Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.
Greg Maddux admitted Monday night that he has daydreamed, if only for a moment or two, about joining Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling in the Arizona Diamondbacks' rotation.
However, Maddux, who will be inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame with his brother and high school coach in February, also dreams about stealing bases and maybe even hitting one out of Yankee Stadium.
"You have to understand, it's such a privilege to play at the major-league level," said Maddux, a free-agent pitcher. "Regardless of what it says across your shirt, it's still cool. It's still fun. You're still doing something you enjoy doing.
"Baseball excites me, it really does. I enjoy standing on the mound, trying to figure it out. I enjoy running the bases. I enjoy sliding. I enjoy playing the game and being a player."
Maddux, 36, has been a free agent before, when he left the Chicago Cubs for the Braves in 1993. That experience, he said, taught him to know that you never know what might happen.
"That is comforting, because I know to expect nothing," Maddux said. "Hopefully, I'll have decisions to make somewhere down the road that are best for me and my family."
At $12.5 million last season, Maddux was the highest-paid Brave. He has a deep allegiance to Atlanta manager Bobby Cox, and Braves general manager John Schuerholz has said the team will try to keep Maddux and Tom Glavine, its other free-agent pitcher.
Arizona and San Diego have been mentioned most in hot-stove circles regarding Maddux's possible destination, but Maddux said he is most concerned right now with correcting a nasty hook with his driver. He is arranging his golf tournament over the next two weeks, and that is his priority.
Taking less money to remain close to home, either with the Diamondbacks or Padres, is a subject he will broach with agent Scott Boras when the time arrives.
"I haven't been faced with that situation, so I haven't thought about it," Maddux said. "It's not something I'm very concerned with right now. It's a process, and it takes time. You can speculate so much, for so long, and realize it was all for nothing. So I don't do it."
He doesn't even acknowledge the theory that he can be nonchalant about his future because, no matter where he ends up, a lucrative contract will await him.
"Well, I really feel like this game has given me a lot," Maddux said. "To expect more from it is pretty selfish. Whatever the game is still waiting to give me, I'm more than happy to accept, but to sit there and expect and demand ... whatever.
"You know, I'm going to play ball next year. It'll be somewhere, and I'll have fun doing it."
Maddux is the highest-profiled member of the Hall's Class of 2002, which will be officially inducted at Cox Pavilion on Feb. 7, 2003, in a two-hour ceremony.
Older brother Mike and Rodger Fairless, who coached Greg Maddux at Valley High and won 12 state titles in his storied career, are also part of the class.
"Anytime you can share something with somebody else, it's always that much better," said Greg Maddux. "You know what? A lot of good things have happened along the way, and this is definitely one of them. It's a little more special, because I get to go in with my brother and high school coach."
Former UNLV softball player and two-time Olympian Lori Harrigan, Valley High grad and longtime major-league pitcher Mike Morgan, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority round out the class.
For Mike Maddux, Monday capped a whirlwind five days. He formerly coached in the Houston Astros' farm system, but he accepted a new post last Thursday when new Milwaukee manager Ned Yost asked him to be the Brewers' pitching coach.
The two had never met, but Yost made his decision based on information from Curt Saarlos, who once played for Maddux on Houston's double-A team. Yost overheard Saarlos raving about Maddux, and the rest is history.
Milwaukee has made its own history lately, capping the worst five-year stretch in the franchise's history with a 56-106 campaign last season. With Ben Sheets and Mike DeJean, though, Maddux believes he will have a foundation.
"I think it's a great opportunity," Maddux said. "You look at Milwaukee last season, and you have to feel that the only way to go is up. That team is humbled and looking for direction, and I'd like to guide them."
Greg Maddux said he could never thank Fairless enough for preparing him to be a pitcher who had claimed four consecutive Cy Young Awards, from 1992-95. Only Roger Clemons, with five, has more of those trophies.
Fairless shaped Maddux when the young pitcher could have easily been distracted.
"He taught us things you might use only once a season," Maddux said. "I might use something in the fourth game of the season, and you might not see it the rest of the way. It was just, to be prepared, to understand the little things."
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