After his preposterous stretch of dominance in the strike-shortened 1994 season, it appeared implausible for Greg Maddux to follow up his incredible campaign with an even more extraordinary run. Yet, somehow, the man whose introduction to baseball came at the age of four at a barnyard in Indiana where, if a ball was hit into the cornfield, it was considered a dinger, outdid himself. En route to winning his fourth straight Cy Young Award, Maddux led the league in wins (19), W-L percentage (.905), ERA (1.63), complete games (10), shutouts (3), innings pitched (209.2), and WHIP (0.811). On the road, he went a perfect 13-0, with a jaw-dropping 1.12 ERA. This unprecedented feat made him the first pitcher in history to win more than ten games on the opposition’s field without suffering a loss over the entirety of a single season. The man finished with more complete-game shutouts (3) than defeats (2). Just flat-out ridiculous.
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