Despite winning only one World Series title in 1995, the Braves put together one of the most dominating stretches in baseball history, winning 14 consecutive division titles and reaching the Fall Classic five times between 1991-2005.
The team’s trademark during the historic run was pitching, led by pitching coach Leo Mazzone. Once voted by ESPN.com to be the best assistant coach in sports, Mazzone watched — and rocked — from the dugout while Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz won a combined six Cy Young Awards in an eight-year period under his tutelage.
While Mazzone gets praise for his work with the pitching staff and helping hurlers such as Denny Neagle, John Burkett, Russ Ortiz and Jaret Wright have career years, perhaps the pitching success was more artificial than authentic. While on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio show with Evan Cohen and former Mets general manager Steve Phillips on Wednesday, Mazzone hinted that his starters used to engage in some extracurricular work with the baseball to gain an advantage.
“I know that in my little ball bag I had firm grip and all kinds of goodies to take care of a baseball to get a little more movement on it,” Mazzone said on the show.
“Wait a minute! How come our pitchers were pitching with nice bright white shiny baseballs and your guys had pine tar and scuffs all over them?” Phillips asked.
“Well, you had pine tar, that’s for sure,” Mazzone replied. “Because when you were in the postseason and it got called, one time [John Smoltz] had it on his shoes and I said, ‘John, you can’t keep bending over and touching your shoes all the time. Let’s put it someplace else!'”
