"It must have been the first or second week of the season and we were sitting together on the bench, neither of us pitching that night," Young said Monday via E-mail. "Immediately to our left were the stairs that lead from the dugout to the field, with a big opening in the screen.

"Geoff Blum was up and it was late in the game. They had a right-handed pitcher on the mound, I don't recall who. Blum had seen a couple of pitches and right before the pitcher started his delivery for the next pitch Maddux leans into my ear and said, 'Watch out.' "

In a flash, the pitcher threw a slider down and in that Blum smashed foul into the visitors' dugout and just past Young's ear. Maddux had successfully anticipated the pitch, its location, the angle of Blum's swing and the danger.

"I already knew how great Greg was," Young said, "but that experience showed me how Greg sees the game a little bit differently than the rest of us."