Maddux had no idea about stat named after him
Greg Maddux, the four-time Cy Young award winner inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014, carried a truly dizzying collection of stats and feats with him into Cooperstown.
From 1992-1998, for instance, he only posted an ERA above 2.36 once, never throwing less than 202 innings per season. In 1995, his third season with the Atlanta Braves, he put up a 0.81 WHIP, the sixth-lowest ever by a qualified pitcher. Two years later, Maddux struck out 8.85 batters for every one he walked, giving him the seventh-best single-season K/BB ratio of all time.
On top of all that, Maddux also hurled a complete-game shutout without needing more than 99 pitches - a nearly unthinkable melange of dominance and efficiency - a whopping 13 times in the big leagues. For Maddux, these performances were so common that Jason Lukehart, a baseball writer with an affinity for the Professor, decided a few years ago to name the feat itself - a shutout requiring less than 100 pitches - after the cerebral right-hander.
Well, with concern over pitch counts pervading the sport in recent years, the concept of "The Maddux" caught on, and the term is now very much a part of the vernacular for baseball writers and fans alike.
Until recently, though, Maddux - now the pitching coach at UNLV - wasn't aware of the stat he inspired, and was only apprised of "The Maddux" when he sat down for a recent interview with MLB.com's Joe Posnanski.
"Fewer than 100 pitches, huh?" he asked. "OK."
Maddux leaders, all time
| Player | #Matching | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greg Maddux | 13 | April 29, 1990 | Sept. 13, 2000 |
| Zane Smith | 7 | Sept. 5, 1990 | Aug. 11, 1994 |
| Bob Tewksbury | 6 | Sept. 19, 1989 | Aug. 27, 1997 |
| Don Newcombe | 6 | May 22, 1949 | May 8, 1956 |
| Sandy Koufax | 5 | July 7, 1963 | July 5, 1964 |
| Tom Glavine | 5 | June 5, 1989 | Sept. 25, 2000 |
| Don Drysdale | 5 | July 1, 1957 | June 11, 1964" |
Interestingly, no active pitcher has recorded five career Madduxes - James Shields, Bartolo Colon, and Henderson Alvarez have four apiece - and there were only two Madduxes thrown in 2016, a possible consequence of increased concerns over pitch counts and/or reliever specialization. The former never impacted Maddux's approach, for the record.
"I never worried about pitch count," Maddux said. "The only thing that mattered to me was getting the 'W.' That's what I was out there trying to do. I didn't think about how many pitches - I threw however many it took."