(Photo: 1975 Topps baseball card)
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Bill Madlock's first nickname was not "Mad Dog." (That came later.) When he was with the Cubs, his teammates took note of his ample bottom, and tagged him with the nickname of "Buns."
Madlock was a great player for the Cubs. He was a two-time batting champion (1975 & 1976), and an All-Star game MVP (1975), but he was traded after the 1976 season because his contract demands were considered excessive by Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley. Wrigley never quite recognized the irony of paying the vastly inferior player he acquired for Madlock (Bobby Murcer) even more money.
Madlock clearly rubbed Wrigley the wrong way. It may have been because the nickname "Mad Dog" had already begun to emerge. In August of 1975, Madlock's tirade over a close call got him ejected and fined. On May 1, 1976, it happened again when he ignited a brawl between the Cubs and Giants by charging the mound. And in August of the same year, he ripped his teammates for not "protecting him" from brushback pitches.
After leaving the Cubs, Madlock would go on to play 11 more seasons in the big leagues, collect over 2000 career hits, hit for a .305 lifetime average, win a World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and add two more batting titles to his collection.
To the very end Mad Dog remained a fierce competitor, but to his Cubs teammates from the mid-70s, he will always be known as Buns.
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