image via MLB Network

On Wednesday, MLB Network officially announced its Greg Maddux documentary, One of a Kind, premiering on Sunday, August 25.

Awful Announcing first reported news of the documentary in June.

Among those interviewed for One of a Kind, the latest edition of the MLB Network Presents docuseries, are Maddux, Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz.

Here’s MLB Network’s synopsis of the feature.

Maddux’s early struggles upon making it to the Majors will be a focus of the program, with commentary from former Cubs teammate Rick Sutcliffe. Former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone will detail his special bond with Maddux upon first connecting with him during the Spring of 1993, plus former Braves batterymate Eddie Perez will detail how Maddux would call his own signals in his particularly unique way, ever so calculated with each pitch. Clips from a new interview with Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine will be interspersed throughout the program, as they discuss their incredible success as the Big 3 with the Braves. Baseball historians Joe Posnanski and Tom Verducci will marvel at the brilliance of Maddux, with Verducci remarking, “I never got to see van Gogh paint, but I got to see Maddux pitch.”

In addition to a 23-year run that featured greatness on the mound, the program will also highlight Maddux’s unique clubhouse personality that his teammates still talk about to this day. Maddux’s brother Mike Maddux will spotlight Greg’s formative years as part of a Military family, followed by his ascension to MLB, and eventually facing each other during Greg’s rookie season in 1986. Maddux will discuss the famous contract negotiation when he was a free agent in 1992 that led him from the Cubs nearly to the New York Yankees and ultimately to Atlanta.

MLB Network also released two clips from One of a Kind. In the first, Jones and long-time Atlanta Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone discuss Maddux perfectly describing his process and outcome before an at-bat by Luis Gonzalez.

In this clip, Maddux and Bonds each talk about their battle during an at-bat in 1998, which ended in a Bonds homer.

This type of process talk is fascinating to me, and I’m sure many baseball fans will feel the same way.

Following the premiere of One of a Kind on August 25 at 8 p.m. ET, MLB Network will air one of the best starts of Maddux’s career, a two-hit, 14-strikeout, one-walk complete game shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers on May 2, 2001. While the game was not an eponymous Maddux (a complete game with under 100 pitches thrown), it did end in just two hours and nine minutes, a downright sprint in 2001 (when three-hour games were the average, not an anomaly like they are today).

[MLB Network]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.