Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004 | 10:03 a.m.
If Greg Maddux ever pitched at Cashman Field, it was a forgettable experience for an American Legion team back in his Valley High days.
He will likely get another opportunity April 1 or 2, when the Chicago Cubs play the Seattle Mariners in exhibition games at the home of the Triple-A 51s.
When reached at his Spanish Trail home Tuesday afternoon just after the series was announced, Maddux said he didn't play a role in arranging the games and hadn't been informed of them.
"I think it's great for me," he said. "Anytime you get a chance to play in your own hometown, the road trip is always better. I see guys who live where we play during the season and they seem to like it, and they get excited. I think it'll be pretty good.
"I just wish we could play real games there that mattered."
They last played in Las Vegas on April 3, 1993, when they set a Cashman Field attendance record of 15,025 in a 9-8 exhibition defeat to the Chicago White Sox.
Maddux, though, had left the Cubs organization, which drafted him in 1984 out of Valley, for the Atlanta Braves after the '92 season.
He went back to the Cubs last spring, signing a deal potentially worth $24 million for three years. A third season, for $9 million, will kick in if he logs 400 innings over 2004 and 2005. He worked 212 2/3 innings last season.
Maddux might have ensured his spot in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., when, with an 8-4 decision against the Giants in San Francisco, he became the 22nd pitcher to record 300 victories.
He finished 16-11 when he won the Cubs' last game of their season, a 10-8 victory against the Braves at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Oct. 3. Along the way, he extended his record streak of at least 15 victories in a season to 17.
Until that last win, however, Chicago had lost seven of eight games to lose steam in its hunt for a wild-card berth in the playoffs. The Cubs finished 89-73 in the N.L. Central Division.
Maddux, 38, had a 4.02 earned-run average, and he recorded the 10th-best ratio of walks and hits to innings pitched, of 1.18, in the National League. He just won his 14th Gold Glove, too.
"No, the way we finished didn't really overshadow any of the personal goals," he said. "But my main goal was to get to the postseason, get invited to the crap shoot and see what happens. It's pretty sickening, the way we finished up.
"I would have liked to see if we could have beaten St. Louis and Atlanta."
Maddux said he became a fan during the playoffs, especially when the Boston Red Sox overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
"We had a series against St. Louis in 1998, when we were down 3-1 but came back to beat them," he said. "We ended up losing the World Series to the Yankees, but I knew what it felt like to come back from being down 3-1.
"I can't imagine what it was like coming back from being down 3-0."
Then the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in the World Series.
"I just enjoyed the games," Maddux said. "I don't think I was rooting for anyone in particular. But I thought the games, in both leagues, were outstanding. I was sitting there in the kitchen watching those and saying, 'You've got to be kidding me.' Just great games."
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