One last time

Now that Greg Maddux has earned his 350th major-league victory (without a hint of any kind of implication in any kind of performance-enhancing substance), the sports pundits are saying no one will approach that mark again.

Repeating the feat doesn't seem likely, not in an era when pitchers who make 33 starts and pitch 230 innings are considered iron men. And in the six-plus decades since World War II, only one other hurler, Warren Spahn, has passed the 350 mark … OK, two pitchers, but Spahn is the only one who didn't have to testify before Congress.

With pitchers' 20-win seasons becoming fewer and further between, 15 seems to be the new 20. Let's say a pitcher averages 13 victories per year. He'd have to pitch 27 years to reach 350.

By coincidence, Nolan Ryan pitched 27 years, which is a major-league record. And he didn't come close to winning 350 games.

Talk has been of Maddux retiring after this season. But if he hangs around for a couple of more years, he could challenge the National League mark for victories co-held by Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander. (Mathewson died in 1925, and Alexander's last win was in '29). Now, that's a record I never thought would be approached.

Talk also has been of the possibility of Maddux and his former Atlanta Braves teammates Tom Glavine and John Smoltz all retiring after the season, meaning they all would go into the Hall of Fame at the same time. And that certainly would be appropriate, considering that they constitute the most successful pitching trio for a sustained period in major-league history.

I once assembled a chart of their comparative pitching statistics from 1993-99, the seven years when they dominated the Braves' rotation. Click here to check it out.

It certainly puts the likes of Snell, Gorzelanny and Maholm in their place!