As noted earlier, Maddux finally notched win #350 last night, adding another line on his Hall of Fame resume.  In an era filled with outlandish offensive numbers and constant talk of steroids, Maddux has been one of the most dominant and underappreciated players of the period.  While guys like Roger Clemens and Kevin Brown will always be shadowed with steroid talk, it’s a pretty safe bet Maddux has stayed clean – not only does he look like a bean counter, he’s remained healthy throughout.Â

JoeSportsFan Top 7 writer Jason Major sums up Maddux pretty well in his list of “Unbreakable Modern Era Records” from this past Friday:

Much is made nowadays about there never being another 300-game winner because of longevity, bullpens, and so on, never mind that the exact same thing was said when Maddux and Glavine and Clemens were still much younger.  But good Lord, how could anyone possibly think that someone could beat Maddux’s record of 17 straight seasons with 15 or more wins?  Better yet, the streak is 19 in a row of 13 or more wins.  It takes health, decent bullpens, good teams, amazing skill, and quite a bit of luck to do something like that.  Maddux should just go ahead and try to pitch until he is 70 years old and set that record for good too.

While he wasn’t nearly as effective in the postseason, Maddux is certainly one of the greatest pitchers of the past quarter century.  On top of that, his Baseball-Reference page is amazing to browse and as an added bonus, Maddux enjoys peeing on his rookie teammates in the shower.Â

What more could you want in a pitcher?