Greg Maddux

During that decade, he had a 176-88 record with 23 shutouts and a 2.54 ERA, striking out 1,764 hitters while walking only 443.

Greg Maddux

He also won the National League's Cy Young Award four straight years, 1992 through 1995, and was a unanimous choice for the last two awards. Sandy Koufax is the only other pitcher to be a unanimous Cy Young winner two years in a row.

Perhaps Maddux's most remarkable achievement is that, over the 10-year stretch from 1992 through 2001, his ERA was a full run or more below the league average each year. No other pitcher has ever accomplished that. The right-handed Maddux has done it all with the kind of guile that can be exercised only by a pitcher who has exceptional control.

Maddux entered the major leagues with the Cubs late in the 1986 season and was with them for a time in 1987 before being sent to the minors for further seasoning. He became a full-time starter in 1988 and won 67 games over the next four seasons.

His first Cy Young Award came in 1992, when he had a 20-11 record with a 2.18 ERA. Maddux then went to the Atlanta Braves as a free agent and had a very similar record, going 20-10 with a 2.36 ERA to win his second Cy Young.

Maddux followed that with his two finest seasons. In the strike-shortened 1994 season, he was 16-6 with a 1.56 ERA, the third best in major-league history since 1919. And in 1995, he won 19 while losing only 2 and had a 1.63 ERA. Walter Johnson is the only other pitcher who ever had an ERA below 1.80 in two consecutive seasons.

Although he tailed off a bit after winning his fourth straight Cy Young Award, Maddux has remained a superior pitcher. He broke Young's long-standing record in 2003, becoming the first pitcher in history to win 15 or more games 16 seasons in a row.

Throughout his career, Maddux has helped himself both with the glove and with the bat. He won Gold Glove Awards as the National League's best fielding pitcher from 1990 through 2001 and he's an above average hitter for a pitcher. In 1994, his batting average was better than his ERA (when the decimal point is moved, that is). Maddux hit .222 that season.

The Braves made him the highest-paid player in the major leagues in 1997, rewarding him with a 5-year, $57.5-million contract. However, the team didn't re-sign him and Maddux, at 37, became a free agent after the 2003 season.