All Maddux All The Time ( my New Year)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnCoI0lVvGc&NR=1
(1997 interview where he lets his guard down a fraction of inch )

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3336514
( the classic about Maddux pitching to the “blind” catcher but mostly about Maddux)
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/263641.html
( from a minor league player about Maddux )

Two by Verducci one of the few writers he clearly enjoys talking too as long as the subject is pitching.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1006923/index.htm?eref=sisf

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1032634/index.htm

http://www.sbsun.com/sports/ci_4268528?source=email
(I like this one because I was at the game and it WAS that amazing. Pure Maddux pitching, fielding & hitting all dead on in the same game)

3 by Joe Posnanski which are all very good.

http://thesoulofbaseball.blogspot.com/2007/07/rivalries-part-1-maddux-v-bonds.html

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/08/03/the-master-july-2-1997/

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/joe_posnanski/12/08/maddux.retirement/index.html

Odds and ends.
This article is no longer on line except for the first part but one of the funniest and most accurate descriptions of Maddux came from a sports writer from the Orange County Register describing a game against the Giants on August 13 2006 in which he pitched with his usual efficiency by starting with this

 "It was a signature night at the ballpark, primarily because it wasn’t really a night.
At 5:12 p.m. PDT they started. At 7:39 p.m. Russell Martin raised his fist with his first step out of the batter’s box, and the Dodgers had beaten the Giants, 1-0, in 10 innings.
That’s 10 innings in two hours and 27 minutes.

All thanks to Greg Maddux, human TiVo.
If you want to edit the extraneous stuff out of life and pitching, call on Maddux. He made eight innings of work look like beach bicycling. He needed 68 pitches to get 24 outs, throwing first-pitch strikes to the final eight Giants he faced. "

Maddux in popular culture. Now he is very low key so he does not pop up on talk shows or at celebrity events except for golf related ones but he has his fans in entertainment industry.

This from Jeff Foxworthy on men needing advice on how to talk to their wives? He suggests that they sneak the advice into sports.
 
Announcer:
“And there’s strike three … Greg Maddux really looking good tonight,
and speaking of looking good fellows from time to time your woman needs
to be reminded that she is still looking good to you”
 
Redneck to Wife:
“Hey baby, have I told you lately that you are as pretty as Greg
Maddux?”

And a little more upscale from The Colbert Report.
A few years ago he did an item about some athletes who had been caught doing
Various illegal activities and their sentences included a community service component where they had to sign autographs for free, he then held up a picture of Maddux ( nerd glasses and all) and said " I hope he murders someone"

And this posted early this year from The Onion

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/report_greg_maddux_can

Now I head into to the new year sans Maddux and a job but if I ever feel down I can pop in some of the videos Kasey sent me of great Maddux games including the sliding on the tarp in the rain out first night game which I have not yet opened ( he sent it two years ago) . I have been saving it for
a rainy day.

but who is the hell is Greg Maddux?

but if it’s yours, you might like this one. Written by screenwriter and Maddux fan, Devra Maza, published in the Daily News back in 2006.

Here’s the intro to the poem:

Baseball is a lyrical game. It’s one of those artistic ironies that the only major sport without a clock should be so often immortalized in rhyme, where timing is everything. Over its rich history, baseball’s best have been celebrated in everything from poems to ballads, limericks to lyrics, with fans getting into the act at every seventh-inning stretch. Verses on Ruth, DiMaggio and Koufax trumpeted their triumphs, while others on Greenberg, Robinson and Gehrig paid homage to their moral character. With their mixture of reverence and wit, rhymes on the diamond field have traditionally populated the print of newspapers as old as the game itself.

But the most famous baseball poem of all, “Casey at the Bat,” satirized the unwavering passions of the ardent fans as much as its mythical hero. So when asked to write about Greg Maddux, whose mark on America’s game is of mythical proportions, an epic poem seemed a fitting format. Part primer, part tribute, this article in verse ventures to spotlight Greg’s unique attributes as a player, illustrate his many nicknames, and highlight just some of his staggering accomplishments, while honoring the meter mighty Casey swung in. And so, in 31 stanzas, a fan tips her cap …

and here’s link to the actual poem.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4345206?source=rss

Maddux spent a significant part of his childhood in Spain.

He finished his career with 999 walks so he just was able to join Fergie in the 3000 Ks less than 1000 walks crowd.

At the time of his retirement he had the longest marriage of any active player.

“Chicks dig the long ball.”