Do you know when it's your autumn, 1993?

I love this photo of Greg Maddux, ca. November 1993, because it shows someone who appears to be at the apex.

He's at home in Las Vegas, on the phone with Tom Glavine, his friend/Braves teammate/only real competition for the Cy Young award. Fortunately for the reporters assembled in what appears to be his kitchen, he soon received official notification that he did, indeed, win his second consecutive Cy Young. That's his very pregnant wife, Kathy, in the doorway. Their first daughter, Amanda Paige, was born in a few weeks.

Today Greg Maddux is a 320 game winning legend. But when this photo was taken, he was a phenomenon. He was playing on $30 million/3 year contract (huge for the time), and he had a couple more World Series appearances and Cy Young awards ahead of him. Summer of 2007, he's still making $10 million/season, but it's a one-year contract with San Diego. He's still with his high school sweetheart, Kathy, and they added a son to their clan. He seems to still love the game. I'm sure he's happy (I hope he's happy.) But it will never be November 1993 again.

Now that I'm old, I wonder, do you KNOW when it's your winter of 1993? Did he KNOW that this was as good as it was gonna get? Did he enjoy it fully? Ironically, I was very happy in November 1993, too. And no, I didn't appreciate it as much I should have.