Maddux, Greg (Gregory Alan Maddux), 1966–, American baseball player, b. San Angelo, Tex. Playing in the National League with the Chicago Cubs (1986–92, 2004–6), Atlanta Braves (1993–2003), Los Angeles Dodgers (2006, 2008), and San Diego Padres (2007, 2008), he was noted for finesse and control, rather than for speed and power, and had 355 wins and 15 or more wins in 17 straight seasons, a record. Maddux won the Cy Young Award as the league's best pitcher four years in a row (1992–95), the first to do so. The 1994 and 1995 awards were by unanimous vote, placing Maddux with Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers so honored twice in a row. The winningest pitcher in the major leagues from 1988 through 1995, he posted an earned run average under 1.80 for two successive years (1994–95), the first time anyone had done so since Walter Johnson in 1918–19. His winning percentage of .905 (19–2) in 1995, when Maddux led the Braves to a World Series championship, was the highest ever achieved by a pitcher with more than 20 decisions in a season.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Sports: Biographies
