Word: maddux
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Score one for pitching. On Saturday night in Atlanta, Maddux limited the Indians to just two hits as the Braves won, 3-2, to take Game 1 of the Series. Despite the presence of American Indian Movement demonstrators outside the stadium, the sellout crowd delighted in doing the Chop and singing that irritating "war chant." No wonder Vernon Bellecourt of aim said last week, "We were all rooting for the Reds and the Mariners...
...Sain, and pray for rain," four games to two. (Since then, the Indians have made one more trip to the Series--they lost to the Giants in '54--while the Braves have gone four times, winning in '57, but losing in '58, '91 and '92.) During the '95 season, Maddux and Belle were so astounding that they took baseball history deep--deeper even than...
...Maddux, for instance, finished the year with a 19-2 record and a 1.63 ERA, making him the first pitcher since Walter Johnson in 1918-19 to have an era of 1.80 or less in two consecutive seasons. At 5 ft. 11 1/2 in., Maddux is one of the smaller Braves, and with his eyeglasses on, he's the last guy in the team picture you would peg for being the best pitcher in, oh, the past 75 years. "You should have seen him when he first broke in," says Braves outfielder Dwight Smith, who did indeed debut with Maddux...
...Maddux is not the hardest thrower in baseball, but he does have five pitches and total command of the strike zone. And as good as Maddux has become--he is about to win an unprecedented fourth straight Cy Young Award--he remains terribly unimpressed with himself. ''I just pitch," he says. The closest he'll come to a boast is this opinion expressed before the Series: "I like to think good pitching beats good hitting...
...Maddux and Belle do have something in common besides the fact that they're both 29. Belle, as befitting the son of two schoolteachers, is a student of baseball. He keeps detailed index cards on pitchers, and he spends as much time in the batting cage as anyone in the game...