Greg Maddux

Don't know if this has been shared before and if it has I apologize, but this is a staggering statistic about Greg Maddux ...

He faced 20,421 batters during his career and only 310 saw a 3-0 count!

Of those, 177 were intentional walks!

Let that sink in ... 20,421 batters and only 133 times did he go to a 3-0 count ... WOW!

and 74 of those 133 were to set up the hitter for the next AB

Taking me back to the days when TBS covered all the Braves games. Maddux was a pleasure to watch pitch... games were 2 hours long, give or take a few minutes, because he just threw strikes. No matter how many times he threw it, that back-up fastball of his was close to un-hittable. And... his numbers are just ridiculous for any era, even though he pitched during the steroid era.

Being somewhat of an old fart. During my time here on earth, I have witnessed live, some of the best, including, Koufax, Gibson, Carlton, Ford, Marichal, Seaver, Sutton, Drysdale, and on and on, BUT never have seen anyone like Maddux. So damn business like. I compare him to a MASTER craftsman.

Doug

speaking of Maddux, I'm sure many of you have come across this recently...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axkik-8oFTs

You gotta watch until Maddux's last line, I was on the floor

Happened to catch some Giants games with Hack Wilson where we witnessed some cool history--notably, Greg Maddux (as a Cub) winning game 300 and Barry Bonds hitting home run 715.

A very cool memory, yes )

I remember once when Greg Maddux hit a batter and after they game they asked him what happened, he said something along the lines of the pitch "got away from him".

After hearing that the opposing manager said, "Greg Maddux never hits a spot he doesn't intend to hit". Point being, he hit the batter intentionally because his control was sooooooo good he didn't make mistakes.