Today is birthday #42 for former Braves’ pitcher Greg Maddux. Yesterday I watched him get career win 349 and watched in amazement at how smart of a pitcher he is. So with Greg’s awesomeness in my mind, and since it’s his birthday, I figured I’d share my Greg Maddux story.

It was 1996, the last year the Braves were in Fulton County Stadium. I was 18 years old. I had made the trip to Atlanta with a couple of friends and was watching Maddux pitch his regular bullpen session. In the old stadium, you could get really close to the pitchers in the bullpen, and I think I was about 15-20 feet from Maddux.

Some fat idiot was standing beside me and began talking very loudly about how awful it was that Maddux’s career had fallen apart. See, Maddux had a rough start to that year. He had an excellent ERA, but was getting on average about 2 runs per game support from the team. Smoltz, on the other hand, was getting about 5 runs per game. Apparently, the 2.72 ERA Maddux posted in 1996 meant that his career was over.

The guy wouldn’t shut up about it, and it really got me aggravated. I piped up and told the guy he was crazy. I told him that we were watching one of the smartest pitchers in the game. I pointed out how Maddux’s change of speed and location control dominates batters even though he doesn’t have overpowering stuff. I told the guy that even though Smoltz was having a good year, Maddux was still the better pitcher, and that he shouldn’t judge Greg by a win/loss record - especially when his team isn’t giving him any run support.

I went on and on (kind of like I’m doing now). I don’t remember all that I said, but I really gave the guy an earful. The guy finally shut up and walked away as Maddux was finishing his bullpen session. Greg made his final pitch, stepped off the mound to grab a towel. Then he looked up at me, smiled, and tipped his cap as if to say thanks for the support.

Hopefully in about a week, Maddux will win game #350. You can bet I’ll be watching that game. This week I found some links online talking about Greg. See here and here. The first is substantially longer than the second, but it’s about the best article on Maddux I’ve ever read.

Happy birthday, Greg! (Yes, Greg reads my blog…you doubted?)