I got to see him pitch *against* the Dodgers in San Diego a couple of years ago.  My wife took some photos of him, and the coolest thing was, you could overlay image after image of him coming out of his windup, and there wasn’t the slightest difference between them.

I’m glad to say I saw him in person.

I’m a Braves fan from the land down under.  Back in the early 90’s the only baseball we got here was one game a week, shown around 2AM, the occasional highlights on a weekly sports show and delayed broadcasts of the LCS and world series.  I chose the Braves over the Twins for no good reason and then spent the next dozen or so years going without sleep to see Glavine, Smoltz (and then Maddux) almost do it every year.  The year cable came to my city, Maddux went to Chicago and the Braves went in search of mediocrity.

Watching those amazing braves pitchers, led by the incomparable Maddux,  has given me a great love of your game (not to mention grief from my wife ...“Not another baseball book!”).

Farewell to a great champion who helped spread the game to far corners of the globe with class, skill and a kind of modesty that other ‘legends’ of his era somehow failed to show.

If the HoF voters don’t get him in 100% first year then they should give up their voting rights.

In a mostly self-indulgent email to my friends earlier this year, I re-capped my Top 20 Yankee Stadium memories. One entry was summed up very tidy:

7/2/97 http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1997/B07020NYA1997.htm
Greg Maddux. Complete game shutout. 2:09. It was impressive.

For the record, not all of my Top 20 were gems. In fact the next Yankee Stadium game I highlighted was this clunker:

9/5/97 http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1997/B09050NYA1997.htm
Hideki Irabu. 5-1/3, 9 runs. 4:22 (the longest 9 inning game in history (at least at the time)). It was not impressive.

I read that he’s announcing at the meetings at the Bellagio (Maddux lives in Vegas) so it may be a literal line of actual baseball GMs.

So long, Mr. Maddux. We’re already missing you. Please go be a pitching coach somewhere.

I only saw Maddux pitch twice, and not until after I moved out here to Milwaukee in 2005. I saw him pitch for the Dodgers exactly one month after you, Craig, on Sept 4, 2006, and then again in 2007, pitching for the Padres on Sept 28.

They were not pretty games. He gave up 6 runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 in that first game, and 3 runs and 6 hits in 5 innings for the Padres. That Padres game was big, though. They were fighting the Rockies’ hot streak in the last weekend of the season that game, and they needed to keep winning to force that playoff game (the back-breaking Tony Gwynn Jr. game-winning basehit off Hoffman in the 11th was the next day). It also was the last chance for the Brewers to get into the playoffs that year. So even though he no longer had his 1995 stuff (1.63 ERA!!!), he still knew how to bring it when he needed to. It was a disappointing day as a Brewer fan, but it was nice to see Maddux still doing what it took.

I remember when my childhood hero, Cal Ripken, retired. It felt weird even though it was expected for a long time. Of course, he had a 6-month long retirement tour, and I made the trips up and down the California coast once or twice to take part in that, so it wasn’t quite as sudden as Maddux (the Angels gave out “tickets” commemorating his final games in Anaheim). Still, I know the feeling. (and Mussina was my second favorite player growing up, so I’m even seeing it somewhat this offseason too).

All we can do, though, is think back on that amazing career and realize just how lucky we were to be a part of it, even if we were only able to see him in the late stages of his career. It’ll be a while before we see someone with Maddux’s abilities to win, to shut down the offense, to keep players hacking, to finish games quickly, and all while hardly ever walking someone.

It’s a selfish desire, but I hope the sports networks executives are in that line as well - he would probably make a fascinating analyst.

Like the first poster, I’ve seen Maddux beat the Phillies live more times than I care to count.  That being said, he’s probably my favorite non-Phillies pitcher of all time.

He had tremendous talent, but it always looked like he was getting by on guts and guile.  How many times have we looked in the dugout at Maddux wearing his glasses and thought, “That could be me?”  I know I’ll never be a beast like Clemens or have the athletic body of Pedro Martinez, but Maddux looked like another schlub on the street who was probably a bit nerdy.  That’s me!  I could be a multiple-time Cy Young award winner!

The other great thing is that despite his conservative appearance, apparently Maddux had a fairly bawdy sense of humor.  He’ll be missed.

Maddux is probably my favorite non-Met of all time, and my dad’s favorite current player. I saw him pitch once, in 2005, when he was on the Cubs. Jae Seo outdueled him in a 1-0 game at Shea. I was pumped that the Mets won, my dad was bummed that Maddux lost when he really pitched a great game. Knowing how 05 and Jae Seo turned out, I’m kinda bummed now too.

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