Beating Maddux to 350

Hi there - Jeff Scott here. I'm not the one who usually writes about baseball numbers in this space. That handsome fella on my right shoulder is all about the "raw numbers" of the game and the demure one on my left nestles their historical context close to his bosom, rational romanticist that he is. But today I get to write about numbers because I beat Greg Maddux to 350. Here's how it happened. Greg's first season in the Majors as a full-time starter was 1988. That was also my first year with Major League Baseball Productions - at the time under the umbrella of Phoenix Communications. Greg won 18 games for Chicago that year and I began writing a new show called Major League Baseball Magazine - one of the first out-of-house productions to air on ESPN. Greg proceeded to win at least 15 games a year for 17 straight seasons. Alas, MLB Magazine - a really good show fueled by the brilliance of Warner Fusselle - only lasted through 1991. The very next year Maddux had his first 20 win season -- and in April of that year I began to write This Week In Baseball. The first line of my first TWIB was: "Coming up - a look back at a Twin's killing in a World Series to remember." Nothing special except for the fact that the Twins had won the World Series and that the line was delivered by Mel Allen - who was sitting in the little booth a few feet away from me. And he made it sound like it came from baseball broadcast heaven. Over the next five years I came to know and love Mel both as a friend and a linguist - and I promise to talk more about him in a future column - but first, back to Maddux. His win totals began to pile up -- 100, 200, 300 - and so did the number of TWIB episodes I had the great opportunity to write. Maddux went from Chicago to Atlanta - back to Chicago - then to L.A. and eventually San Diego. I went from an IBM Selectric Typewriter to a Smith Corona Word Processor to this ThinkPad that I have to prop up on my worn out copy of Guth's Words and Ideas to get it at the right angle. Well it all came to a head last week when Greg stood on the cusp of 350 wins and I on the precipice of 350 episodes of TWIB. The pressure was unbearable. It appeared as if Maddux would reach the number first when he left a 1-0 lead in the hands of his bullpen a week ago Wednesday - but Trevor Hoffman blew it in the ninth. So on Saturday, when the show about the Rockies hit the airwaves, I officially beat to 350 the most durable pitcher of my generation. And I'm proud to say that from the moment I first sat in that audio room with Mel Allen in April of 1992 until now, all 350 of them were in a row. Now Greg will undoubtedly get his milestone win very soon -- and may, in fact, even catch Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander for the most wins ever in the National League (373). But in 2008 - in "The Quest for 350" - let it be known that The Mighty Maddux was edged out by The Iron Quill.

Don't forget to visit the TWIB home page at: twib.mlb.com