This has been a very up-and-down baseball season. No, not only because my Atlanta Braves have been terribly inconsistent all season long. Not just because of all the latest steroid allegations. Not because future legends such as A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz have been outted as “users.”
I consider this an up-and-down season in large part because the legends of my youth are leaving the game.
It began early this year when Greg Maddux announced he was retiring from baseball. Growing up a Braves fan who lives and dies with every play I was able to witness Greg Maddux throw every fifth day for 10 seasons.
I was in the stands for many of those brilliant outings that Maddux used to notch regularly.
Greg Maddux was quite possibly the greatest baseball player of this generation. The comparisons to Cy Young are reason enough to make this a logical statement. His 17 consecutive 15-plus win seasons surpassed Young’s 15 consecutive such seasons.
How about Maddux’s four straight Cy Young Awards from 1992-95? How about his 355 career wins, or his lifetime 3.16 ERA? Is that enough for you to believe he’s the greatest player of this generation?
While recently looking at Maddux’s career stats I remembered many a brilliant start the man had in Atlanta. In the Braves lone World Series winning season in Atlanta, 1995, Maddux went 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA.
Do you realize how rare that type of season is? Will we ever see someone go 19-2 with such a miniscule ERA again? Randy Johnson went 18-2 that same season but his 2.48 ERA was nearly a run more than Maddux’s.
Throw in the fact that MadDog, as he is affectionately known to most Braves fans, had his best years at the height of the “steroid era” and those stats become even more spectacular.
The second face on the Mount Rushmore of Braves pitchers is that of Tom Glavine.
Glavine was the only homegrown member of “the big three.” His 14-8 mark in 1988 was remarkable considering the Braves lost 100-plus games that season. Glavine won the Cy Young in Atlanta’s worst-to-first 1991 season and again in 1998.
Atlanta’s own “Tom Terrific” won 20-plus games five times in his Atlanta career. That would be the most in Atlanta Braves history. Looking back in Braves franchise history the only Brave with more 20-plus win seasons was that guy named Spahn. He had 13. Maddux only won 20 one time in a Braves-uni.
Glavine was as consistent a pitcher as you could find in the National League for many years. He donned the Braves uniform from ’87-’02. A lot of Braves fans still have not forgiven him for spurning the team in order to accept slightly more money from the hated Mets.
I’ll admit I had a hard time with it as well, but nothing can erase the great memories “Glav” provided in Atlanta.
His performance in Game 6 of the ’95 World Series provided Atlanta with its only world title since moving to Atlanta in ’66. He one-hit the Indians through eight innings of the 1-0 Braves victory.
I remember watching him get his 200th victory in Atlanta back in ’00. I was also watching on Sunday night baseball as he won his 300th with the Mets in ’07 at Wrigley Field.
Glavine, now nothing more than a shell of his former self, was unceremoniously released this season by Frank Wren to make way for the newest future-legend, Tommy Hanson. While I can’t agree with the way that it happened, it was time. Glavine was done last season.
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