Greg Maddux – Hall of Famer

February 17, 2013; Surprise, AZ, USA; Texas Rangers special assistant to the general manager

smiles during spring training at Surprise Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Today major league baseball announced that there will be three new additions to the baseball hall of fame this year. Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux all had the honor of reaching the hall today. Maddux received the most votes at 555, followed by Glavine at 525 and then Thomas at 478. Craig Biggio missed by just two votes, getting 74.8% of the vote (it requires 75% to be inducted into the hall of fame). That is a real shame about Biggio in my opinion, I was a big Biggio fan and I think he will get in eventually.

Thomas was a great hitter for a lot of years, nineteen to be exact. he hit .301 and hit 521 home runs, which is very unusual. He was truly a great hitter. Glavine was a great pitcher for the Braves for many years. Glavin won 305 games and struck out 2607 in his 22 year career. Another deserving canidate.

Maddux, now the special assistant to the general manager for the Texas Rangers, won 355 games in his 23 year career, he struck out 3371 while walking only (and remember, this is in 23 seasons) 999. Pretty amazing . Maddux was known for having more control than most pitchers, and in my opinion he was one of the greatest control pitchers of all time.  Oh, by the way, his career ERA is 3.16 (2.63 in his eleven seasons with the Braves).

Debate what you want about the steroid era, and all the advantages hitters had during that time in baseball, but in my opinion Maddux didn’t seem to have any trouble getting all of the hitters out during that era. It helps to be one of the best of all time of course. Some pitchers and hitters transcend controversy and question marks, and I believe that Maddux is one of those players. I hope that he can teach some of the young Rangers pitchers to have the kind of control that he used to have when he was pitching, but I am not sure that kind of control is something you can teach. It may be one of those things that you either have or you don’t. Either way, congratulations to Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas for being elected to the baseball hall of fame. It is well deserved.