
Greg Maddux pitched in 23 major-league seasons, collected four Cy Young Awards and won 355 games, none of which were played in anything close to an empty stadium. So what does the legendary former Braves pitcher think about Major League Baseball’s intention of playing games without fans in the ballparks because of the coronavirus pandemic that already delayed the season by two months?
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“Yeah, I’d watch it on TV,” Maddux said on the phone from his home in Las Vegas, where the Hall of Famer spent part of his time during the past four years as a volunteer pitching coach at UNLV while his son, Chase, pitched for the Rebels.
Chase, 23, had his senior season ended abruptly in February when the COVID-19 outbreak led to the shutdown of most amateur and professional sports around the world including baseball at every level.
“We got banged for the quarantine,” Greg Maddux said of the collegiate season. “I was about an hour away from getting on the plane to go play in Santa Barbara. They called and said, ‘Hey, you don’t have to worry about going to the airport; they canceled the games.’ We were just starting to get better, too.
“I had two pitchers, too, that I thought had a chance to get drafted. I wonder how it’s going to affect them?”
The upcoming draft has been reduced drastically to just five rounds. Maddux said his son, who improved a lot as a senior and was named to the Mountain West all-conference team, wasn’t expected to be picked even if it had been the customary 40-round draft.
But spring-sport athletes were granted an extra year of eligibility, and Chase, who graduated, plans to return to pitch next season while working on a master’s degree in hospitality.
Maddux won’t return to coach but is thankful for the years he got to spend with his son at UNLV.
“Yes, that was one of the reasons why I did it,” Maddux said of the UNLV coaching position. “Also, I was doing some of the pro stuff and traveling a couple of times each month, and I was kind of getting burned out on the travel.”
Maddux pitched through age 42, retired after the 2008 season, then spent seven years as a special assistant — first with the Chicago Cubs, later the Texas Rangers — his brother, Mike, was the Rangers’ pitching coach — and finally with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016, the same year he took the UNLV position. Maddux is a longtime Las Vegas resident who grew up there and raised his two kids there with wife, Kathy.
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“I was kind of looking for something local to do, and sure enough (Chase) called and asked me, ‘Hey, our coach just got fired; now our pitching coach is our manager. We don’t have a pitching coach,’” Maddux said. “He asked me if I’d volunteer. So I said, ‘Yeah, I’m in.’ Then he went in and asked the coach, ‘Hey, can I get my dad to coach?” And he said, ‘Fuck, yeah.’ So that was kind of how I did that.
“But it was fun. I’ve been there for four years. Kind of enjoy it. I enjoy the baseball part of it. The politics are messed up, but the baseball is good.”
Maddux was asked about being able to coach his son in college, a unique opportunity that few former big leaguers ever had. Pretty cool?
“Yeah,” Maddux said, then laughed before adding, “Plus I could take him out of games. ‘Nah, taking you out. You had enough. Let the bullpen lose it, I know you’re going to give up five this inning.’”
When it was mentioned that Maddux and Maddux must’ve made for some interesting mound conferences, Greg laughed again and said, “Yeah, we had some good ones. I’d go out there and tell him mom jokes. He wouldn’t like it.”
Maddux began his pitching career with the Cubs, finished with the Dodgers and pitched two seasons with San Diego. But it was with the Braves that he had his most success and longevity. He spent nearly half of his career (11 seasons) in Atlanta and collected 194 wins and three consecutive Cy Young Awards with the Braves from 1993 to 1995 after winning his first Cy with the Cubs in 1992.
He had consecutive 20-win seasons before getting 16 wins in just 25 starts in 1994 and going 19-2 in 28 starts in 1995. If the 1994 and 1995 seasons had not been shortened by the strike, Maddux might have had 20 or more wins in four consecutive seasons.
During that remarkable stretch during 1992-1995, he went 75-29 with a 1.98 ERA and 0.953 WHIP, allowing just 33 homers and 176 walks in 946 2/3 innings, including back-to-back seasons with 268 innings and 267 innings before the strike years.
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Maddux had a reputation as not only one of the most cerebral, analytical pitchers in the game but also for having one of the crudest senses of humor. He doesn’t dispute the part about the sick sense of humor but insists the reputation for outwitting opponents was a bit overblown and that some stories have become exaggerated through the years.
“Yeah, the older you get, the better it was,” he said with amusement.
One story that has been told by others who were there for it was the time that venerable Braves manager Bobby Cox visited Maddux on the mound with two outs and runners at second and third and suggested that Maddux intentionally walk the batter. As the story goes, Maddux told Cox not to worry, that on the third pitch he was going to get the hitter to pop out foul to third base.
Maddux indeed got the hitter to pop out to third base on the third pitch, albeit a couple of feet from being foul.
When asked recently about that incident, Maddux said, “I know the story you’re talking about. The way I remember the story was, Bobby asked me if I wanted to walk (the batter) or pitch to him. And I said, ‘Give me two or three pitches to see if I can pop him up.’ And then you kind of pitch around the guy, and if he wants to get himself out, you give him that chance.
“It was kind of that situation right there, where I threw a pitch chest-high down the middle, and he did pop it up instead of not swing at it. I can’t remember who the hitter was. But yeah, I remember the story.”
So, it wasn’t a myth, despite Maddux trying to downplay key elements. He does that a lot and would prefer not to elaborate much on his remarkable pitching career.
During the past several years, Maddux, has been immersed in the college game and his UNLV pitchers and hasn’t paid as close attention to the major leagues as before. But with time on his hands again and with MLB hoping to start a truncated season sometime around July 4, Maddux is interested.
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He’s at least interested enough to turn on his TV after spending the day on a golf course in Las Vegas or California, where he has a home at Dana Point, midway between L.A. and San Diego.
Former Braves catcher Pocoroba dead at 66
Former Braves catcher Biff Pocoroba has died at 66, family members announced on Facebook. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Pocoroba spent parts of 10 seasons (1975-1984) in the majors, all with Atlanta, where he was one of the most popular players on mostly bad Braves teams that were shown nationally on team owner Ted Turner’s TBS Superstation.
The California native had his best season in 1977 at age 23, when he hit .290 with eight home runs and an .840 OPS in a career-high 113 games. After making the All-Star team in 1978, he hurt a shoulder in August and never regained a starting job.
He was a backup catcher and pinch hitter most of his career and made 20 starts at third base in 1981 when Bob Horner was injured.
Pocoroba was a 17th-round pick by the Braves in 1971 out of Canoga Park (Calif.) High School.
(Photo of Greg Maddux: Alex Trautwig / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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