白兔窩

用勇士隊的球衣照片來開頭
因為
我總覺得 Greg Maddux 是勇士隊的代表

如果說 Mike Mussina 的退休是棒壇的大事情
那瘋狗 Greg Maddux 的退休
我想
Mike Mussina 的退休相比起來是微不足道的一件事情
如果說 Mike Mussina 是一位偉大的投手
那麼
瘋狗 Greg Maddux 可以稱做是當今現役最偉大的投手了
瘋狗 Greg Maddux 是現今我最喜歡的投手
現今的王建民也不過是他的1/100成就而已
Greg Maddux 到底有多偉大？
如果我們今天來投下『當今現役最偉大的投手』票選的話
而且
不有任何私心
我想
Greg Maddux 或許可以獲得5成以上的選票
講了那麼多
還是又要問再問
那 Greg Maddux 到底有多偉大？

剛出道還是rookie 的Greg Maddux
出身於芝加哥小熊隊
身材還屬於瘦長型
留了個小鬍子
但是最令人津津樂道的倒是在亞特蘭大勇士隊的時刻
與Tom Glaveine、John Smoltz組成了勇士隊的三巨頭的時光

到底有多偉大
來看看生涯的數據就知道了！
4次賽揚獎
18次金手套獎
8次明星賽
生涯355勝227敗
歷史排名第8名
投球局數超過5000局
（王建民到現在也不過628局）
3371次的三振記錄
歷史排名第10名
但是
大家要知道Greg Maddux 並非以球速見長
而是以精準的控球加上超犀利的滑球二縫線速球&圈指變速球在吃飯
還可以排到第8名真的可稱他為『神』了
平均5局才1個BB
難怪被大家稱為 『棒球教科書』

Greg Maddux & Tom Glaveine

2003年離開勇士隊 重回小熊隊的3年時光

控球大師謝幕 老麥退休

 更新日期:2008/12/06 15:20 記者陳宛晶/綜合報導

繼穆西納之後，大聯盟又一位未來名人堂級巨投決定褪去戰袍，有著「控球大師」之稱42歲麥道斯要退休了！23年大聯盟生涯留下355勝227敗、四座塞揚獎、18次金手套、8度入選明星賽。

麥道斯的退休消息來自於經紀人波拉斯的辦公室，美國時間周一下午2點30分，老麥將在冬季會議上宣布退休，他的家人也會陪同出席。

波拉斯上個月已表示，「懷疑老麥可能不會有2009年球季。」道奇方面也一直在等待回覆，經理柯列堤希望他能繼續效力，但最終老麥仍選擇高掛球衣，回到老家陪伴家人。

素以控球精準著稱的麥道斯，生涯送出3371次三振、999次保送，他是史上第二個達到生涯3000K以上、1000保送以下的球員。另一人是加拿大籍黑人投手詹金斯，已在1991年獲選進入名人堂。

由於身材瘦弱，原本麥道斯並不被看好，但他憑著智慧型投球闖盪大聯盟，他追求速球精準進入好球帶，不強求催速，是他站穩大聯盟且長年保持健康的主因。

麥道斯職業生涯最輝煌的時刻，要屬1993到2003年效力勇士時，年年為球隊貢獻兩位數勝投，他也在1995年嚐到世界大賽冠軍滋味，與史摩茲、葛拉文並稱90年代勇士三巨投。

麥道斯的職業生涯從小熊起步，也曾披過教士、道奇球衣，皆有出色戰績，締造連續20個球季至少都是13勝起跳。今年是他自1987年來首度未達兩位數勝投，僅繳出8勝13負、防禦率4.22。

麥道斯在今年球季中從教士轉戰道奇，也意外成就職業生涯最後一年還能參與季後賽，雖然擠不上先發輪值，但總計三場救援演出4局防禦率0.00，也獲總教練托瑞稱讚，不管是先發還是救援，都能稱職完成球隊的要求。

生涯最後一場先發同樣也是完美演出，他在9月28日對巨人時，只用47球就投完6局，僅被敲出2支安打失1分，那也是他的生涯第355勝，超越「火箭人」克萊門斯，獨佔生涯勝投榜第八名。

2006年季中轉往洛杉磯道奇隊 但季末後再轉往聖地牙哥教士隊

Maddux's career ends, legend begins
Righty wins 355 games with unparalleled knowledge of baseball

By Tom Singer / MLB.com

Baseball's Winter Meetings, that annual conclave at which teams singly aim for additions, this time began with a big collective subtraction.

Greg Maddux, the biggest winner of his generation and among the most storied pitchers of all the generations, the MENSA of the mound, officially announced his retirement Monday morning at the Bellagio Hotel, the Meetings' headquarters.

So this is where Maddux's career ends, and his legend begins.

"I'm just here to say thank you to everyone in baseball," Maddux said with typical humility. "From the teams I played for, to my teammates, to the clubbies.

"I appreciate everything the game has given me and my family. I hope I've given back, and played the game the way I'd want my teammates to play it."

And with that, a career described by his agent, Scott Boras, simply as "a remarkable accomplishment," was over.

Maddux had known the day was coming for a long time. "I decided two years ago [to retire], then we decided to play one more year," he said.

"We" included the family, which joined Monday's low-key send-off: wife Kathy, kids Chase and Paige, siblings Terry and Mike, parents Dave and Linda.

"I knew two months ago. But I didn't want the big dog-and-pony show," said Maddux, characterizing the proverbial farewell tour. "It's hard to walk away. But it's time."

He draws the shades on 355 wins, the most by a right-hander since Walter Johnson, who won the last of his 417 in 1927. He leaves with fewer than a thousand walks and more than 3,000 strikeouts, the only 300-game winner among the five men who've ever pitched to that spread. And he leaves a legacy of unrivaled consistency.

Maddux kept untangled an increasingly complicated art form. He was an original member of KISS, the Keep It Simple Stupid band, breaking the challenge down to basics.

"I try to do two things: locate my fastball and change speeds," he would say, typically with a light shrug. "That's it."

He never grew up, retaining that eternal inside little boy baseball requires. He was the Peter Pan of the diamond. Just as Dick Clark fostered that reputation as the world's oldest teen-ager, Maddux was baseball's oldest adolescent, never taking himself too seriously.

When he became the first pitcher to win 10-plus for the 20th straight season to break a record held by Cy Young, Maddux reacted with, "I didn't know that. That's cool."

He would have the same dismissive reaction to any unprecedented feat, such as when he and Aaron Cook started and starred in the first game to remain scoreless through nine innings in high-altitude Coors Field -- on Sept. 14, in the third-to-last of Maddux's 740 starts, as good a testament as any to his lifelong dependability.

The formal good-bye of the 42-year-old right-hander was not unexpected. A month ago, Boras had disclosed his intent to retire, time and place to be determined.

Thus baseball made a pilgrimage to Maddux's hometown to bid him farewell. The time, the place and the symbolism will all be perfect.

For the game has worshipped at his quick feet, marveled at his feats and been amused by that tongue sticking out under the askew cap for 23 seasons, since Maddux's moralistic debut with the Chicago Cubs.

Moralistic? He went 2-4 that September 1986 as a 20-year-old, then 6-14 in his first full season the next year. And wouldn't have another losing season until on the approach to his 40th birthday. So the moral was, invest in your pitching education, without the distraction of instant gratification. The payoff will come.

"The best way to learn and get better is to screw up," he said Monday, "and not do it again."

When the results kicked in, they were spectacular. The core of his career -- between that internship and the nomadic twilight actually distorted by ill support -- was as brilliant as there ever was.

From 1988 through mid-2005, Maddux went 304-160, spicing the bland routine of never winning fewer than 15 with some spectacular peaks. He launched an unprecedented streak of four straight Cy Young Awards with his only two 20-win seasons in 1992-93 -- and, incredibly, kept pitching at that level even after getting knocked off the Cy throne by Randy Johnson's own four-peat.

From 1992 through 2000, a nine-year span which partially paralleled baseball's evolution into an offense-dominated game, Maddux bucked the tide by going 155-71 with an ERA of 2.40. While the McGwires and Sosas were leading the long-ball abuse of other pitchers, Maddux was surrendering an average of 11 homers in those years.

Like grand masters leaning over actual chess boards, Maddux was always several moves ahead on baseball's virtual squares. That set him up for always making the appropriate pitch to the ideal location, and with it getting the predictable result.

"Greg Maddux could put a baseball through a life saver if you asked him," said Joe Morgan, who completed his Hall of Fame career as a second baseman before Maddux hit the scene, but has admired him from the ESPN broadcast booth.

Leo Mazzone, the pitching coach throughout Maddux's entire 1993-2003 ride with the Atlanta Braves, called him "the smartest pitcher I've ever seen."

"He's the greatest pitcher I've ever seen," Mazzone elaborated. "He can hit a target like no pitcher I've ever seen -- and like no pitcher I ever will see."

Twelve times, Maddux worked 200-plus innings while issuing fewer than 35 unintentional walks. As he got older, his control got better, going from merely fantastic to stupefying, as he began throwing with time-fed confidence.

Of his 822 career unintentional walks, more than half (430) came in his first seven seasons, meaning in the last 15 years and 3,299 innings, he issued a total of 392 walks.

Phenomenal.

Merely looking at such numbers gives one the chills. Imagine what it felt like to watch his poetry in motion.

"You watch Greg Maddux, that's an art," said Juan Pierre, a latter-day teammate of his with the '06 Cubs and the '08 Dodgers. "It's just amazing what he does because he's not throwing 94, 93 mph."

Doing much more with far less always was the beauty of Maddux. He didn't awe you with the method, but with the results. And with the depth of his knowledge and understanding of a game considered beyond total grasp. Maddux came closer than anyone to disproving the idea that no one can learn everything there is about baseball.

The one belief that he could not contradict is: This is an easy game to leave.

Maddux had as tough a time conceding the end of the line as anyone -- although his final line belied his mastery to the end.

"So many things go on that have nothing to do with the first-through-ninth innings. And I will miss it all," he said.

His swan season, mostly with the Padres and winding up with the Dodgers, was numerically his poorest since that 6-14 in the starter's block 21 years earlier. But included in the 8-13 record was a career-long winless streak of 14 starts from May 10 through July 23 during which the Padres scored a total of 33 runs with him on the mound.

Nothing for which to apologize. Especially when one digests this amazing fact:

Of the previous 15 pitchers whose 300-win careers ended in the post-1800s era, none had as many as eight wins in their farewell season. Not Cy Young, not Walter Johnson, not Warren Spahn nor anyone else you care to try.

As Greg Maddux would say, "Didn't know that. Cool."

2008季中轉回道奇隊 2008球季結束後 宣布引退