Posted on Sun, May. 18, 2008

IN MY OPINION

Doing it the right way

Pitcher proved you don't need enhancements to succeed, only control

STAN OLSON

AP

San Diego Padres pitcher Greg Maddux throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Saturday, May 10, 2008 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

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It's clear now, perfectly clear, as hindsight always is: Gregory Alan Maddux is the best pitcher of our generation, the best that most of us have ever seen.

Maddux is 42 now, and recently won his 350th game.

He won every single one of them the right way, as opposed to Roger Clemens, who suddenly got better as he got older, thanks to performance-enhancing drugs, according to Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report.

You never had to worry about that with Maddux, whom I covered occasionally when he was an Atlanta Brave. Many days when he wasn't pitching, his conditioning program was 18 holes. Without his shirt on he looked doughy, and the glasses he sometimes wore away from the field seemed to turn him invisible when he wasn't pitching.

I never saw his fastball top 90 mph, and more often he peaked at 86 or 87. Now it sputters in the low 80s, and yet he soldiers on.

Soon Maddux will pass Clemens, he of the shattered reputation and 354 dubious wins, and then Maddux will have more victories than all but five pitchers who worked within the past century (those five are listed at the end of this column).

He has earned every one of them by pitching, not by simply firing juiced-up fastballs like so many others of his generation. Maddux would hit the inside corner, then the outside, then come back in on you again, just catching that last inch of home plate. He would change speeds, take a little off, until that 86 mph fastball you weren't expecting looked like 96.

As a batter, whatever you were expecting, you almost always got something else.

He mastered all areas of his craft, winning a record 17 Gold Gloves for his fielding (he leads all positions) and leading the NL in sacrifice bunts five times.

From 1992 through '95, Maddux won the National League's Cy Young award every year. His ERAs during that stretch were 2.18, 2.36, 1.56 and 1.63. His record for the period was 75-29.

Maddux hasn't pitched for Atlanta since 2003, but he will always be remembered as a Brave by many. His career ERA is 3.12, but his mark in 11 seasons with Atlanta was 2.63. And his winning percentage there was a franchise-record .688 (194-88).

While he will finish his career with just two 20-win seasons, he won 19 games five other times. In each of those years, he left several games with a lead after six or seven innings only to watch Atlanta's bullpen give them away.

Had Maddux been in a little better physical shape, it's possible he could have finished some of those games himself, and might be at 375 wins now. I remember several occasions when he was removed after, say, six innings and 82 pitches or so on a hot day, only to tell us afterward, "I was done."

Maddux, though, came to believe in conditioning, which is why he remains effective at 42. Not ridiculously effective, à la Clemens or Barry Bonds, but a quality major league pitcher who can still win more with brains and guile than talent.

Last season, he managed to go 14-11 for the Padres, and reached 15 victories in 18 seasons.

For that, in this age when most of our recent records were almost certainly chemically enhanced, we salute him. Because unlike many others, Maddux always did it the right way.

CAREER WINS BY 20TH-CENTURY PITCHERS: Cy Young (511), Walter Johnson (417), Grover Cleveland Alexander and Christy Mathewson (373), Walter Spahn (363). IN MY OPINION

Home of the Brave

In Maddux' 11 years with Atlanta, he climbed high in the record books of the franchise that also played in Boston and Milwaukee. His most notable achievements, and his Braves' ranking: