Thanks for the memories Mad Dog.

All good things must come to an end and yesterday that was the case when Greg Maddux officially announced his retirement. Maddux got his first win with the Cubs in 1986 and 354 wins later retires as a first ballot Hall of Famer and arguably one of the greatest right handed pitcher in the history of the game. Don’t believe me? Check out some of these facts (courtesy of Bill Chuck at Dugout Central):

• Maddux faced a total of 20,421 batters and surrendered just 4,726 hits
• He averaged 1.80 walks per nine innings in his career
• Maddux had a career WHIP of 1.143
• Of the nine pitchers who have thrown 5,000+ innings, Maddux had a 3.37 K/BB ration, which is the best
• In 1997, Maddux had 19 wins and 20 walks!
• From 1992 to 1995 he won four straight Cy Young Awards and went 75-29 with a 1.98 ERA
• Of the nine pitchers who threw 5,000+ innings, only Grover Cleveland Alexander (208) had fewer losses than Maddux’s 227.

There are plenty more great facts about Maddux, but I think you get my point. He was the complete opposite of virtually every other pitcher in his era. When everyone was out there looking for pitchers who made radar guns pop and sizzle, Maddux relied on old school skills like movement, control, and smarts. I would challenge anyone out there to name a player in the last 40 years as smart and as calculating as Greg Maddux. How else can you explain how a guy who didn’t throw 95+ mph was able to strikeout 3,371 hitters? Maddux is to pitching what Ted Williams was to hitting.

During all the Maddux hoopla yesterday, I happened to hear an interview on ESPN with one of Maddux’s old pitching coaches, Leo Mazzone. He told a story of a game against Philadelphia in the early 90s and the conversation he had with Len Dykstra after the game. According to Mazzone, Dykstra hadn’t had much luck with Maddux and decided that the way to beat Maddux was to attack the first pitch that you saw. So the first two at-bats, Dykstra swung at the first pitch and both times the pitches were on the outside black of the plate and produced weak ground ball outs. So the third at-bat Dykstra decided to lay off that pitch. Maddux threw a batting practice fastball right down the center of the plate. Dykstra asked Mazzone “how in the hell did he know I was going to take that pitch?”. That was just the way Greg Maddux perfected his craft. I’m sure he had a mental scouting report consisting of 8-9 pages on every hitter in baseball.

I’m a die hard Cubs fan as many of you know and I got the pleasure of watching Maddux when he came up with the Cubs and watched him become the living legend that he is now. I was sad to see him leave in the winter of 1992 and I’ll forever be bitter towards Cubs management and Larry Himes for that one. If you check out what Maddux signed for in Atlanta, you’ll realize how stupid the Cubs were to not sign him. Just dumb. I was thrilled when he came back in 2004 and was very happy to see him get his 300th win in a Cubs uniform. It was just too bad that all of them weren’t in that uniform.

So thanks for all the memories Mad Dog. I doubt we’ll ever see a pitcher quite like you again. And I can say with the utmost certainty that you were the greatest pitcher that I ever had the pleasure of watching.

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