Good point.
The guy will never see it this way.
I am not making any accusation against Maddox, but plenty of pitchers in that era were heavily roided up themselves. Roger Clemens being the Barry Bonds equivalent on the pitching mound.
I'm not accusing Maddux of using but many, many pitchers have (and still do). Steroids have a legitimate use as an anti-inflammatory. Pitchers who use steroids recover much more quickly from the stress of throwing hard in an unnatural motion.
Nothing against Greg Maddux but I don't want anybody voted into HOF unanimously. If the true legends of the game like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb can't get voted in unanimously, then I don't want some lesser light to get that honor. I hate it when awards get cheapened. Maddux is a great but 80 years from now, he'll be remembered by only hardcore baseball fans while Babe Ruth will probably still be remembered by the typical person 160 years after his playing days.
Maddux is a great one but he's not the best pitcher of this generation, Mariano Rivera is. It is debatable if Maddux is even the best starting pitcher of this generation when Clemens and Johnson get tossed into the discussion. However, Greg Maddux is absolutely worthy of a first-ballot HOF induction without question. (BTW, first-ballot induction is another distinction which has been cheapened over the past few decades - used to be quite an honor - reserved for only the greatest of the greats.)
True, but the 23-inch home plate Maddux always seemed to get didn't hurt him. Still a great pitcher, though.