Maddux, Chicago Try It Again

Life After Maddux Is No Problem was how the top headline on the Atlanta Braves’ website read Wednesday, more than a little bizarrely.

Now there’s a Brave attitude.

Call me crazy, but if my team lost a pitcher who already has won more games in his career than Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Whitey Ford, Juan Marichal, Bob Feller or Bob Gibson ever did, “no problem” would not be the first words to spring from my tongue.

“Holy” might be one.

“Cow” (maybe) another.

Spin control is a necessity in the baseball business, however. And not strictly for pitchers.

That is why the Braves are busy accentuating the positive as their staff -- minus Greg Maddux for the first time in 11 years -- prepares to report for spring training at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. ... a good place to put on a happy face.

Now that Mad Dog Maddux is being reunited with the Underdog-No-More Cubs, his old team in Atlanta must face the future with a stiff upper lip. Pretend that everything is fine.

Same as the Cubs did in 1993.

And the Braves are not alone in this bravery. Check out what St. Louis Cardinal pitching coach Dave Duncan had to say:

“You look at the Cubs’ rotation and, yes, that looks real good,” he told a St. Louis reporter. “You look at the Astros’ and that looks real good. But everybody has their warts. If our guys are healthy, I like our starting rotation.

”... Maddux would have been a nice addition, but do you really put him in that category of a No. 1 stud right now? I’m not sure you do.”

I suppose we all can understand why the Cardinals might choose to look at it this way.

However ...

In the stud game, I do believe the Cubs now hold a whole fistful of aces.

And so do the Houston Astros, which is bad news for the Cardinals, Braves or any team with hopes of capturing the National League pennant.

Is that going too far? Well, ESPN’s Peter Gammons went so far Wednesday as to say of the Cubs and Astros: “I think both teams have a chance to win 100 games.”

That’s right, he means the 0-since-1908 Cubs and the 0-for-ever Astros.

Because in contrast to the New York Yankees, sometimes in this game the poor get richer.

Even better for the Cubs, they -- as opposed to George Steinbrenner -- were not required to give up a good player to get a great player. They simply paid hard cash.

Maddux Redux now can begin officially.

In his second tour of duty, the pitcher has a chance to do things as a Cub that he previously was unable to do: Throw a no-hitter. Hit a home run. Be the winning pitcher of a postseason game. (He was unsuccessful in 1989.)

Maybe he will fail, but won’t it be a trip to see him try?

Chicago is Comeback City, USA. You leave, you come back. Michael Jordan, Ryne Sandberg, Scottie Pippen, now Maddux ... they left, they came back. Steve Stone came back to WGN’s booth. Ozzie Guillen is coming back to the White Sox dugout. Even dull old Chicago sportswriters come back.

The first time I saw Maddux pitch at Wrigley Field, the year was 1988, his record was on its way to 18-8 and his salary was $82,500. He hadn’t looked worth much more in his two previous seasons with the Cubs.

The last time I saw Maddux pitch at Wrigley Field, it was Oct. 3 of last year, his Braves salary was $14,750,000 and he was worth every cent.

Mark Prior opposed him in Game 3 of a National League playoff series. Dusty Baker described it memorably as a young lion against a “veteran of many wars” lion, making me see it as a kind of Simba vs. the King.

Randall Simon (remember him?) hit a two-run single off Maddux in the first inning and the Cubs won 3-1. Prior pitched a two-hitter, then said he so admired Maddux, “I picked up things that helped me in the course of the game just by watching how he was handling things out there.”

“He’s like having another coach,” team President Andy MacPhail agreed after Wednesday’s acquisition, a monster home run for Cubs management.

Over these 11 years, “life after Maddux” has gone on in Wrigleyville.

Not a pennant has been won.

It is too late for Maddux to make up for lost time.

But it is not too late, I am very happy to say, to see him and the Cubs kiss and make up.