Maddux is an automatic 15 wins for his team each season

ATLANTA -- Maybe they should call it the Greg Maddux Award.

Not even ol' Cy Young managed this feat of consistency.

Maddux goes to the mound tonight for the Atlanta Braves with a chance to become the first pitcher in baseball history to win 15 games in 16 consecutive seasons. Young, winner of a record 511 games, is the only other pitcher to to collect at least 15 Ws for 15 years in a row.

"People have been playing this game for 125 years now," said Philadelphia pitcher Kevin Millwood, a former Maddux teammate. "To do something nobody else has ever done, it's a very big deal."

Try telling that to Maddux, who approached another career milestone in typically nonchalant fashion.

"I will think about what kind of pitcher I've been when I've retired," he said. "It does me no good to think about what I've accomplished to this point."

If Maddux won't talk about himself, others certainly will.

Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, now a broadcaster for the Braves, marvels at the way Maddux has managed to keep his streak alive through all sorts of potential perils.

"Think of how many things can go wrong," Sutton said. "Players strike. Slip on the kids' cereal in the kitchen. Slam your hand in the car door. Cut your finger opening a can of soup. Stab yourself pulling a cork out of a bottle of wine. Get rear-ended at a traffic light."

Sutton was on the winning side 324 times in his career, but he never managed more than eight straight 15-win years. Maddux began his streak with an 18-8 season for the Chicago Cubs in 1988, and he's never let up -- despite the strike that wiped out parts of the 1994 and '95 seasons.

"He's an artist," Sutton said. "Maybe that's what I appreciate. He's not 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, throwing 99 miles an hour. He has done it with his head, he has done it with his arm, he has done it thinking and planning and preparing."

If Maddux (14-10) doesn't get No. 15 in this game, he'll likely have three more chances. One caveat: With the Braves cruising toward their 12th straight division title, his last start could be nothing more than a brief tuneup for the playoffs on the final weekend of the regular season.

"I realize I can't control the outcome of the game, so I'm not going to worry about it," Maddux said with a shrug.

While Maddux and Young pitched in entirely different eras, there are some parallels between their amazing runs.

Both pitchers had outstanding control, which was more common in Young's time but helps Maddux stand apart in today's high-scoring game.

Young averaged 1.52 walks per nine innings from 1891, when his streak began with a 27-22 record, until 1905, when he went 18-19 for the first losing season of his career. Maddux averaged 1.82 walks over the last 15 seasons, setting an NL record by going 72 1-3 innings without a walk in 2001.

Young had a 2.68 ERA over his 15-year run. Maddux's ERA during his streak? 2.68.

"It stamps him as probably the most consistent pitcher of our time," Millwood said. "Everybody wants to win 20 games at some point as a starting pitcher, but I think you know that the only way you're going to stay here and be successful here is to be consistent. He's been the epitome of that."

So was Young, who often started more than 40 times a season and was usually around in the ninth inning. Breaking down his streak, he had 414 wins, 228 losses, 623 starts, 586 complete games and a staggering 5,693 2-3 innings.

Over the last 15 years, Maddux was 265-134 in 503 starts, encompassing 3,563 2-3 innings and 100 complete games. His streak was in peril three times, most notably in 1990 and '91 with the Chicago Cubs. Both times, he won on the final day of the season for No. 15. Maddux went 15-11 for the Braves in 1996.

"In this day and age of five-man rotations, and bullpens the way they are, and the offense the way that it is, winning 15 games is tough," said longtime Maddux teammate Tom Glavine, now with the New York Mets.

The streak appeared in peril at the start of this season. Maddux began 0-3 for the first time in his career, looking like a batting-practice pitcher while losing 10-2 to Montreal, 17-1 to Florida and 16-2 to Philadelphia. At the end of June, he was 6-8.

Maddux rebounded to go 8-2 over his last 12 starts, putting himself in position for No. 15 despite an ERA of 3.92. He hasn't finished that high since 1987.

Young went 36-12 with a 1.93 ERA for Cleveland -- then a National League team -- in 1892. Jumping to Boston in the new American League in 1901, he was 33-10 with a 1.62 ERA. His 15-win streak ended with a 13-21 mark for the Red Sox in 1906, but he bounced back to win 21, 21 and 19 games over the next three seasons.

Young, who died in 1955, was honored with an award for pitching, of course. Maddux became the first to win four straight Cy Young Awards -- starting with the Cubs in 1992, then three after signing with the Braves.

Maddux's signature season was '95, when he went 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA for a World Series-winning team.

It's still the only championship of a career that figures to end in Cooperstown. Maddux would gladly trade another 15-win season for a second title.

"Do everything I can to help us get a ring -- that's the goal," he said. "I want to win something you can share with somebody."