On this day when the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum received their newest members, pitcher Greg Maddux entered the sacred Halls of Cooperstown with one of the greatest careers in baseball history – 355 wins, four Cy Young Awards, 18 Gold Gloves, eight All-Star Game appearances and one World Series championship. In his magnificent 23-year career Maddux tossed 25 shutouts among his 109 complete games. But the one thing that eluded the now 48-year-old San Angelo, Texas native during his stellar career was a no-hitter, which seems almost unbelievable.

There isn’t a single Dodger fan who wasn’t absolutely ecstatic when the Dodgers picked up the (then) 40-year-old Maddux from the Chicago Cubs at the July 31 trade deadline in 2006 for utility infielder Cesar Izturis – not one. And although Maddux arrived with a rather meager 9-11 record and 4.69 ERA, Dodger fans knew that they had a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer in their midst. They also realized in his very first appearance with the Dodgers on August 3, 2006 that even at 40 years old, he was perfectly capable of throwing a no-hitter. In fact, he did… for six innings.

And then the rains came at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, prompting the umpires to delay the game which the Dodgers led 2-0 with Maddux having given up no hits and only three walks through six innings. And even though the delay lasted only 46 minutes, it was long enough to wash out the future Hall of Famer’s bid for his only career no-hitter.

“If it was five or six runs, I’d love to have gone out there and rolled the dice a little bit,” said Maddux after the eventual 3-0 win – his first as a Dodger and the 328th of his career. “But two runs in this ballpark? It’s easy to hit home runs here and they’ve got a lot of guys who can do it. I mean, what are the odds? If it was a bigger lead I would love to have tried it, but it’s not about me. This was a game we needed to win.”

In his debut with the Dodgers on August 3, 2006, Hall of Famer Greg Maddux pitched a no-hitter for six innings when the game was delayed for 46 minutes due to rain, thus ending his bid for his only career no-hitter. (Photo credit – Al Behrman)

But was it Maddux’s decision not to go back out and at least give his one and probably last shot at a no-hitter a try or was it failed Dodgers manager Grady Little’s decision?

“He was saying during the rain delay that he had a no-hitter in Little League and that was going to be good enough for the rest of his life,” said Little.

This sounds more like an attempt at justification by Grady Little than a concession by Greg Maddux. After all, there were undoubtedly times during his 23-year career where Maddux had to sit on the bench for 46 minutes (or longer) while his team was racking up runs in a prolonged offensive outburst and then went back out to pitch. It seems that this would have been a great time for Grady Little to show some confidence and support in his newly arrived pitching legend and at least allow him to pitch until he gave up a hit. Up to that point Maddux had thrown only 72 pitches, 41 for strikes. But as expected, the “scientist” (as it reads on his brand new Hall of Fame plaque), took the high road.

“No, it was OK,” said Maddux. “You don’t want to wait that long. My thoughts were, ‘I hope it rains for three or four hours and they bang it.’”

Greg Maddux – Hall of Fame class of 2014
(Image courtesy of @BaseballHall/Twitter)

But alas it didn’t happen. And even though Maddux finished his career without a no-hitter, he was 8-7 with a 3.94 ERA during his brief career with the Dodgers.