Columnist Dean Juipe: Maddux is Las Vegas anomaly

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 1999 | 9:46 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

This is a city best known for its roughhouse past, its wily gamblers and its permissive attitudes. Say the words "Las Vegas" and the imagery is immediate: It was and always will be the wild, wild West.

Yet amid the hooligans, the prostitutes and the decadents Las Vegas has developed (and withstood) is -- oddly enough -- the finest baseball pitcher of his generation and one of the greatest of all time.

Greg Maddux is an anomaly.

He represents Las Vegas while being nothing at all like Las Vegas. He's quiet and fairly unobtrusive, with a bookworm-like appearance and a businessman's calculating demeanor.

The only place he stands out is on the pitching mound.

Maddux, whose Hall of Fame credentials will be officially validated after he retires, has the statistics to be mentioned in the same breath with the greatest pitchers in the history of the game.

But, perfectionist that he is and as accustomed as he is to unbridled success, Maddux has some misgivings about his 1999 season. And he's probably not too happy today, having been the losing pitcher in Game 1 of the National League division playoffs Tuesday as the Houston Astros defeated his Atlanta Braves 6-1.

Maddux gave up two runs in seven tumultuous innings, his concentration interrupted by plate umpire Mike Winters' tight strike zone.

He also had a rocky start to the season, yet he finished 19-9. "I probably had one of my worst years but I almost won 20 games," he said of a season in which he became only the fourth pitcher in baseball history to have 12 consecutive years of at least 15 victories.

But his ERA was up, to 3.57 this season after being at a more typical 2.22 in 1998 (when he went 18-9). And his hits-to-innings-pitched ratio was well off his usual form, as he allowed 258 in 219.

Nonetheless he was third in the N.L. in victories, and, prior to Game 1 of the series with the Astros, he was on the receiving end of a long series of accolades by everyone near a microphone at the ball park.

"It's very difficult to pick up what he's throwing," offered Houston slugger Jeff Bagwell, referring to Maddux's clandestine abilities with the ball. TV analyst Rick Sutcliffe, himself a former pitcher, said Maddux has "great deception; every delivery is the same but the grip is always different and that's what creates movement."

At the age of 33, the four-time Cy Young Award winner is still an imposing figure on the mound even if he's in the midst of a slight, if inevitable, decline. He has no critics, but if he did they would say he's showing signs of being mortal.

"He's had one crisis after another today," broadcaster Jon Miller said as Maddux surrendered 10 hits and four walks, two intentional. But when he left the game after pitching the seventh, the Braves were only down 2-1 and Maddux -- even in a losing cause -- had achieved a starting pitcher's primary task, which is to keep his team close and give it a chance to win.

Yes, he has been blessed to pitch for a team that has won a record eight consecutive division titles, and, yes, Maddux has been fortunate to remain healthy.

But those only add to his atypical Las Vegas qualities, as few in this city of impulsive degenerates can claim to be healthy winners.