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DEL.ICIO.USSmoltz going his own way in spring
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — Given the property is owned by a corporation devoted to fantasy, it followed Friday that John Smoltz was allowed to stand on a mound generally reserved for minor-leaguers and pitch in his own private Idaho.
“Strike!” yelled the umpire, Bobby Cox. (He was in the bag.)
This 23rd spring training will be like no other for Smoltz, assuming you can find him. He won’t pitch in an actual game for at least two weeks, maybe three. Until then, games will pretty much take place in his cranium.
It’s sort of like a self-imposed exile. The right-hander has tried to approach spring like a veteran pitcher is supposed to: just work on pitches and situations, forget about winning. But drive and ego invariably take over. “When you get the bases loaded and give up some runs, you just revert back to wanting to get guys out,” he said.
He said he considered “a shock collar.” Instead, he decided the solution was just avoiding going into the real stadium, except maybe to stretch. If this were football, he’d be the kicker.
His spring “debut” came on a practice field. He pitched two simulated innings against, well, five simulated major leaguers:
Gregor Blanco, Javier Guzman, Diory Hernandez, Brent Lillibridge and Brayan Pena. No Chipper Jones or Mark Teixeira, for as Cox said, smiling, “We want him to look good.”
It’s believed Smoltz allowed a run in the first inning. But there was some debate as to whether Teixeira would’ve caught two drives down the right-field line. It was sort of like debating who would win a fight between Superman and the Green Lantern.
“I thought when the crowd got into it, John really turned it up,” general manager Frank Wren said. He then left the field with his pet rabbit, Harvey.
It was one of the more bizarre scenes you’ll find in a pro camp. There was even a five-minute break between the first and second innings, just to give the imaginary home team a chance to hit. (Lasted five minutes. They stranded a base runner.)
The “crowd” included the Braves’ general manager, manager, pitching coach, hitting coach, bullpen coach, bullpen catcher, minor-league manager, a videographer (ordered by Smoltz) and some media members.
No anthem singer.
“I thought about singing it, actually,” Smoltz said later. “Me and Mac [Brian McCann], do a duet.”
Yes, well, there is a limit to even Disney fantasy. Then again, the Braves have learned not to say no to Smoltz. The team’s management and medical staff originally thought he was loony when he said he wanted to leave the bullpen and go back to starting. It turned out he knew his arm and the rest of his body better than anybody else.
So if Smoltz told Cox and pitching coach Roger McDowell he wanted cardboard cutouts on the base- paths and organ music to be pumped in during his warm-up tosses, they weren’t going to debate him. Fact is, Smoltz’s plan gave them extra time to evaluate some other potential starters — Chuck James, Jair Jurrjens, even Mike Hampton.
There’s also this: For as much as Smoltz is known as an all-out power pitcher, he is approaching 41. He needs to learn how to pitch like an old man because, relatively speaking, he is an old man.
“Every time I do something like this, people have said, ‘Oh, he’s reinventing the wheel. He’s got the stuff — just throw it.’ But they have no idea what I go through, both from a physical standpoint and learning what to do when the stuff’s just not there,” he said.
“It took me a year and a half to learn how to throw my slider outside. It took me another year and a half to master the other side [of the plate]. People think you learn a pitch and you master it in two months, but it just doesn’t work that way.”
He tends to start seasons slow, and then warms with the weather. His hope is that more early-season curveballs — of which he threw several Friday — will change that. His hope is that three or four imaginary games against an imaginary team can alter his reality.
“Despite what some people might think, I have a plan,” he said.
We’ve learned. Just go with it.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
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By 18 Wheels of Love
February 29, 2008 8:43 PM | Link to this
I would spoon with John Smoltz given the opportunity.
By Matt Berliner
February 29, 2008 8:49 PM | Link to this
We trust you John.
GO BRAVES!
By guy
February 29, 2008 8:55 PM | Link to this
Enjoy John Smoltz,Chipper Jones,Tom Glavine,and Bobby Cox while you can.They won’t be duplicated,if ever,for a long,long time.
By Larry
February 29, 2008 8:56 PM | Link to this
We not only trust you John we RESPECT you. Braves in 08!!!
By Ryan Z
February 29, 2008 8:58 PM | Link to this
sounds good to me. let the man do what he wants.
By Larry no not Chipper
February 29, 2008 9:02 PM | Link to this
We not only trust you John, we RESPECT you, Go BRAVES ‘08 !!!
By jp
February 29, 2008 9:06 PM | Link to this
smoltz and I have the same birthday. Man it’s so cool to have the same birthday is this guy. Such a great personality.
By Gene
February 29, 2008 10:00 PM | Link to this
My first visit to the Braves spring baseball was in 1967, when I was in college. I have made the trip frequently over the years, and I will be going back in a couple of weeks. It was either ‘67 or ‘68 when I saw Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, who was with with the KC Athletics, Frank Howard, Micky Mantle, Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, and Filipe Alou among others. I have watched Smoltz since ‘89, and I put him with that group. Smoltz is a great baseball player and outstanding person. We have been lucky to have him in Atlanta all these years. Spring baseball has changed quite a bit since West Palm. It isn’t the same, but it is still fun. I saw a picture of Smoltz and Glavin clowning around in the present camp. Smoltz looked like he had lost some weight, and it was wonderful to see him with Glavin again. Lopez and Jones are looking good too. Now, if we could only get Maddux back, it would be “deja vu all over again.” I think that the gods of baseball are going to be very kind to us this year. Speaking of birthdays, I share a birthday with Rico Carty. Now that was a fun guy and one of the greatest hitters to play the game.
By Noch-a-homa
February 29, 2008 11:13 PM | Link to this
Good story Jeff.
Gene - my first game as a 10 yr old was in 1966. Dad, Grandpa and me went to see the Braves and Dodgers on a Saturday. It was the first game of a doubleheader. Braves won 5-4 behind the pitching of Ken Johnson. Johnson homered, Aaron hit one and so did Torre. Tommy Davis hit one for the Dodgers. After the first game we had to leave, Grandpa couldn’t take the heat, so, I missed Drysdale’s start that afternoon. By the way the starter for the Dodgers in game one was some rookie named Sutton, man was I disappointed.
I’ve been a Braves fan ever since, don’t get to see to many in person but I follow each game closely. Go Braves in 08!
By BirdMahn
March 1, 2008 12:29 AM | Link to this
quote: The Guy. Enjoy John Smoltz,Chipper Jones,Tom Glavine,and Bobby Cox while you can.They won’t be duplicated,if ever,for a long,long time.
Amen. A comment of total truth. Those who don’t see it now, will realize it someday.
By Baron
March 1, 2008 12:32 AM | Link to this
Nice story, Jeff. Pertinent info we’ve not heard tell of from any other source. If U Know Who or any other Brave see this, tell Smoltzie that he has unquestioned respect as a master of his craft from baseball fans/craftsmen everywhere. It’ll be a sad day when he hangs it up, I can tell you. But before that, how about another couple Cy-worthy seasons like the last three, huh?
By Bill C.
March 1, 2008 1:04 AM | Link to this
It’s good to hear from Cheif Noc-a-homa again even if it was short. Thought you had gone to the happy hunting ground by now Levi. Let smoltz do what he has to do. He knows what that is by now better than anyone. He’s the best. Braves “2008”
By Tampaparrotthead
March 1, 2008 2:42 AM | Link to this
Great story Jeff… anything about Smoltzie is always a good thing to write about.
Noch-a-homa… I was at that same game and though I was only 6 at the time, I remember a good bit about it. Admittedly, most of what I remember is the others talking about some of the details. But I do remember Sutton and Drysdale pitching and the homeruns… we knew a little about Sutton because he was from south Alabama, not too far from us at the time.
The funny thing is that the clearest memory that I have of that day was all of us eating lunch at the buffet at the Howard Johnson’s that was about a block south of the old stadium (where Turner field sits today)… we may have stayed there as well. I got a replica Braves batting helmet that day that I still have. Dad said that including tickets, lunch, stadium food and souvenirs that we probably dropped fifty bucks that day! Those were the days!
By bill
March 1, 2008 7:26 AM | Link to this
What a great start to the day…read a great article on my favorite Brave then read the most positive blogs that one could imagine. My first baseball memories are of my Dad and me listening and/or watching the Game of the Week in the 50’s. I was a Yankee fan (young and naive) and Dad was a Brooklyn Dodger fan. We had the best time rooting against the other’s team. I have been a die-hard Braves’ fan since they moved to Atlanta…never miss a game on tv, listen to them if traveling, and try to make it to a couple games a year. My wife and I lived in Stone Mountain until ‘76 and would go to the games on a regular basis…always sitting in left field, lower section behind Hank. The seats were $2 and you could take a thermos of beer in with you…great times. We saw many of the memorable games, including Hank’s record-breaking homer (one of the 458,000 that saw it). My wife flew for Eastern and we had been in Florida visiting her parents but flew into ATL a couple hours before the game. We decided to try getting in, got a couple of upper level seats, then decided to go out to our favorite left field seats until the ticket-holders showed up. The baseball gods were with us because we only moved seats a couple times before the game started, then stayed where we were for the entire game. We were about 10 rows up behind the left field fence and when Hank hit the homer it looked as if it were coming right to us. Of course, it dropped just over the fence, but the thrill is still there when I think about the moment. Baseball…ain’t it great!!!
By Noch-a-homa
March 1, 2008 7:37 AM | Link to this
Tampaparrotthead
That is great, it’s a small world. My memory is a little short, what I did remember is a Saturday doubleheader in June, 1966, Drysdale and Sutton, and the Braves pitcher Ken Johnson launching one. With that info there is a website called retrosheet.org that has boxscores for lots of games. Go to that website, click on Franchise, then Atl Braves, then 1966 then Atl Braves, then game log, then June 25.
After looking at it again it was Rico Carty, not Aaron, Willie Davis not Tommy D who hit HR’s.
Last year I returned the favor and took my 77 yr old dad and oldest son to a June Saturday game right around the same date. I gave dad a copy of the game from retrosheet. It was a good weekend, even though the Braves lost to the Tigers 2-1.
By Noch-a-homa
March 1, 2008 7:55 AM | Link to this
I’ve never visited Cooperstown but I’ve told my wife when Glavine, Smoltz, Maddux, Cox, Chipper and Schuerholz are inducted I plan to attend as many of them as possible. In my mind, these guys are special and each deserves a spot.
By Gene
March 1, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this
Hey, Noch-a-homa, I was at the game you mentioned. I don’t have a great memory for details, but I saw Drysdale and Johnson. In 1966, I was a student at GSU and attended about a third of the home games. General admission was $1.00, and I had a big thermos I filled with draft beer. I am sure that I saw at least one game of each home stand in ‘66 and ‘67. In the early days, there was a lot more contact between players and fans during spring training. I guess it was ‘67 when I walked from the stadium at W. Palm with Filipe Alou and just chatted with him for 5 minutes or so. I also had the pleasure of meeting Levi Walker during the Olympics. He had his teepee set up outside the stadium. My brother got a photo of me chatting with him. A few years ago, I got to talk to Phil Nekro about the old Braves. Those were great days, in spite of the fact that the Braves had no pitching, except for Nekro. They could put some balls into the seats, though. I can’t talk about them without mentioning Eddie Matthews, whom I saw when I was about 5 years old at old Ponce de Leon with my father and brother.
By john
March 1, 2008 9:22 AM | Link to this
This is what baseball should be all about. We will say thank you now and once again when it becomes a memory. I had the pleasure to see Maris hit his 61st in person. I had a chance to talk about it with Mantle in 91. I enjoyed the exact portrayal of it in 01 (61). 98 was a special year for me because I saw Sosa hit over his 60th in San Diego. How many people have been in a stadium when a guy hit over his 60th? Mantle will always be my hero. Maris is still the homerun king for one year!! Sad, but true. This has nothing to do with our great Smoltz. I just wanted to share my favorite baseball memory.
By Gene
March 1, 2008 10:01 AM | Link to this
This blog has become has become a memory lane for aging baseball fans. This isn’t about Smoltz or even baseball, but a note to Mr. Parrothead in Tampa. I attended Auburn in 1964-65 and wrote sports for the school newspaper. About 20 years ago, I saw an interview with Jimmy Buffett in which he said he attended Auburn for a year and worked on the paper. I pulled out the old annual, and there he was. In fact, he and I hitch hiked to the old War Eagle dive one night after working on the paper and got drunk. No singing or guitar playing, just college drunkeness and prowling for girls.
By JD
March 1, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this
I’m baaaack!!!!
By jeffc
March 1, 2008 11:53 AM | Link to this
If the Braves had had just one more player with the tenacity of Smoltz during the 90’s, we would own a few more World Series trophies. Here’s hoping he one day manages the team.
By GoHawks
March 1, 2008 12:09 PM | Link to this
I have absolutely no idea what this article was about. wtf.
By JEB
March 1, 2008 12:23 PM | Link to this
There is NO player in baseball like John Smoltz! NONE!! His tenacity, competive fire, and character are unmatched by anyone! I don’t believe we can name one player who has re-shaped, re-formed, and re-tooled himself as much as John has! Each time being a success. We will talk of this man and his accomplishments for longer than he has played. A first ballot HOF’r! A player worthy of pointing your sons to immulate!
By Shamus Thacker
March 1, 2008 7:47 PM | Link to this
By the time I post, somebody has always said what I was gonna say.
Nice piece JS; and I know damn well that some-damn-body-else has already said that!!
By Shamus Thacker
March 1, 2008 7:57 PM | Link to this
jeffc, that’s a great idea; with Hoss the batting coach, Tommy handling the pitchers.
I don’t think a statue of Bobby will be enough when he retires. The Braves should erect a Cox Mausoleum as part of the center field wall. Somebody already said that!?