Greg Maddux was known for two issues in his Hall of Fame pitching profession: immaculate command of the strike zone and a love of sensible jokes.
On Saturday, it was the latter that was apparently on full show.
Maddux, who had two excursions with the Chicago Cubs, threw out the first pitch earlier than Saturday’s sport at Wrigley Field as a part of the franchise’s One hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration. But as an alternative of dotting the surface nook or looping one in the midst of the zone, he casually threw a pitch about 5 toes broad of the plate and a few toes behind it that bounced between the legs of a cameraman.
The cameraman appeared to get pleasure from it, and so did the previous and present Cubs who had been on the sphere getting honored as a part of the membership’s One hundred and fiftieth-anniversary group. Derrek Lee, who performed with Maddux from 2004 by 2006, was doubled over in laughter.
Maddux, who threw it in entrance of the mound, flashed a broad grin earlier than and after the pitch. He then walked over to share a chuckle along with his ex-teammates Kerry Wood and Rick Sutcliffe earlier than lining up between Sutcliffe and Jon Lester.
Jon Lester on Greg Maddux’s errant first pitch: “It was good spin rate. I think that’s the first 4-seamer he’s ever thrown in his life.” https://t.co/ZEaGNjg7MS pic.twitter.com/wv5F3lCBVa
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) August 29, 2026
So did he try this on function?
In the underside of the second inning, Maddux visited the Cubs’ TV sales space and play-by-play man Jon “Boog” Sciambi began the interview by asking if somebody paid him off to hit a man within the leg.
“A couple reasons,” he mentioned with a snort. “Sutcliffe was going to give me a hundred bucks if I hit one of the camera guys. Then I decided the way the game is going today, I was going for spin rate as opposed to location.”
“We figured there had to be money on the line,” mentioned Cubs coloration analyst Jim Deshaies, a former big-league pitcher himself.
After they watched a replay of the pitch, Maddux mentioned in his basic deadpan supply, “Yeah, that was brutal.”
Maddux simply turned 60 this 12 months, nevertheless it’s onerous to consider his command disappeared. He threw simply 70 wild pitches in his 23-year major-league profession, with 38 coming in 302 video games with the Cubs. He not often confronted a hitter with a 3-0 rely and walked simply 999 hitters in 5,008 1/3 innings (1.8 walks per 9 innings).
The Cubs selected Maddux within the second spherical of the 1984 draft, and he made his big-league debut in 1986. He received his first of 4 straight Cy Young Awards in 1992, his final 12 months with the group. He signed as a free agent with the Braves after the season, and led the NL in stroll price seven occasions in his 11 seasons with Atlanta. Maddux returned to the Cubs in 2004 and was traded to the Dodgers when the Cubs had been out of rivalry in 2006. The Cubs did a joint quantity retirement for Maddux and Fergie Jenkins in 2009, and in 2014, Maddux was a straightforward first-ballot choice for the Hall of Fame.