The Most Focused Athletes of All Time

GREG MADDUX

One of the best pitchers in recent memory, Greg Maddux was an indisputably dominant pitcher who somehow never dominated—and that’s meant in the best way possible. Unlike the other top pitchers of his playing days such as Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, Maddux never had a particularly quick fastball he could always fall back on. Instead, Maddux relied on pinpoint accuracy and putting strong movement on his pitches—sinkers were his specialty.

As a result, Maddux was never the pitcher blowing away hitters with strikeouts, he’d just get them to make outs on harmless ground balls and pop-ups. Through his effective strategies and meticulous preparation behind every pitch, Maddux finished a career in which he was able to appear in eight All Star Games, win four Cy Young Awards and lead the way for the Braves in winning the 1995 World Series. He also won 355 games, a number that won’t be touched for a long time by any current and future MLB pitchers, if at all.