Notes From His 1975 Season: Phil Niekro appeared in 39 games for the Atlanta Braves in 1975. He went 15-15 on the year with 13 complete games and 1 shutout. Niekro worked 275 innings in 1975, allowing 285 hits and 115 runs en route to a 3.20 ERA. He was chosen as a National League All-Star during the season.

Notes From Career: Hall of Famer Phil Niekro has 318 career wins as a major league pitcher, including two 20-win seasons. Niekro is a 5-time All-Star and 5-time Gold Glove Award winner with a career ERA of 3.35. He threw 5,404 innings during his career, striking out 3,342 batters during that time.

On this day in 1978 Gaylord Perry was awarded with the National League Cy Young Award. Winning this individual award marked the first time in major league history in which a pitcher earned that honor in both leagues.

On this day in 1994, Greg Maddux won his third straight Cy Young award. He was the first pitcher in major league history to earn the award in three consecutive seasons.

Being one of the best pitchers in the sport over that length of time is a major accomplishment. And when some of your greatest competition is coming from your teammates, I am sure that the pride of being the ‘Ace’ of the staff gave Maddux even more gratification.

Here is a look at Maddux’s numbers from those three seasons:

1992 – 20-11, 2.18 ERA, 9 complete games, All-Star, Gold Glove

1993 – 20-10, 2.36 ERA, 10 complete games, Gold Glove

1994 – 16-6, 1.56 ERA, 10 complete games, All-Star, Gold Glove

Oh, and it should be noted that Maddux went on to win the Cy Young award in 1995 too – setting an all-time record with four consecutive wins!!

On this day in 1985, and at the age of 46, Phil Niekro joined the 300 Wins Club.

A seasoned veteran with 24 years of major league experience, Niekro tallied win after win through 3 decades leading up to this historic day.

On the last day of the regular season, Niekro and his New York Yankees team was on the road to take on the Toronto Blue Jays. 44,000+ fans packed the stadium and watched history be made as Niekro earned his 300th victory as the Yankees won the game 8-0. In the game, he pitched all 9 innings en route to 4-hit shutout.

And now that he has been out of the game for almost a few seasons, it gets pretty easy to look back at his amazing career and say that he is one of the greatest pitchers from his era and ranks pretty high on the all-time list as well.

With a pitching career that boasts of every major pitching accomplishment achieved, and some multiple times, Johnson was a machine during his playing days. From No-Hitters to Cy Young awards to Strikeout records to perfect games to 300 wins to World Series championships, Johnson has done it all.

He is an absolute first-ballott Hall of Famer, and I personally feel that his talents would have dominated any generation of the sport.