Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux (born April 14, 1966, San Angelo, Texas, U.S.) is an American professional baseball player who was one of the game’s most successful pitchers, known for his accuracy and his ability to read opponents. He was the first pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards (1992–95).

From a young age Maddux and his older brother, Mike (who also became a major league pitcher), were drilled in the fundamentals of the game by their father. Greg earned all-state honours in both his junior and senior years as a pitcher for Valley High School in Las Vegas, and, upon his graduation in 1984, he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs of the National League (NL) and assigned to the minor league system.

Late in the 1986 season, Maddux, just 20 years old, was called up to the big leagues. His performance that season—two wins, four losses, and a 5.52 earned run average (ERA)—and the next (6–14, 5.61 ERA) was anything but masterful. Known as an overly emotional player who often taunted umpires and opposing hitters, Maddux, by his own later admission, was not a thinking pitcher but a “brain-dead heaver.” All that began to change, however, when he adjusted the mechanics of his delivery. In 1988 he won 15 of his first 18 decisions and finished 18–8 with a 3.18 ERA. In 1989, as the ace of the Chicago pitching staff when the Cubs won the East Division crown, he went 19–12 with a 2.95 ERA. The next two seasons, pitching for losing teams, he won 30 games and lost 26. In 1992, with a 20–11 record and a 2.18 ERA, Maddux won his first Cy Young Award. Although he did not have a blazing fastball or a devastating curve, he was able to dominate hitters by studying their tendencies and then baffling them with the amazing accuracy and varying speeds of his pitches.

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A contract dispute with the Cubs left him a free agent, and after the 1992 season he signed a five-year, $28 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. In his first three seasons with the Braves, he won the Cy Young Award each year while compiling a 55–18 record. In 1995 Maddux won a league-best 19 games while losing only 2, as he led the Braves to a World Series title. His league-leading ERA of 1.63, along with a 1994 mark of 1.57, made him the first pitcher since the legendary Walter (“Big Train”) Johnson in 1918–19 to post an ERA of less than 1.80 in consecutive seasons.

Prior to the 2004 season, Maddux again became a free agent and returned to the Cubs. On July 26, 2005, he recorded his 3,000th strikeout, becoming the 13th pitcher to achieve that feat. During the 2006 season he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and after that season he signed with the San Diego Padres. In 2007 Maddux won a record-setting 17th Gold Glove award, and he captured an 18th the following season. Also in 2008, after he was traded back to the Dodgers mid-season, Maddux became the ninth pitcher to win 350 games. He retired after the end of the 2008 season with 355 career wins, which made Maddux the second winningest pitcher in baseball’s “live-ball era” (the period that dates from the introduction of hitter-friendly rules in 1920).

Following his retirement, Maddux worked in the front offices of the Cubs and the Texas Rangers. In 2014 he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.