The Retiring Kind

Greg Maddux shut it down today with 355 wins, and this will let loose with the obvious First Ballot Hall of Fame talk, along with the usual rattling of statistics. But I'd like to go a little more visceral than that, simply because the numbers will always be there for us, but the sense of what he was actually like won't.

Maddux personified intelligence and control. In an era where bigger was always better and more and more of the game seemed to be about getting a guy who could throw the ball in the high 90s as often as possible, Maddux was never that guy. Instead, he just worked the plate, fielded his position flawlessly, almost never missed a start and almost always limited the damage.

In his glory years, he might have been the best pitcher there ever was, at least in terms of control. Others were more dominant, especially Roger Clemens, but unlike the disgraced Rocket, Maddux never sold his sold or tainted his legacy with the juice.

The only real flaw to Maddux's game is his playoff record. His Braves teams were there every year, but there might be something to the idea that when the hitter treated the at-bat as if it were life and death, most of Maddux's freakish concentration advantage dissipated. He leaves with just one World Series ring; had that number been five or so, he might be leaving as not just a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but maybe with an argument as the best that was ever been.

For all of his accomplishments, Maddux added one more small but telling feature: he was, by all accounts, a great teammate. You don't wander MLB for the back third of his career, with stops back in Chicago, LA and San Diego, without being easy to get along. He also clearly didn't take himself too seriously, and that, more than anything else, probably contributed to the absurd number of Gold Glove awards. In an era of larger-than-life stars, Maddux looked and acted like a regular guy or better, despite the money, despite the numbers.

We will not see his like again. Oh, and he made a great ad, too.



(And if you really want to be the Grinch about it, you can just go for the idea that Mad Dog likes the long green, and with the recession killing any number of big dollar teams, he probably wasn't going to make it this year. If the man really wanted to get to 400, I think he could have. But there's something to be said for getting out on your own terms.)