They were baseball junkies, really. For Greg Maddux and his older brother, Mike, the grand old game remained a constant wherever their father's Air Force job took them.

From Minot, N.D., to March Air Force Base in Riverside, from Madrid to Las Vegas, the Maddux boys played every chance they could.

This is where the foundation was laid for two distinct major league pitching careers -- one of unparalleled success and one of impressive resiliency.

To this day, the siblings remain very close.

Greg Maddux, 33, a four-time Cy Young winner, spoke admirably of his big brother last weekend when his Atlanta Braves visited

Dodger Stadium. And Mike Maddux, a Dodgers reliever one week shy of his 38th birthday, reflected fondly on some memories from their youth.

Defining moments, like the time their grandfather brought a baseball signed by Hall of Famer Juan Marichal and Vada Pinson, a star outfielder for their beloved Cincinnati Reds.

The souvenir sat on the mantle for about a week.

"It was great," Mike said. "I don't think we used it until we lost our other one."

"We just didn't have many baseballs," Greg said with a shrug. "We had one signed by Tom Seaver and Wilt Chamberlain. I think we wound up losing that one, too."

Their father, Dave Maddux, worked in the Air Force's accounting and finance division. During his time at March in the late 1960s, he began coaching Mike's Little League teams in Riverside. Greg watched those games from the bench, already a student of the game.

The boys learned their discipline from Dave, who knows a thing or two about pitching. Mike remembers his dad throwing no-hitters practically every other game, competing with the top players in the all-service, fast-pitch softball games.

Trying not to take too much credit for the pitching prowess of his sons, Dave said, "I think the genes were there."

On average, the boys spent three hours a night playing baseball, Dave recalled. He coached their teams, he hit the extra grounders.

"You don't get lucky," Dave Maddux said, revealing his secret to raising the two pitchers who rank fourth on the list of all-time strikeouts for brothers with 2,658. "You put in a lot of time hitting ground balls."

Mike began his professional career in 1982, after three years at Texas-El Paso. Greg skipped college and signed as the Chicago Cubs' second-round draft pick in 1984.

Watching Mike go through the ranks slightly ahead of him, Greg had a good mentor. They both reached the big leagues in 1986.

"I taught him everything I knew, and that got him to A-ball," Mike says. "Now I ask him."

Greg just shakes his head.

"Nah," he says. "I don't think I know more than him about anything. Other than maybe growing hair."

Neither pitcher looks very imposing. Neither overpowers hitters.

Both rely on intelligence, guts and pinpoint location.

"We're both right-handers that throw fricking slop," Greg said, putting it another way. "But that's as far as it (the similarity) goes. We both have different slop."

It's not uncommon at family get-togethers for Greg and Mike to begin discussing their approach to certain hitters, the way other brothers might discuss farming or teaching.

"Usually it goes absolutely nowhere," Greg said. "Because if we both know a hitter, we might have two totally different ways of pitching to him.

"I think we both understand that there's different ways to pitch. I don't try to be him, and he doesn't try to be me."

To be sure, their careers are on different planes. Greg draws comparisons to the best pitchers of all-time. Mike seems like a pitcher with nine lives.

With a nagging back injury, Mike made just six appearances in 1997 and was given his unconditional release by the Seattle Mariners.

He resurfaced with the Montreal Expos last year and had one of the better seasons in his career. But the Expos gave up on him two weeks into this season.

Still confident, he arrived in Los Angeles, where he's posted a 2.89 earned run average and become the Dodgers' top right-handed set-up man.

"When you're 35 and injured, people think you're washed up," Mike said. "When you're 25 and injured, you're alright."

Las Vegas has become the permanent home for the entire Maddux clan, including Mom and Dad and the boys' older sister. Both brothers have families of four, and they all spend a great deal of time on the golf course.

Mike relishes his relative anonymity compared to his brother. Greg was featured in a Nike spot with Tom Glavine, Mark McGwire and Heather Locklear ("Chicks dig the long ball,"), but the younger Maddux normally tries to steer clear of the spotlight.

"I wish it was the other way around," Greg said. "To be able to pitch as long as he's pitched, I think that shows a lot of heart. And a lot of smarts, too.

"I feel like my career's been easy compared to his. He's been fighting uphill for 10 years."

Dave Maddux returned to Riverside last week for an old friend's birthday party, then spent the weekend watching his sons' teams square off at Dodger Stadium. He gets to 30 to 40 games a year in person and watches the rest on a satellite dish.

"It seems like my prayers have been answered," Dave said. "I tell everybody, I'm living everyone's dream, having two kids in the major leagues."

Published 8/20/1999