THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996 TAG: 9601130444
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Being pitching coach to Greg Maddux must be like being Barbra Streisand's vocal coach. I mean, don't you just hand over the sheet music (or the ball), step back and savor the rare artistry?
Sure, there's more to it. Still, with a talent such as Maddux, the Atlanta Braves' four-time Cy Young Award winner, you do get excellence nearly every time. Unmatchable consistency, pristene fundamentals, almost flawless execution.
To pitching aficionados, or just baseball fans, Maddux is an awesome show.
Sports Illustrated proclaimed Maddux the best pitcher anybody alive today will ever see, and that's not far-fetched. No one goes to the mound as mentally and physically keen as the righthander from Las Vegas, who will be the first to tell you others are more naturally gifted than he.
Envy, then, Leo Mazzone. He's that stocky, mustachioed fellow the TV cameras kept flashing to for dugout shots during the World Series, when the Braves took out the Cleveland Indians.
It's been the good fortune of Mazzone, the Atlanta pitching coach, to witness every pitch Maddux has thrown since 1993, the year after Maddux won his first Cy Young for the Chicago Cubs.
Over his four award-winning seasons, Maddux has compiled a 75-29 record and a ridiculously tiny 1.98 earned-run average.
Maddux's secrets will be unleashed at Greenbrier Christian Academy on Sunday, though Maddux won't be the purveyor of knowledge. That chore will fall to Mazzone, who vows to dig out of his snowbound home in Cumberland, Md., and motor to Chesapeake for a three-hour pitching clinic.
He is doing so at the behest of his old minor league roommate Gary Lavelle, the ex-major leaguer and Greenbrier coach who along with local coaches Towny Townsend and Ted Daughtrey runs the Tidewater Pro Sports Camp enterprise.
This one is for players and coaches of all ages, a $60 investment that could pay off when the sun returns, the fields go green and kids everywhere attempt their best Maddux imitations.
``You do run out of ways to describe him,'' Mazzone says of his famous pupil, before ticking off the usual attributes; mechanics, command, work ethic. ``What he has is an extreme high level of intelligence that I've never come across in any other pitcher. That's what I think separates him. The one that's closest to him is Glavine.''
Tom, that is, the 1995 World Series Most Valuable Player.
I'm very fortunate,'' Mazzone says. ``But I also did 23 years in the minor leagues. I think I earned that right to be around (them).''
Mazzone, 47, pitched, coached and managed in the minors from 1967 until 1990, when he accepted his current post with the Braves. And, really, the notion that Mazzone has only to be hands-off with Maddux is unfair. ``He has his checkpoints and he and I know what they are,'' Mazzone says. ``He wants constructive criticism, not somebody riding the fence.
``It comes down to an exchange of ideas, that's what the good ones want. If you tell Maddux or Glavine or (Steve) Avery, `Go do what you want to do,' they're gonna look at you and you're done. You have to have answers and be prepared.''
That's Mazzone's challenge for three hours Sunday. Consider it a visit from the master's messenger. MEMO: Mazzone's pitching clinic will run from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Call 495-8772
to register. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone will conduct a
clinic Sunday at Greenbrier Christian.
by CNB