tribute to greg maddux

“Greg Maddux epitomizes everything you want in a professional, He’s extremely bright and aware of what’s going on.”He works on his game day after day, and he still loves to compete. You don’t get where he has without doing that. But having him around, that will be a good reminder for everyone of how it is done.” - Dusty Baker, Spring Training 2004

“He threw the ball excellent, changing speeds, good location, That was Greg Maddux right there. That was a big win for us.” - Dusty Baker, May 31 after a Cubs win. Maddux’s 293rd.

“It was special seeing those guys. I’m just glad Greg came out ahead,” - Dusty Baker, April 29, 2005 (Commenting on Maddux vs. Clemens)

“Greg gave us all he had, Usually he doesn’t get close to that 100-pitch mark. He was probably 10, 12 pitches over his limit. With the score the way it was, we took him as far as we could.  We have an understanding — he gives me a sign when he’s through. You could tell when he started walking people [in the seventh] that he was tiring. He doesn’t walk many guys.”  - Dusty Baker (May 10, 2005; Maddux win against Mets)

“I only remember this because it was earlier this year, I hit one back to him — and it wasn’t like it was floating back to him — and it went ‘thwack,’ but he caught it, right here [putting an imaginary glove next to his ear]. It was lucky he did. That ball was hit. He follows through and he’s in the perfect position.” - Craig Biggio (August 7, 2004)

“I’ve faced him 20 times too many. You get a good idea how much his ball moves by the swings guys are taking.” - Geoff Blum (April 11, 2007)

“He’s a very average guy, just a good guy. He’s got no ego problems at all. With his glasses he looks like Mr. Peepers, and he can walk down most of the streets in the National League and not be recognized.” - Skip Caray

“He doesn’t have the best fastball in baseball. You don’t gasp like you did when Gibson and Koufax pitched. He doesn’t have the best curveball. But he does have the best control in baseball, and I think he knows more about pitching.” - Skip Caray

“I know about it, I need to go catch up on what everybody was talking about, I don’t look at it on game day. You can maybe count them on one hand, future Hall of Famers, if you will, and for him to weather the storm and get to 300 also, I tip my cap to him. I enjoy watching him very much… When it’s all said and done, I get to say I not only pitched against one of the greats, but I played my career at the same time” - Roger Clemens (April 29, 2005, post game comments on his match up against Greg Maddux. Maddux picked up the win)

“Come on, it’s Greg Maddux! Everyone in this room knows what he’s done, and everyone knows where he’s going. If he’s not a Hall of Famer, there shouldn’t be a Hall of Fame. He’s done everything you can do in this game. But you look out there and you watch him and you see him paying attention to even the smallest details. When you’re around him for a while, you can really see why he’s been successful for as long as he has.” - Matt Clement, Spring Training 2004 (former teammate, Chicago)

“He’s amazing. What he’s done in his career is just really unbelievable.” - Bobby Cox

“He’s sneaky. He throws the ball right by guys who don’t think he can throw that hard. He’s one tough kid” - Former Cubs Catcher Jody Davis, 1989

“Maddux is so good, we all should be wearing tuxedos when he pitches” -Montreal Expo scout Phil Favia

“As a hitter, either he makes a mistake and you capitalize on it, or pretty much, he makes you look stupid.”  - Cliff Floyd (May 10, 2005)

“I think it’s just getting to be an increasingly difficult thing to do in the day and age we’re in now. More than anything else now, I think it’s just the offensive explosion. It’s so hard to stay in there and win games.”- Tom Glavine after Greg Maddux won his 299th game

“Sometimes, with Smoltzie, we would bite off more than we could chew. If it was a good day [for us], we were in trouble — that would get under [Maddux’s] skin, It’s kind of the same you see on the mound. Competitive, but calculating about what he does. Just kind of manages the course and manages the game.” - Tom Glavine, on playing golf with Greg.

“We gave him grief about everything. We always got on him about his physique, which is less than intimidating. How he’d dress sometimes. All that stuff. He was fair game, He played the game, and he gave it back. That was part of the great thing there, for the three of us to be able to be teammates as long as we were, to form a great friendship. Nowadays in baseball, that’s hard to do.” - Tom Glavine

“When I first met him and got to talking with him, the goofball side comes out, But once time goes on and you watch how he goes about his business, how he does his bullpens and then, once the season starts, his preparation for games, over time you get an appreciation for that. The down-to-earth side, the unassuming side of him, comes out much quicker than that. I don’t want to say he doesn’t know what he’s done. He just doesn’t have much regard for it. He just doesn’t really view himself being more special than anybody else.” - Tom Glavine

“It didn’t matter whether it was a game or a bullpen. If he wasn’t doing what he expected, he’d get pissed about it. And virtually everybody that was around would know it … I’ve seen the occasional ‘come in the dugout after a bad inning and break a bat into a thousand pieces, and then go back out and throw five or six shutout innings.’ It didn’t happen a lot. But that’s a characteristic that a lot of great pitchers have.” - Tom Glavine (August 7, 2004)

“You never feel like you’re getting a real good swing. He makes you hit his pitch, a pitch in his zone, not yours.” - Tony Gwynn

“He’s like a meticulous surgeon out there…he puts the ball where he wants to.  You see a pitch inside and wonder, ‘Is it the fastball or the cutter?’ That’s where he’s got you.” - Tony Gwynn

“If Greg has done something different or is thinking something different, or maybe changed a pitch or two, we’re not smart enough to figure it out, That’s what makes him so special. I’m sure he’s done things different that I’m sure he would choose to share with no one. What Greg brings to the table is not only performance but a mind-set that is — it’s incredible to watch” - Cubs GM Jim Hendry

I’m excited. He obviously has a lot of knowledge from working with Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz. I’m just excited to pick his brain. I don’t really know what the philosophy is, but I’m just excited to see how he can help me get better. Hopefully he can help paint those corners like Maddux did.” - Tim Hudson during an mlb.com chat session, commenting on pitching coach Leo Mazzone

“I grew up watching Maddux and Pedro (Martinez) pitch. I guess any small right-hander who was doing well in the Majors. That was always the hit on me — that I was a small right-hander. So I used to love watching them carve guys up and I tried to learn what I could from them on television.” - Tim Hudson during an mlb.com chat session, January 26, 2005

“He takes pitching to not only the next level but to where few people have ever gone before. I don’t think it’s fair to compare Greg Maddux to Christy Mathewson, but in this era, Greg Maddux is the best pitcher that’s played the game.” - Randy Johnson

“The first time I met him was 1997, my first big-league camp with the Braves. I walk in and I see this guy in an old raggedy beat-up T-shirt and jeans. Old tennis shoes with no shoestrings in them, with a dip in his upper lip, And I’m looking around and I ask somebody ‘What’s up with that guy?’ And he says ‘That’s Maddux,’ and I’m like ‘Nooooo.’ He looked like he was one of the batboys walking around.” - Former Teammate Ray King

“We were in Atlanta, and we have TVs in the bullpen so we can sit and watch the game, and I remember hitters jumping back and umpires calling strikes on the other side of the plate. I remember telling somebody, ‘That ain’t natural. How’s the ball moving that much?’ And then he throws two changeups in a row at 75 or 76, and all the sudden he throws a fastball at 86 and it looks like 106. That ain’t natural.” - Cardinals reliever Ray King (August 7, 2004)

“You know he can’t throw it by you, but he can still get you out. You’re just not living on the sweet spot of the bat when you’re facing him.” - Ray Lankford (August 7, 2004)

“I remember one time in Atlanta, I was in a bit of a slump, and I got a hit off him up the middle, and I’m feeling pretty good, and the next time up he hits me in the side. And he’s like ‘Man, I didn’t mean to hit you.’ But he knew what he was doing. He knew it. And it worked. I went right back into a slump after that.” - Ray Lankford

“With certain other pitchers, you can be aggressive. With Maddux, you can’t be aggressive. It’s almost like you have to act like you’re playing pepper with him.” - Ray Lankford (August 7, 2004)

“We were organizing an autograph show at the Oakland Coliseum [in November, 1994] to benefit the [Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue] foundation. The idea was to try to begin this healing process with the fans. We were going to invite these All-Stars to sign where they didn’t receive any money. I went out and called a bunch of guys, some I knew and some I didn’t. And Greg came. Willie Mays came. And George Brett. Reggie Jackson. When they showed up, we had to have security, because we had a hell of a turnout. Well, Maddux was due up to sign, and we kept asking, ‘Maddux is due, he goes on in a few minutes. Where’s Greg? Where’s Greg.’ And we turned around, and he’s there. He had come up, his glasses on, and he walked right through the crowd and nobody saw that it was Greg Maddux. He didn’t put on any airs. He was so natural.” - Tony La Russa

“He’s always ahead of hitters, and I’m not just talking count, It’s his thinking.” - Tony LaRussa (August 7, 2004)

“In Atlanta, you sit in the clubhouse and somebody charts the other guy’s pitches, and I was in there when [Maddux] was charting [former Braves pitcher John Burkett’s] pitches one night. I remember, it was Adam Dunn up to bat. And I remember Maddux saying, ‘If Burkie throws it in here, the worst thing that can happen is a bloop over the shortstop’s head.’ And, sure enough, Burkie throws a cutter in and — bloop — right over the shortstop’s head. I’m a young player, and I’m looking around like ‘What?’ But you talk to Chipper Jones, and he’ll tell you, when he was playing third, Maddux would always tell him ‘Heads up on this one’ and the next pitch, the guy would hit one right to him. Incredible.” - Former Teammate Jason Marquis (August 7, 2004)

“The thing that separates Greg from everybody else is that he is an intelligent student of baseball. And he understands the art of pitching completely, maybe better than anybody in the history of the game.” - Leo Mazzone

“He was a superstar before he got here, and the one thing we didn’t do was screw him up.” – Pitching coach Leo Mazzone

“He wouldn’t lay it out there, But he’d let them put something in play that he wouldn’t let them put in play in a crucial situation.” - Leo Mazzone

“I remember my first bullpen session with him. He was throwing the ball all over, and afterward he asks me, ‘So, what did you think of that?’ And I told him, ‘To be honest with you, I didn’t think it was very good.’ So he says, ‘Hmmm,’ and the next day he hits every target he threw at. Every one. The son of a gun was testing me.” - Leo Mazzone

“It’s talent. It’s a gift.”- Leo Mazzone (August 7, 2004)

“Don’t let anyone change his mechanics.” - Rusty Medar

“I coin the phrase, Greg Maddux could put a baseball through a life saver if you asked him!” -Joe Morgan

It’s just amazing what he does because he’s not throwing 94, 93 mph, You watch Greg Maddux, that’s an art.” - Juan Pierre (April 23, 2006)”

“I’ve seen him all too many times from the other side, The guy’s just amazing, you know what I mean?” - Juan Pierre

“He doesn’t throw as hard as he used to throw when he started his career, but he’s finding a way to get some guys out in front. He makes a good pitch to get out of a jam. That’s the only way you can do it. You can’t survive 17 years in this game throwing the same stuff. That guy is smart, and that’s why he’s a future Hall of Famer.” - Albert Pujols (August 11, 2005)

“Typical Greg Maddux . I thought it would have been nice to get a run across in the first inning. Greg’s one of those savvy type of pitchers that when you think you have him in the hole, that’s when he takes a little bit off. Once he settles in he’s real tough.”  - Mets manager Willie Randolph (May 10, 2005)

“He’s on top of everything that happens on the field. He might be sitting on the bench and shooting the bull, but he’s watching hitters. They say managers manage three innings ahead. Well, he pitches three innings ahead.” - Merv Rettenmund

“Every pitch has a purpose. Sometimes he knows what he’s going to throw two pitches ahead.  I swear, he makes it look like guys are swinging foam bats against him.” -John Smoltz