In an age of sculpted sluggers and robotic power pitchers, Greg Maddux has carved out an 18-year career that almost defies logic.
He has been on the disabled list only once, with a lower-back injury in 2002, managing to keep his arm strong enough to win 305 games.
Maddux, who turns 39 in April, has a bit of a gut and a few more lines around the eyes, but he remains one of the game’s most consistent pitchers. Catcher Henry Blanco sees no real difference between the Maddux of today and the Maddux of the early 1990s.
“He can do whatever he did 10 years ago because he keeps working hard,” Blanco said. “He probably has had a few beers since then, and your body is going to change, but the main thing is to prepare yourself. He knows how to do that.”
Maddux is a man of few words, unless the subject is golf. But he sat down recently for a brief discussion of baseball, aging and the twilight of his career.
Q. Complete games are rare these days. How much different is the approach to starting today than it was when you came up in the mid-’80s?
A. They’re not pushed to go longer, like they used to be, and that’s the difference. If you took the next batch of young pitchers and trained them to go nine innings instead of seven, you would see guys pitching more innings. But the game has changed in the way managers use bullpens now, and the way general managers set up teams now. Nine innings isn’t as valuable as it used to be.
Q. When you began, you usually had seven to 10 complete games a season, but you have had only three the last three years. Was it your aging or just different managerial strategy?
A. They weren’t afraid to leave me in a game if [I was] tired [in the ’80s]. It’s almost like you got knocked out of games, you didn’t get taken out.
Q. If you had remained an eight- or nine-inning pitcher for the first 15 years of your career, would you still have enough left in your arm to be pitching?
A. Probably. You don’t get hurt from throwing too much. You get hurt from throwing incorrectly or just by having different genetics than the guy next to you. Usually it’s the guys whose release points vary that are more likely to get injured.
Q. You never have been on the disabled list with an arm injury in your career . . .
A. I’ve never had surgery.
Q. How often have you had to pitch in pain?
A. I’m always hurt. That’s part of pitching.
Q. Do you take care of your arm differently now than at the start of your career?
A. No. Usually when your arm hurts you have to find out if you can pitch through it. And if you can pitch through it, you pitch through it. If you don’t think you can pitch through it, you go to Plan B.
Q. You’re signed through 2006. Do you ever think about the end of your career being close at hand?
A. Yeah, I’ve been washed up for five or six years, but I’m still throwing.
Q. Do you think you can pitch past 2006 if you want?
A. No. I’m just looking forward to my next start, and I’ll enjoy the four days before it. That’s how I look at it.
Q. You’re not savoring every year much more than in your youth?
A. No. I’ve been doing that since my first game.
