of Fame plaque, what would it say?
Maddux: Honestly, I haven't even thought of that. I will say that the last 10 years of my career, I really enjoyed the game. One thing that I really enjoyed was how great it was to be around these other players and how good they were. Even the guy hitting .240 was good! And I got to watch these guys every night.
ChopTalk: Everyone always talks about the unusual acumen you have for the game. Did you have that even as an amateur and in the Minors? Where did that come from? Did you pick it up and learn it from others? Did you get it mainly from studying the game? Or is it just something that came naturally, sort of like a great musician or artist that is born with a certain knowledge and skills for their craft?
Maddux: You know what? Good control makes you smart. When your location is good, it makes you smart. You see pitchers trying to make a pitch, and it's the right pitch for the moment -- but they don't locate it, and they end up giving up a hit. People say, "That was wrong." But it wasn't the pitch that was wrong, it was the location. I maybe got too much credit for being smart, when it was really just that I was locating my pitches.
ChopTalk: Perhaps that's true, but it's also true that you studied hitters and watched video, right?
Maddux: I used video, but I tried to use common sense. I didn't want to get too caught up in scouting reports. I needed to trust my stuff and what I saw on the field. Some of the stats they've come up with in scouting reports cause pitchers to put themselves in holes, because they're pitching to the stats.
ChopTalk: What's the best game you ever pitched, and why?
Maddux: There was a game, when I was with the Braves in St. Louis, when I pitched against Mike Morgan [Aug. 20, 1995]. The score ended up being 1-0, and I probably threw about 90 pitches, and two-thirds of the pitches were "right there." It was just one of those games. [Maddux faced two batters over the minimum, allowing two hits and no walks in a complete-game win.] And the most satisfying game was Game 1 of the 1995 World Series, when I started against Cleveland [3-2 win, complete-game two-hitter]. It was my first crack at a World Series game, and I was lucky enough to get to pitch. And we won, too.
ChopTalk: You've mentioned the '95 World Series a good bit. What about your 300th win [Aug. 7, 2004, an 8-4 decision for the Cubs over the Giants]?
Maddux: That was a great number, and I know just a few pitchers get to that number. [He was the 22nd in history.] But for me, it was never about the numbers. When I got the 300th win, we [the Cubs] were in the middle of a pennant race. Getting 300 wasn't about the season. The season was about me being one of 25 guys trying to get to the postseason. Postseason games in Chicago are huge. It means a lot to everybody, players included. So getting 300 wins was cool, but I knew I would get that win someday. I would have traded the 300th to get to the postseason. [The Cubs missed the Wild Card by three games].
ChopTalk: What do you consider your biggest accomplishment in baseball?
Maddux: The biggest accomplishment was getting there [Majors] and making it! I remember getting called up from Triple-A [Iowa in 1986]. I started off that season in Double-A [Pittsfield] and worked my way up. [Iowa manager] Larry Cox called me in and said I was being called up in September. I had a car, and Chico Walker and I drove up to Chicago from Des Moines, Iowa. It was the first time I'd ever been to Wrigley Field. It was something. Probably the second-biggest accomplishment was winning the World Series. It was my first time in a World Series, and I'll never forget that last pitch from "Woh-Daddy" [Mark Wohlers], and Marquis Grissom ran in to get under it.
ChopTalk: What family members will be with you in Atlanta for your Braves Hall of Fame induction and number retirement?
Maddux: I'm not sure yet. We had about 20 family members in Chicago [for the Cubs' May 3 number retiring ceremony]. We have a lot of friends still in Atlanta, people we still exchange Christmas cards with and stay in touch with. We really started our life there. Chase was born in Atlanta.
ChopTalk: What season did you enjoy the most, and why?
Maddux: They were all pretty good, but 1993 was very good, personally. It was my first year in Atlanta, the first time I had changed teams, my first big contract. You're never sure what to expect, and when you get a lot of money, you feel you have to justify your signing. I was lucky enough to have things work out, so I didn't have to think too much about that.
ChopTalk: What are your feelings about having your number retired by two teams within 2 1/2 months?
Maddux: It's special to have your number retired with one team, let alone two teams. It's a pretty cool honor, especially since it was two teams that I loved playing for.
ChopTalk: How will it feel to have your number hanging in Turner Field with the other retired Braves numbers of Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, Phil Niekro and Dale Murphy? When you were pitching here, did you ever allow yourself to look at them and think, "I wonder if my number will ever be up there?"
Maddux: It's pretty cool. I had the chance during my time in Atlanta to see Phil Niekro and Hank Aaron from time to time, when they'd be at the ballpark, and you always saw the high degree of respect they commanded. I always wondered how it was when they played -- was it different? You always hear the game is different now. I don¹t think the game is different -- I think the players probably are. But to be in that company, with those guys, is an honor.
It's going to mean even more to me when Tom Glavine and John Smoltz are there, too, because we did what we did together. We pushed one another to the next level, and you see them and know how they did it, how they succeeded. I think of that and the good times we had and the stupid things that happened. The times we spent in the clubhouse in [Candlestick Park] in San Francisco because [Braves manager] Bobby [Cox] didn't want the pitchers to be sitting out in the cold. It was special.
ChopTalk: Warren Spahn said, "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." How would you describe the art of pitching?
Maddux: I've always said pitching is locating your fastball and changing speeds. You have to figure out -- is it time to locate or time to change speeds? -- and you do that by using the information right in front of you. You look at the count, the hitter, how many outs. The information is available to you to make the decision, but you don't know if you're right until you execute the pitch.
ChopTalk: What did you enjoy most about playing baseball? Do you miss it?
Maddux: I enjoyed winning the most. I liked the games that ended, 1-0, 2-1, 3-2. I enjoyed pitching two more innings than I thought I could go, getting a hit, sliding, making a good defensive play. Thinking about throwing a pitch against a guy on Monday and making that pitch against him two days later, I really liked that! I'm not really missing it that much, and that's kind of scary! I loved hanging out with the pitchers in the video room a couple of days before a start. I miss tinkering with game plans and executing the game plan a couple days later.
It's easy to miss the card games on the plane. I loved the travel. There was always a poker game on the plane. You'd play golf one day on the East Coast, and the next week, you were playing golf on the West Coast. The longer you play, the more you're able to take advantage of the opportunities you're given. I always enjoyed the cities, but I was always ready to play.
When you're a young player, you're worried about getting better -- How much can I make? How long can I play? Smoltz was really good at making the most of his days. He taught me that you could enjoy more than baseball, but you had to pick your spots.
ChopTalk: What do you think of the Braves' pitching staff this year?
Maddux: I think they're good. I've watched Derek Lowe pitch a couple of times. He's a guy I really like to watch. He's a good pitcher, and it's not just what he does when he's pitching. It's the preparation I know he puts into it. When I'm watching baseball, it's more about watching certain guys, like Lowe, rather than a team. Jair Jurrjens is a good pitcher. I watched him a couple of times last season, and he's aggressive. Javier Vazquez is pitching well.
This article appears in ChopTalk magazine. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
