ESPN - Greg Maddux to announce retirement Monday

This guy is one of my all time favorite players. A thinking man's pitcher with unpeccable consistency. A true winner in every sense of the word. And with 355 wins, 4 Cy Young awards, 8 All-Star appearances and 18 (count them EIGHTEEN) Gold Glove Awards, an argument can be made that he is the best pitcher of his generation and among the top 5 all time.

I met Greg Maddux once. I am from Las Vegas - his hometown - and was working on a construction project adjacent to his home (it was actually the Sultan of Brunei's home at Spanish Trails). One morning we were all sitting outside about 6:00 am waiting for the gates to open and Greg came jogging into his house. He stopped and asked us about the project and was extremely gracious. I asked him if I could get an autograph from him on a baseball but that I would need to bring the ball the next morning. He told me to wait a minute while he went inside. About 2 minutes later he brought out a freshly signed official NL baseball and gave it to me - in a protective cube! I display it proudly to this day.

The game will miss him.

 

Such an awesome baseball player... Honestly, he will go down as one of the greatest ever. GUARANTEED first vote HOF. So consistent, so dominant...

To me, Maddux and Clemens defined their generation of pitchers. No one else in the era comes close.

 

Cool story. Maddux is great!

 

Truly a fantastic pitcher. His ability to change speeds combined with his amazing location made him a very difficult right hander to face. His fielding was unmatched as well. I loved to watch him work. HOF first time, no question. He contributed heavily to the game.

 

he was the only reason i liked baseball - no need to watch it anymore it was kinda sad to see him decline over the past few years and flipping teams so i think he's doing the right thing.

- chuck

 

I once saw Greg Maddux pitch a complete game against the Chicago Cubs in July of 1997. He threw 76 pitches.

'nough siad.

 

I was just about to post a reply along these lines. He very likely will be the last pitcher ever who consistently gets complete game wins with <95 pitches.

 

Agreed! I am still a fan of Clemens despite his "issues" though Maddox and his character stands taller!

 

Yeah Clemens is tainted, but to keep pitching at that level for all those years... Like I say about Bonds, steroids don't have the bat make contact with the ball. Same thing with Clemens - steroids aren't going to make you have more control or own the mind game as a pitcher.

 

I don't think the problem with people like Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Palmerio, Canseco, etc. is so much that they did steriods as much as how they vehemently DENIED doing steriods before being totally exposed. In America we can forgive almost anything. What we won't forgive is having our intelligence insulted. Case in point - Jason Giambi is still playing first base for the New York Yankees. Giambi never denied using steriods. He apologized and then refused to discuss it further. I strongly think that if any of the great ones that have fallen to grace over steriods had not bald-faced lied to the public, the backlash wouldn't have been what it was.

Being a dick doesn't help either. See, e.g., Barry Bonds.