Straight pitch: Maddux takes time to thank baseball camp teacher

I wondered if time and fame had changed Greg Maddux, but I should have known better.

It didn't take Maddux long during his retirement news conference Monday at the Bellagio to return to childhood and find himself at Mr. Meder's Sunday school of baseball. In keeping with the class act that has defined Maddux's phenomenal, 23-year career, he took time at baseball's winter meetings to thank the man responsible for helping to send him on the path to greatness.

His name was Ralph Meder, but no kid called him by his first name. During long Sundays at Hadland Park and Valley High, through summer and winter in a season that never ended, he was known as Mr. Meder. His camp was the place Southern Nevada's best young baseball players met to work on their fundamentals and test their best stuff.

Over the years, big leaguers Marty Barrett and Mike Morgan would owe debts of gratitude to Mr. Meder. So would the fabulous Maddux boys, Mike and Greg, along with busloads of college and minor league players.

A squatty little man with the body of a bullpen catcher, Mr. Meder preached the fundamentals. He also possessed a keen knowledge of baseball's inner rhythms and nuances. His canvas baseball bag was inexhaustible.

At Mr. Meder's Sunday school Greg Maddux first learned that pitching was much more than throwing hard and finding the strike zone. It was about keeping batters guessing and off balance.

Most of the baseball writers present Monday probably would have preferred Maddux detail his years with the Cubs and Braves, give his opinion about his future Hall of Fame selection or name which of his 355 career victories meant the most to him. But he was happy thanking the late Mr. Meder.

"I think I was just very fortunate," Maddux recalled. "When I was just learning how to pitch when I was 15, 16 years old, I had a pitching coach, Ralph Meder, that taught me that movement was more important than velocity. And I believed him. I don't know why I believed him, but I believed him."

To say Maddux was a quick study is like saying Fred Astaire eventually learned the time step, or Einstein figured out how to work a slide rule.

There are guys who do card tricks. Then there's Houdini. Blessed with the physique of your insurance agent, Maddux pulled scores of victories out of his cap.

To my knowledge, baseball keeps no statistic for the bench press. Maddux was Charles Atlas between the ears.

"You're only as smart as the advice you receive. You know how that goes," he said. "I was very fortunate at a young age to have Ralph teaching me about movement. And when I started learning how to pitch, I wasn't learning how to throw harder. I was learning how to get more movement on the baseball. I threw hard enough, but we learned movement was more important than velocity, and changing speeds was more important than velocity, and location was more important than velocity."

Monday was a time for thanks. With his family in the front row, Maddux praised his wife, Kathy, his kids, and folks. He thanked his coaches, fellow players, and even the clubbies, stadium ushers and security guards.

One row behind mom and dad sat brother Mike. Talk about a second banana. Mike is like all the other Marx brothers but Groucho.

Mike pitched 15 big-league seasons and makes his living as the Texas Rangers' pitching coach, but he'll always be best known as the brother of Greg Maddux. Mike, too, is a Mr. Meder graduate.

"He was the youngest guy out there," he recalled. "Some people get pushed along. Some people get pulled. He got pulled. ... I think that all along because of the mentorship that he had with Ralph Meder, he never got caught up in velocity."

Mike describes his younger brother as humble, smart, hardworking and talented, and in many ways the ultimate over-achiever. It all started at a Sunday school for ballplayers.

Greg Maddux traveled first class in the world of baseball for 23 seasons, but he's still a guy from the neighborhood.

Somewhere out in the grandstands of eternity, down by the bullpen where the real pitchers make the ball do amazing things, Mr. Meder is beaming.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith/.