Maddux: He’s Still (Cy) Young : Baseball: Brave pitcher becomes the first since Koufax to repeat in National League.

Greg Maddux has become the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax to win the National League’s Cy Young Award in successive seasons and the first to win it in successive seasons with different teams.

“I don’t consider myself to be half the pitcher he was,” Maddux said of Koufax, the Dodgers’ Hall of Famer who won the award in 1963 and again in 1965 and ’66.

“But I think I still have six or seven or maybe even 10 years left,” Maddux added.

The 27-year-old right-hander was 20-11 with a 2.18 earned-run average when he won the award with the Chicago Cubs last year.

He was 20-10 with a major league-leading 2.36 ERA for the Atlanta Braves after signing a five-year, $28-million contract as a free agent last winter.

He also led the league in complete games and innings pitched and was third in strikeouts.

“You change teams and you want to make a good first impression,” Maddux said. “I feel like I did that.”

Maddux received 22 of the 28 first-place votes in balloting by a committee of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America to beat the San Francisco Giants’ Bill Swift and John Burkett and teammate Tom Glavine. Each had more victories than Maddux with a higher ERA.

“I’m surprised,” Maddux said of the award. “I think the most important stat is games won, and Glavine, Swift and Burkett all won more than I did.”

The repeat victories by Koufax came when there was only one award. It was not until 1967 that a winner in each league was selected.

Since then, Roger Clemens in 1986-87, Jim Palmer in 1975-76 and Denny McLain in 1968-69 have been repeat winners in the American League.

The only other pitcher to win the award for different teams was Gaylord Perry--with the Cleveland Indians in 1972 and with the San Diego Padres in 1978.

Maddux is the top winner in the majors in the last six seasons with 107 victories. He won 13 of his last 15 decisions in leading the Braves’ surge to their third consecutive NL West title.

“I don’t think about where I rank statistically,” he said. “I still have a lot to accomplish. I still want to pitch in a World Series.

“I also tried not to get too caught up in the competition stuff because I don’t want to be rooting against my teammates,” Maddux said of Glavine and the Cy Young competition.

“But I think the fact that we’re all competitive and try to outdo each other makes us each pitch better.”

Maddux earned a $250,000 bonus for winning the award on top of his $5-million salary and now gets a $500,000 bonus if he wins it again during the remaining four years of the contract.

Glavine received a $75,000 bonus for finishing third and Mark Portugal of the Houston Astros got $50,000 for a sixth-place tie.