Letters

Maddux has been a good pitcher since 1988, but greatness is based not on a season, not even on a decade, but on a lifetime.
ADAM N. McKEOWN, ALEXANDRIA, VA

Pitcher Perfect
Greg Maddux (Once in a Lifetime, Aug. 14) should open people's eyes to the fact that players don't have to be in grainy black and white to be legends; they walk among us today for all to see in full color on TV.
Matthew Zuss, Brooklyn

You call Maddux the "best righthander in the past 75 years," yet your article compares Maddux mostly with Sandy Koufax, a lefthander. Furthermore, your chart on ERAs lists four righthanders whose numbers, although outstanding, don't compare with those of possibly the greatest righthander ever, Juan Marichal.

Koufax is written about as the standard for all comparison, and while those four years you cited were great, Marichal had comparable numbers during his best four years. After Koufax retired in 1966, Marichal went on to have three consecutive seasons with ERAs of 2.76 or less and two more 20-game seasons, giving him six in seven years. His numbers for his best four years were better than those of Bob Feller, Roger Clemens and Dwight Gooden, all of whom were in your chart.

In writing about great righthanders and four-year windows, you should have started with Marichal and kept focus on righties.
JAMES MAIONE, Carlstadt, N.J.

You used Bob Feller's 1938 to '41 record for comparison. Feller was only 19 years old in '38, when he won 17 games. Why didn't you choose 1939 to '41 and '46, when Feller won 24, 27, 25 and 26 games, respectively? I am skipping 1945, because he started only nine games late in the season, after spending almost four years in the Navy during World War II.
BOB HUGHES, Troy, Mich.

Greg Maddux better than Bob Gibson? Hogwash. Give me a call when Maddux has 13 shutouts in one year or 255 complete games for his career. Gibson faced the likes of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Pete Rose to earn his place in the Hall.
RICH BAKER, Danville, Ill.

I disagree with your statement that "from 1963 to '66 the lefthanded Koufax put up the best four-year numbers of any pitcher in the past 75 years." Actually, Koufax's four-season run was not quite as good as that of Lefty Grove from 1929 to '32. Grove's record over that span was 104-25 compared with Koufax's 97-27. Each of them led his league in ERAs all four years, each led his league three times in strikeouts, and each led his league twice in complete games. Grove had 25 saves, while Koufax had just three. In short, while Koufax's numbers are stunning, they still fall short of the standard Grove set.
KEVIN G. STONE, Mechanicsburg, Pa.

How quickly we forget about greats like Nolan Ryan, who just two seasons ago retired with more than 5,000 strikeouts and seven no-hitters.
MICHAEL HERTZ, Godfrey, Ill.

Disabled Athletes
The day before I read your article on disabled athletes (Ready, Willing and Able, Aug. 14), I watched California Angel Jim Abbott pitch seven innings of shutout baseball against Kansas City. As a disabled athlete competing against able-bodied athletes at the highest level, Abbott is an outstanding example of what determination and courage can accomplish.
DAVID F. DEAN, San Diego