Atlanta Braves News: MLB Network has been hyping up their Greg Maddux documentary all week. Baseball fans around the world are getting hyped to watch one of the greatest artists of all time and learn about some of his masterpieces.
With all that going on, you may have seen the video circulating social media in which Barry Bonds and Greg Maddux independently break down one at-bat between the two legends.
We’ll break down that video and give you career statistics between two of the best the game has ever seen in Greg Maddux vs. Barry Bonds.
Greg Maddux vs. Barry Bonds Video Breakdown
The video starts with Barry Bonds joking that he’s 60 years old and won’t be able to remember an at-bat from 1998. Greg Maddux is being filmed at an independent location and he tells us that it’s too early to pitch around somebody do you got to try and get him out.
Maddux is recalling the mindset of the rest of Major League Baseball at that time. Pitch around Barry Bonds anytime you can. For those of you who are too young to have had the privilege of watching Barry Bonds… let me sum it up. Basically, if you threw a pitch in the zone, he would destroy it.
Transcript of the Bonds vs. Maddux Video on MLB Network
Maddux jammed Bonds with a belt-high first-pitch cutter to begin the at-bat. Bonds fouled it off.
This is where it becomes some of the most interesting television you’ll see for baseball fans.
Maddux: Pretty good cutter that beat him. I’m feelin’ okay about throwin’ that pitch.
Bonds: So, he’s gonna try to float a changeup or some that little… floater away. ‘Cause he thinks I’m gonna speed up because he jammed me.
Maddux: The cutter beat him so I thought he would speed up. I threw a changeup and he spit on it.
VIDEO: Maddux throws the changeup low and out of the zone.
Maddux: I mean that’s a pretty good changeup right there and that’s an easy take for him.
Bonds: I didn’t even try. I just knew it. And now we’re playing chess. He knows he can’t beat me inside.
Maddux: Experience has taught me that he’s probably looking in. Back then, I didn’t know it.
Bonds: And most the time I was always waiting for that 92 in back over the plate so I could catch it…and I’m just praying for it.
VIDEO: Bonds gets his pitch from Maddux and turns on it for a home run.
Bonds: And there… it… goes… Can’t come in the well twice, buddy. You just can’t do it. And Greg knows, cause I always have this saying, “You cannot come in the penthouse without an invite.”
Maddux: I mean, that’s a good pitch, believe it or not. It’s a well-executed pitch. Obviously it’s the wrong pitch to throw. That’s one you gotta put in the memory bank and try not to throw it ever again to him. I mean, he’s the best in baseball and you can’t make it easy for him. That’s the pitch he wants to hit, so you have to make him hit something other than that.
Bonds: I think that was when I finally said, “I got you now. There’s nothing you can do now (evil laugh).”
Greg Maddux vs. Barry Bonds Career Statistics
- Maddux and Bonds faced each other 154 times over their careers.
- In Maddux’s career, opposing hitters batted .250 against Maddux.
- Opposing hitters’ slashed .250/.291/.358 (.649 OPS) against Greg Maddux.
- Barry Bonds slashed .260/.370/.485 (.855 OPS) against Maddux in his career.
- Barry Bonds’ eight homers against Maddux are the second-most career homers against Maddux by any hitter. He trails only Luis Gonzalez‘s 10 homers and incredible .626.
- In true Barry Bonds fashion, he holds the record for most career intentional walks issued by Maddux.
- Bonds had as many intentional walks as homers off of Maddux, which reinforces Maddux’s comments in the video about putting Bonds on base.
Gred Maddux and Billy Wagner join the Pitching Ninja to discuss what it was like to face prime Barry Bonds
MLB Network will air the documentary on Greg Maddux Sunday, August 25th at at 8 PM EST. Maddux’s 14-strikeout masterpiece will air immediately after.
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