Greg Maddux: A Master Retires

Because of less important things, like Rod Blagojevich’s arrest, the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates to just about zero, and similar matters, I have not been able to get to the most significant event of the last two weeks, the thing that I really wanted to write about: Greg Maddux’s retirement.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to see Greg Maddux pitch a number of times. The first time was in 1988 (even though he came up two years before that). The last time was in October of this year. I saw his last game with the Cubs – twice, on September 30, 1992 and July 29, 2006. I also saw his last games in Wrigley Field with the Braves (October 3, 2003; it was also his last game with the Braves), the Padres (May 15 of this year) and the Dodgers (October 1 of this year).

The October 3, 2003 game was the third game of the NL Division Series. The newspapers billed it as "Cy Young" (Mark Prior) versus "Cy Old" (Greg Maddux). The Cubs won the game, 3 to 1, largely because a brief shower just before the game started made the infield so slick that the Braves first baseman slipped on an infield grounder in the first inning. Ultimately, two runs scored because of that slip. Without that slip, who knows who would have won the game – or the series. (A side note. After that game "Cy Old" won 66 more games; "Cy Young" won 18, only one of them in the last three years.)

Many people have talked about watching Greg Maddux. Somebody from the Braves (it may have been Leo Mazzone, I’m not sure) said that Maddux was so masterful you felt like you should wear a tuxedo to watch him pitch. When he was with the Braves, I would sometimes watch their games on TV just to see him. When he was with the Cubs, I would make sure I got to the park early enough so I could watch him warm up. I read somewhere that when Maddux warmed up, most of his throws would be from the stretch, instead of using a full windup. When he was asked why, he said because you make most of your really important pitches from the stretch – because that is how you pitch when runners are on base.

Gene Wojciechowski wrote in Cubs Nation that, in 2004, when Maddux was back with the Cubs, he apologized to umpires for the actions of some of his teammates. Maddux understood that it wasn’t necessary to treat the umpires like jerks. He also understood that it wasn’t smart.

But mostly it was the games, whether it was the complete game shutout he threw in his last game with the Cubs in 1992 or the six-plus innings he threw on July 29, 2006, just before he was traded to the Dodgers. Or maybe it was just a game my kids and I saw in Milwaukee in 2005. Maddux pitched six innings, giving up three runs. Michael Wuertz walked two batters in the seventh, but Mike Remlinger got out of the jam. Remlinger gave up a run in the bottom of the eighth on a double and a single, to cut the lead to 5 to 4, but Ryan Dempster came in to get a double play to end the inning and then set the Brewers down 1-2-3 in the ninth. A Cubs win, seeing Maddux pitch, and a great save by Dempster. It was a wonderful hour and 45-minute drive home.

Finally, it was the scoreless inning of relief he threw in the first game of the playoffs this year. It was sort of unfortunate. He had gotten a lot of applause (more than some Cubs players) when they introduced the players before the game. But when he came in to pitch the ninth, while I was glad to see him, but I couldn’t applaud. It was a playoff game, after all.

One more thought, also from 2005. When Matt Murton came up from Double A West Tenn in July, he would sit next to Maddux in the dugout, even though Maddux was a pitcher and Murton was a hitter (often pitchers and hitters don’t mix; they do, after all, belong to different castes) because Murton knew how much he could learn by just listening to Greg Maddux.

And so, Greg Maddux has retired. I am glad I got to see him play, and I am glad he was a Cub as long as he was – even if it wasn’t as long as it should have been.