As a senior, he was selected by the Houston Astros in the fourth round of the 1966 Major League Baseball draft, but chose to attend the University of Michigan, instead.
[3] Maddox spent just two seasons in the Tigers' farm system, never playing higher than high A ball, before making his major league debut as a 22 year old in 1970.
Likewise, when he joined the Tigers, he served as both a fourth outfielder and third baseman Don Wert's backup.
[5] The day after Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn lifted former Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain's indefinite suspension from Major League Baseball,[6] Maddox was packaged with McLain, Wert and pitcher Norm McRae, and shipped to the Washington Senators for pitchers Joe Coleman and Jim Hannan, and infielders Ed Brinkman and Aurelio Rodríguez.
He was batting .171 with one home run and twelve RBIs at the All-Star break, but managed to bring his average up to .217 with a hot August (.357 avg.)
Under managers Whitey Herzog and Billy Martin, Maddox's playing time dipped substantially in 1973.
Add to that the eight walks he drew, he had a .488 on-base percentage for the month, prompting manager Bill Virdon to move Maddox into the lead-off spot.
He also started the season playing right field, however, soon switched positions with All-Star center fielder Bobby Murcer.
In a Spring training game with the Rangers on March 21, 1975, Maddox was hit by a pitch from Jim Bibby in the first inning.
In the seventh, Yankees pitcher Mike Wallace retaliated by throwing two pitches close to second baseman Dave Nelson's head.
The whole situation was incited by negative comments about Billy Martin that Maddox had made in the press a week earlier.
[16] In a transaction involving three center fielders, Maddox and Rick Bladt were dealt from the Yankees to the Baltimore Orioles for Paul Blair on January 20, 1977.
Maddox, whose first knee operation in September 1975 failed to completely correct all problems, underwent a second and more successful surgery on November 29, 1976, over the objections of Yankees general manager Gabe Paul who thought it was unnecessary and thus traded him for that reason.
[18] By the time Maddox finally joined the O's in mid July, Al Bumbry established himself as a .300 hitter, and earned the starting center field job.
[19] When they returned home, Orioles PA announcer Rex Barney mistakenly referred to him as "Lester Maddox," mixing him up with the segregationist former governor of Georgia.
Unfortunately, that return was delayed until the eighteenth game of the season due to a pulled leg muscle suffered in Spring training.
His wish to play right field was granted, however, a mid April ankle injury knocked him out of the line up for eighteen games.
In Maddox's absence, Youngblood batted .327 with four home runs and eleven RBIs to take the right field job away.
With young prospects Mookie Wilson (center field) and Hubie Brooks (third base) both set to open the season with the Mets in 1981, Maddox became the odd man out, and was released with a year remaining on his contract.
[34] The decision read as follows: The deposition testimony of plaintiff, a professional baseball player, that he was aware of the wet & muddy condition of the playing field on the night he was injured and of the particular puddle in which he fell, that he had during the game called the attention of the grounds keepers to the fact that there was puddling on the field and had previously commented a couple of times to the baseball club manager when the field was wet, established his awareness of the defect which caused his injury and of the risk involved.
His continued participation in the game in light of that awareness constituted assumption of risk as a matter of law, entitling defendants to summary judgment.
There should, therefore, be an affirmance, with costs, of the Appellate Division order.Maddox was arrested for grand theft in 2000 on charges of workman's comp fraud related to this injury.
Maddox enjoyed world travel, and coached baseball and football in his part-time home of Israel.