Greg Maddux was just 20 years old when he threw his first big league pitch at Wrigley Field in 1986. A September call up, Maddux pitched in six games that season.

His first two years Maddux went 8-18. In 1988 he went 18-8 to even his record at .500. He also made his first All Star team. Maddux won 95 games in his first stint with the Cubs. The right-hander pitched in two All Star Games and earned the first of his four consecutive Cy Young Awards before leaving for Atlanta.

He eventually returned to the Windy City for parts of three seasons and win a total of 133 games for the Cubs.

Shown here is the very first Topps card on which Greg Maddux appeared. Printed after the 1986 season, Maddux’s first in the big leagues, this rookie card is signed boldly by the 355-game winner.

After winning the Cy Young Award in 1992 with the Cubs, Greg Maddux signed with the Braves that December. In Atlanta he stayed on the path to Cooperstown. His first three seasons with the Braves resulted in three Cys, bringing his total to four in four years.

During the run, Maddux won 75 games with a 1.98 ERA and an ERA+ of 202. His 11 years in Atlanta included 194 wins, a 2.63 ERA, 10 Gold Glove Awards, 11 postseason appearances, and one World Series title.

Shown here is Maddux’s contract extension with Topps Chewing Gum. He was on his way to stardom when he signed this on May 3, 1988. The first year of the extension saw an 18-win season and Maddux’s first All Star appearance.

By the time the contract expired at the end of the 1991 season, Maddux had two of his record 18 Gold Glove Awards and his first $1 million contract. A 355-game winner, Maddux was a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection.

Greg Maddux helped his teams make the postseason in 13 seasons. Once they got there, Maddux was less than dominating.

In 35 postseason games, Maddux went 11-14 with a 3.27 ERA. His won/loss record dips to 6-11 in the League Championship Series and World Series.

In 1995 Maddux earned his lone World Series ring. That October he controlled the hitters. In 5 starts he pitched threw 38 innings and allowed only 4 earned runs. His postseason record in ’95 was 3-1 with a .095 ERA.

Shown here is Bobby Cox‘s lineup card from Game 3 of the 1998 NLCS. After losing the first two games of the 1998 NLCS, Cox handed the ball Maddux to get the Braves back in the series.

The right-hander threw 81 pitches through five innings before being lifted with his team trailing 2-1. The Padres tacked on two more runs and beat the Braves 4-1.

Though the Braves won the next two games of the series, San Diego knocked them out of the post season in Game 6.

Maddux teamed with John Smoltz and Tom Glavine to form one of the mightiest pitching trios in baseball history.

Baseball’s history sets it apart from other professional sports in America. Fans use comparisons of players of different eras to debate Hall of Fame worthiness. Because of the history, great players from the present-day become intertwined with legends of the past.

In the collection is this lineup card that hung in the Braves dugout during Atlanta’s contest vs. the Houston Astros on August 7, 2001. The game brought Braves starter Greg Maddux into a conversation that included the mythical Cy Young, a man from Cooperstown’s inaugural class of 1936 in Christy Mathewson, and Hall of Fame hurlers Red Faber and Jack Morris.

Maddux came into the game with 64 1/3 consecutive innings without a walk, just 3 2/3 innings short of the National League record set by Mathewson in 1913 and equaled by Randy Jones in 1976.

In the fourth inning, Maddux passed the two men and made the record his own. The first-ballot Hall of Fame selection extended mark to 72 1/3 innings before issuing an intentionally pass in his next start to Arizona’s Steve Finley to stop the streak.

Today Maddux still holds the Senior Circuit’s mark for consecutive innings without a walk.

By picking up the win in this game, Maddux became the second pitcher in Major League Baseball history to win 15 or more games in at 14 straight seasons, trailing only Cy Young who won at least 15+ for fifteen straight years from 1891-1905.

In each of his next three seasons Maddux continued his winning ways. His 17 consecutive seasons with 15 or more wins is the MLB record. In terms of non-consecutive 15-win seasons, Maddux and Young top the list with 18.

By 2001, Maddux was climbing the career wins leaderboard, passing Hall of Fame pitchers along the way. This game was his 255th victory to push him past White Sox great Red Faber, a 1964 inductee and Cooperstown class of 2018’s Jack Morris.

For aficionados of America’s National Pastime, this Sunday afternoon game of August 7, 2001 highlighted baseball’s timeline, spanning the 1800’s of Cy Young’s career, the Deaball Era of the teens with the great Christy Mathewson, into the 20’s and 30’s when Faber pitched, up through Jack Morris’ heyday of the 1970’s and 80’s and onto the next millennium to the career of Greg Maddux.