Speaker 1: My dream would have been to play for the Detroit Tigers,
Speaker 1: but my goal was still alive. So once I got
Speaker 1: to Richmond, which is triple A, I had to get
Speaker 1: moved up because I got traded for a big leaguer.
Speaker 1: I realized, Wow, Atlanta's not very good and they could
Speaker 1: use some pitching. Hi. My name is John Smoltz, and
Speaker 1: I am golf.
Speaker 2: Hi everybody, and welcome back to a post Super Bowl
Speaker 2: edition of Off the Beat. That's right, no more football,
Speaker 2: but it's still me, your host, Brian Baumgartner. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl is over. Football season is officially done, but
Speaker 2: after winter comes the spring training. Spring training guys get
Speaker 2: it here to help us ease into that magical transition
Speaker 2: from football season to baseball season. My guest today is
Speaker 2: none other than well he would call himself a hero
Speaker 2: of mine, John Smoltz. John, of course, a first ballot
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame pitcher, eight time All Star, nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: five World Series champion, who spent twenty years on my
Speaker 2: hometown team, the Atlanta Braves. How's this for some perspective.
Speaker 2: He joined the Braves when I was in high school
Speaker 2: back in Atlanta, and he stayed with the team until
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, which was quite a long time
Speaker 2: after I graduated from high school. Let's just put it
Speaker 2: that way. Nowadays, John is the lead game analyst for
Speaker 2: Fox Sports MLB coverage, including eight years in a row
Speaker 2: analyzing for all of us at home the World Series.
Speaker 2: John is a renowned golfer as well make king appearances
Speaker 2: on the Champions Tour of course, a regular at the
Speaker 2: American Century Championship, and he is a two time winner
Speaker 2: of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Not to
Speaker 2: mention he's a rippin accordion player. I'm gonna stay very
Speaker 2: far away from that. So here he is Marmaduke, the
Speaker 2: guy I call Smoltzy John, Smoltz.
Speaker 3: Bubble and squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeakna Bubble
Speaker 3: and squeaker. Cook get every moleft over from the ninety four?
Speaker 2: What's up, Johnny? Not a hole lot, Not a hole lot, Smoltzy, Marmaduke.
Speaker 2: Where did Marmaduke come from? I just saw that.
Speaker 1: Marmaduke came in my first year from Dale. Murphy nicknamed
Speaker 1: me Marmaduke and put a huge bone over my locker,
Speaker 1: and it had Duke on it, and he said I
Speaker 1: reminded him of the cartoon character or caricature of Marmaduke.
Speaker 2: I hadn't heard that one before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2: Everybody calls you yeah multi right, that's the one that's done.
Speaker 1: In the big leagues. If you can add a why
Speaker 1: to anybody's last name, that's usually what happens. You know,
Speaker 1: That's what everybody And to be honest with you, that
Speaker 1: was the biggest habit I had to break when I
Speaker 1: became a broadcaster because I only knew guys by their nicknames.
Speaker 1: I had to look up some guys first names because
Speaker 1: because you only know him by your nicknames and the
Speaker 1: last names, that's uh yeah, I had to do a
Speaker 1: little work on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right. I want to talk about you as
Speaker 2: the lead analyst on Fox MLB eight world series in
Speaker 2: a row. You've now called more world series that you
Speaker 2: appeared in, and you appear in a hell a lot.
Speaker 2: You grew up in Michigan a big Tigers fan, you were.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Your grandfather, father John, he worked for the Tigers for
Speaker 2: a long time, Is that right?
Speaker 1: He did. He was on the ground crew for twelve
Speaker 1: thirteen years, and he worked in the press room and
Speaker 1: we went to game after game because he could get
Speaker 1: us in. We would sit in seats till somebody tapped
Speaker 1: us on the shoulder and said that those were their seats,
Speaker 1: So we moved around till somebody didn't show up. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he used to tell everybody when I was twelve, thirteen,
Speaker 1: fourteen years old, go to the games. He goes one day,
Speaker 1: my grandson's going to play in the big leagues, and
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, Grants, hey, you know, stop.
Speaker 1: But he told everybody that came through the press room,
Speaker 1: all the general manager, owners, you know, all the people
Speaker 1: that would come through and lo and behold. You know,
Speaker 1: it ended up happening.
Speaker 2: Who was your favorite Tiger growing up?
Speaker 1: I would say Alan Trammel Lou Whitaker that I had
Speaker 1: number three in high schoo and Alan Trammel war number three.
Speaker 1: You know. I went to the eighty four World Series
Speaker 1: game that they won where Gibson hit the home run
Speaker 1: off of Goose Gossage. I was sitting right there. The
Speaker 1: best story of all time is that, you know, here
Speaker 1: I am. This is I don't know, you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm going to get drafted the next year, but there's
Speaker 1: a good chance I get drafted, the Tigers win it.
Speaker 1: We're in the stands, my dad, my brother and I
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, in Detroit when they won the
Speaker 1: World Series, the people went on the field and started
Speaker 1: ripping up the infield and started throwing the sod. So
Speaker 1: me and my brother went and got the sod and
Speaker 1: we planted it in our backyard. We have like two
Speaker 1: or three squares of the infield sod, and my dad
Speaker 1: put a tiger statue that overlooked the tiger grass. And
Speaker 1: then the next year I get drafted by the Tigers.
Speaker 1: It didn't get drafted where I wanted to, but end
Speaker 1: up working out. I signed last day. I was going
Speaker 1: to Michigan State on Monday and Sunday, and I signed
Speaker 1: with the Tigers. So I started my quest to be
Speaker 1: with my hometown team. Now, fast forward to the trade,
Speaker 1: which wasn't setting well with everybody in the hometown, you
Speaker 1: know State. I came home that offseason and the tiger
Speaker 1: was gone and the grass had been pulled up.
Speaker 2: My band wasn't Yeah because I got because the Tigers
Speaker 2: traded you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow?
Speaker 2: When you when your grandfather was telling owners everybody in
Speaker 2: the press box that his grandson was going to play
Speaker 2: for the Tigers. Were you good at that time? I was,
Speaker 2: Were you playing? You were? You were playing and having
Speaker 2: some success. It wasn't crazy, No, it wasn't crazy.
Speaker 1: But the crazy part was like, you know, how would
Speaker 1: you know that it's going to be with the Tigers.
Speaker 1: You know there's thirty teams. And when draft time came,
Speaker 1: I hadn't signed so early to go to Michigan State.
Speaker 1: I think it hurt my draft stock, and so I
Speaker 1: got drafted in the twenty second round, which in that
Speaker 1: day you just you don't go, you don't sign. You know,
Speaker 1: college is worth more. I had a fan fantastic summer.
Speaker 1: I played in the three top tournaments, Triple ABA, Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: I played in the Junior Olympics. I unfortunately lost two
Speaker 1: to one in the gold medal game to Cuba. But
Speaker 1: it was a great summer in My stop kept rising,
Speaker 1: so that's what allowed the money to get closer to
Speaker 1: first round money. And I literally did sign at the
Speaker 1: last minute, so it ended up working out in a
Speaker 1: weird way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I read that you were going to go to
Speaker 2: Michigan State. Was jud like, did he specifically recruit you?
Speaker 1: Judge said that I could play both sports. You know,
Speaker 1: I could come out for basketball and then I played
Speaker 1: basketball and baseball. That was one of the things we discussed.
Speaker 1: I had probably better offers basketball wise at smaller schools
Speaker 1: in the mid Michigan area, but I was really intrigued
Speaker 1: with the opportunity to play both sports. It was one
Speaker 1: of the few times that jud Heathcote didn't have a
Speaker 1: true point guard, and I could have helped a lot.
Speaker 1: Don't know how much I would have played because of
Speaker 1: the two sports and somewhat of a crossover, but not much.
Speaker 1: And that I kind of always think, well, what, you know,
Speaker 1: what would that have been? Like, basketball is my first love.
Speaker 1: I played. I played all the way till I was
Speaker 1: fifty one, and I think that would have been That
Speaker 1: would have been a tremendous challenge. I would have loved
Speaker 1: to see how I could have done.
Speaker 2: Do you think you can shoot the rock better than me?
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be It wouldn't be fair if we joke,
Speaker 1: if we went in the gym and we shot like
Speaker 1: thirty three points.
Speaker 2: Let me let me ask you a question. Yeah, have
Speaker 2: you ever free throw line extended fifteen footers?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Have you ever made thirteen in a row on national
Speaker 2: television because one of us has.
Speaker 1: I have not made thirteen in a row, my but
Speaker 1: my record is sixty six in a row.
Speaker 2: Sixty six free throws in a row. Yes, Wow, that
Speaker 2: would be a challenge. That would that would be a change.
Speaker 2: The legs might get a little like get a little Bernie.
Speaker 2: Did you take three days? Did you shoot like twenty
Speaker 2: two and then the next day shoot twenty two six?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Our coach, our coach had a competition every year,
Speaker 1: in every every day in high school on pre throws,
Speaker 1: and I got to sixty six? Was was the record?
Speaker 1: You know? If I were to go in a gym today,
Speaker 1: people ask me all the time, and I haven't shot much.
Speaker 1: I think I could make eighty eight to ninety out
Speaker 1: of one hundred, just.
Speaker 2: Continuous, Okay, all right, we might have to one of
Speaker 2: these one of these events. We might have to. We
Speaker 2: might find it. Take away, we might find it. We
Speaker 2: might find it. Jim, I like that. I got to
Speaker 2: find something I can beat you and John. I do
Speaker 2: have to mention you talked about being recruited to sports
Speaker 2: Michigan State, which again was your was you're you were
Speaker 2: a fan, you were a Michigan State guy growing up,
Speaker 2: and then you got drafted. But I got to ask
Speaker 2: you because I read this nineteen eighty. It was your
Speaker 2: senior season. You played the championship game in high school.
Speaker 2: Their heavy favorites. Now I want you to tell me
Speaker 2: the story a little bit. There was some requirements about innings.
Speaker 2: You could only pitch a certain number of innings.
Speaker 1: No, there wasn't requirements. We were not a great baseball team.
Speaker 1: I believe I was thirteen and four, twelve and four,
Speaker 1: and we were thirteen and fourteen, Okay. So it was
Speaker 1: an invitational tournament that we got invited to, and it's
Speaker 1: the top teams in the state usually get picked. It's
Speaker 1: a Friday Monday Wednesday tournament. And so I pitched Friday
Speaker 1: against my former high school that I transferred from to
Speaker 1: political reasons. I threw a no hitter and struck out
Speaker 1: sixteen against them.
Speaker 2: By the way, that was Lansing Catholic Central School. I
Speaker 2: did my research, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, and then Monday I pitched and we won.
Speaker 1: When was the championship game, I couldn't pitch, you know,
Speaker 1: it would obviously can't do Friday Monday. I mean, it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be physically smart and so the championship games on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: there's a ton of people there. We get to the
Speaker 1: third inning and there's bases loaded, nobody out, and the
Speaker 1: game is tied now. And I called my coach out,
Speaker 1: who was my basketball coach, and he was filling in
Speaker 1: for the baseball coach vacancy, and I said, let me
Speaker 1: get out of this jam. And he goes, okay, And
Speaker 1: then what I said, well, we'll just piece it together,
Speaker 1: but let me get out of the jam. I get
Speaker 1: out of the jam. I pitched the fourth, I pitched
Speaker 1: the fifth. It's now the sixth. I'm gassed. It's now
Speaker 1: seven innings is what we played. I pitched the top
Speaker 1: of the seventh, then an extra innings in the bottom
Speaker 1: of the eighth. I hit a walk off home run
Speaker 1: to win the championship on my last swing in my
Speaker 1: high school career, and to this day still one of
Speaker 1: the greatest moments I've ever had, other than winning the
Speaker 1: World Series for Major League Baseball. I don't like in basketball,
Speaker 1: I never talked, and in baseball, I never talked. But
Speaker 1: when I hit that home run, I was it was immediate.
Speaker 1: I was jumping up and down at home plate, and
Speaker 1: I think at some point the empire goes Okay, now
Speaker 1: you got to run around and I ran around the
Speaker 1: bases that everybody on the other team kind of gave
Speaker 1: me five. And it was It was one of those
Speaker 1: things I wouldn't recommend, like in your senior year, pitching
Speaker 1: all those innings, but it worked out and you know
Speaker 1: we ended up winning it.
Speaker 2: Well, I ask you about it because of your future success.
Speaker 2: I have I read that you said best on field
Speaker 2: baseball achievement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the home run at Branded High School.
Speaker 1: But I did pitch Monday and Wednesday. I mean I
Speaker 1: did pitch Friday and Monday, complete games, and I was
Speaker 1: just thinking I could get out of the jam and
Speaker 1: then we'd figure something out. And I just said, I'll
Speaker 1: go one more, and then I'll go one more, and
Speaker 1: I'll go one more, and to hit that home run,
Speaker 1: and everybody ran on the field. I think the next
Speaker 1: day they might have pushed back exams and we had
Speaker 1: a big pep rally and it was pretty cool for
Speaker 1: our school. We're not really we're not known for baseball.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. You mentioned making the last minute decision to
Speaker 2: go to the hometown Tigers. You were about to report
Speaker 2: for classes at Michigan State. Was it the money? Was
Speaker 2: it that it was your hometown team? Was it you
Speaker 2: were just ready to start your professional career? Like where
Speaker 2: it came down to the end? What was what was
Speaker 2: the deciding factor?
Speaker 1: So to tell you how many thousands of years ago
Speaker 1: it was one hundred thousand dollars was first round money
Speaker 1: back then? Okay, today obviously it's millions and good for them.
Speaker 1: But my high school are my college coach at the time,
Speaker 1: Michigan State, Tom Smith, I don't know of many other
Speaker 1: people that would have done this well. As he sat
Speaker 1: in the room and he said, is that is we
Speaker 1: want you to come to Michigan State. If you get
Speaker 1: first round money, you really need to go. You'll be ready.
Speaker 1: And that point it was the perfect scenario. I did
Speaker 1: get first round money. It took all the way to
Speaker 1: the end to get that because you know, twenty second
Speaker 1: rounders don't get that. And I felt like I was
Speaker 1: ready and I told my dad, he was basically doing
Speaker 1: all my negotiations for me. He was a salesman by trade,
Speaker 1: and I told him, Dad, if you can get me
Speaker 1: first round money, I'll go. If not, I'm ready to
Speaker 1: go to Michigan State, and so it was a perfect balance.
Speaker 1: I think back to my college coach at the time,
Speaker 1: I'm like, he didn't have to do that, but he
Speaker 1: knew what was best for me at the time. If
Speaker 1: that happened and it worked.
Speaker 2: Out, you know. I like to look at sort of
Speaker 2: defining moments in your life, it specifically in your career,
Speaker 2: like do you ever go back and wonder if that
Speaker 2: was the right decision, if you were ready, or do
Speaker 2: you feel like you it was time for you to
Speaker 2: start your career.
Speaker 1: I felt like it was the best track to get
Speaker 1: to the big leagues. You know. At that time and
Speaker 1: the way that baseball was being played, there were a
Speaker 1: lot lot of guys that played a long time, right,
Speaker 1: it was more about preparing to play long term than
Speaker 1: just what today's world is about exercising the maximum velocity
Speaker 1: and everything they can do. So it got me into
Speaker 1: the system quicker and it allowed me to navigate, and
Speaker 1: of course the trade helped big time. But I do
Speaker 1: think a lot about what would it have been like
Speaker 1: to go play two sports and to play basketball. But
Speaker 1: ultimately that decision led to some other decisions that ultimately
Speaker 1: gave me the greatest opportunity with the Atlanta brains.
Speaker 2: Your dad rips up the turf, he takes down the
Speaker 2: tiger because Doyle Brunson comes to Detroit and you head
Speaker 2: across the country to Atlanta. Initially, this is nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 2: Now it's only three years in, by the way, but
Speaker 2: it is three years you spent now three years with
Speaker 2: the organization. Were you happy, could you see anything or
Speaker 2: were you just like, well, shit, I just I was traded.
Speaker 1: I was devastated. I was so My dad was a
Speaker 1: jokester and he liked to prank and call me. He was,
Speaker 1: you know, always laughing, and I was having a miserable
Speaker 1: double a season. I think I was five and eleven
Speaker 1: and I was sitting in Glenn's Fall's Stadium and I
Speaker 1: got two notes given to me. One was call home immediately,
Speaker 1: or called my dad, and then the next was called
Speaker 1: Detroit Front Office. Well, I thought something's wrong with my dad.
Speaker 1: So again a thousand years ago, I used the payphone
Speaker 1: in the clubhouse and I called my dad and I said,
Speaker 1: is everything okay? And he goes, You've just been traded
Speaker 1: to the Atlanta Braves. I said, Dad, it's not funny.
Speaker 1: I'm not having a good year. I promise you I'm
Speaker 1: going to come home and this is not funny. He goes, no,
Speaker 1: I just heard it. And then I looked at the
Speaker 1: other note and I went, Dad, i'mna have to call
Speaker 1: you back. I called Detroit front office and again I'm
Speaker 1: just like my head spinning, and they said, You've been
Speaker 1: traded for Doyle Alexander to go to Richmond with the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Braves. You know, got a report and my manager
Speaker 1: was in the office and he said, what is the deal.
Speaker 1: I said, I've just been traded and I was speechless
Speaker 1: and again not thinking that somebody wanted me. I felt
Speaker 1: like my team didn't want me because I was five
Speaker 1: and eleven, I was a top prospect. Well, when I
Speaker 1: made the fourteen hour drive, my dad called and said,
Speaker 1: you want me to come with you. I said no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this myself. I made the fourteen hour drive,
Speaker 1: and in that drive I realized my goal was to
Speaker 1: make it to the big news. My dream would have
Speaker 1: been to play for the Detroit Tigers, but my goal
Speaker 1: was still alive. So once I got to Richmond, which
Speaker 1: was triple A, I had to get moved up because
Speaker 1: I got traded for a big leaguer. I realized, Wow,
Speaker 1: Atlanta's not very good and they could use some pitching,
Speaker 1: and so it get kicked in right away. It gave
Speaker 1: me unbelieve opportunities and I look back and go, you know,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt. I feel like I would have made
Speaker 1: it with Detroit, but there's no doubt that this was
Speaker 1: the best route for me. And you know the rest
Speaker 1: was history.
Speaker 2: So enter into the story. Me I am, I'm in
Speaker 2: high school. The Braves are terrible. They have been terrible.
Speaker 2: You know, I had birthday parties at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.
Speaker 2: It was really easy to do. As you said, go
Speaker 2: just go sit wherever you want to sit, because the
Speaker 2: likelihood was no one was going to show up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was a huge Braves fan. You were there and
Speaker 2: eventually make the big leads and start what is one
Speaker 2: of the greatest runs in baseball history, some would say
Speaker 2: the greatest in terms of division titles one. It all
Speaker 2: starts with that worst to first year in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2: I feel like, I remember remember this. When I was
Speaker 2: looking over this, this came up which I had totally forgotten,
Speaker 2: and I would have given you shit over the years,
Speaker 2: if I had remembered this, the Braves in ninety or
Speaker 2: awful ninety one end up making an improbable and historic
Speaker 2: World Series run ends up being what I believed to
Speaker 2: be is the greatest World Series of all time against
Speaker 2: the Minnesota Twins. You started the season two and eleven,
Speaker 2: two and eleven, two and eleven. I don't know how
Speaker 2: you guys stayed in the in the hunt, and I
Speaker 2: remember that was the Dodgers, and it was it did
Speaker 2: come down to the very end. But two and eleven
Speaker 2: you saw a sports psychologist.
Speaker 1: Yep, and you.
Speaker 2: Finished the season twelve and two. Is this real? I
Speaker 2: feel like I remembered this.
Speaker 1: But yeah, So I'm coming off of nineteen ninety. I
Speaker 1: had a really good year. I won fifteen games, we
Speaker 1: lost one hundred or close to it. Yeah, and we
Speaker 1: get a new gentleman manager, John Schuerholtz, and he implements
Speaker 1: a new system. And I'll be honest, I talk about it.
Speaker 1: Sit at my book. I was ticked he renewed my contract,
Speaker 1: I got no raise, and I took it personal and
Speaker 1: I changed my philosophy. I was a guy that like,
Speaker 1: I don't mind digging out of a hole I'm a grinder.
Speaker 1: I learned from the mistakes, but I'm always going to
Speaker 1: give you my best. There's no chance, no matter what
Speaker 1: you pay me, I'm not going to give my best.
Speaker 1: Well now I'm out to show them and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna win fifty games this Year's like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And I started out, I had my first child,
Speaker 1: was ready to get born. It was the perfect storm.
Speaker 1: And I start out two and eleven and it's awful,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't the worst two and eleven you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: It was just one bad inning every game.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So I'd be pitching really good and then one bad
Speaker 1: inning and I would get frustrated and I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to control, kind of like the big inning. So John
Speaker 1: at All Star Break asked me, would you mind see him,
Speaker 1: you know, talking to the sport psychologists. So yeah, no problem,
Speaker 1: you know whatever, I mean. I'm close to getting either
Speaker 1: back in the bullpen or in the minors, and so
Speaker 1: I see the sports psychologist. Really easy was nothing. You know.
Speaker 1: What really clicked for me was he put together a
Speaker 1: two minute film of all my best pitches. And that's
Speaker 1: all I did. I watched it before every start, and
Speaker 1: it was all my pitches, it wasn't somebody else's pitches.
Speaker 1: And I got into a bad funk mentally, and the
Speaker 1: way that I got out of it was I knew
Speaker 1: I could throw all these pitches, and I knew I
Speaker 1: could be who I was, So I just pulled it
Speaker 1: up anytime I needed to, and that was it. Now
Speaker 1: the story gets bigger and bigger and bigger as I
Speaker 1: keep winning, and I don't know what's going on in
Speaker 1: the backdrop. I don't know that he's doing interviews and
Speaker 1: that he's wearing a red shirt and that all these
Speaker 1: things are being attributed to like this. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: I'm a naive to it. But all I know is
Speaker 1: I'm on a roll and I can't lose the last
Speaker 1: three months of the season. I go twelve and two,
Speaker 1: and now here comes the three biggest games I'm ever
Speaker 1: going to pitch, right, And so I pitched the game
Speaker 1: that gets us into the postseason when we're two and
Speaker 1: eleven and nine games behind the Dodgers. It doesn't take
Speaker 1: a math wizard to know that my nine games, you know,
Speaker 1: under five hundred, was a big part of that. So
Speaker 1: here comes Saturday Night. If we win that game. We're
Speaker 1: in the playoffs for the first time in forever. And
Speaker 1: that's the nine inning game where you know, Greg comes
Speaker 1: out and jumps in my arms. It wasn't the greatest
Speaker 1: nine inning game I've ever pitched. I think I give
Speaker 1: up five runs. But back then, if you were still
Speaker 1: in command, you know Bobby was going to let you
Speaker 1: finish the game, which is great. So now we go
Speaker 1: to the postseason. By the way, my first postseason game,
Speaker 1: I have to tell this truth. They changed the game
Speaker 1: time so many times. The pitcher's nightmare and every player's
Speaker 1: nightmare is that you're going to miss first pitch or
Speaker 1: you're going to be late for the game. And I
Speaker 1: didn't take very long to get ready. It took me
Speaker 1: twelve to fifteen minutes and warming up, and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: on the training room. I don't even have my baseball
Speaker 1: pants on. I've just got stretched the phone rings and
Speaker 1: my trainer answers it and says, yeah, okay, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: right here, all right, gotcha, hangs it up. He goes,
Speaker 1: that's your manager wanting to know where the heck you are.
Speaker 1: The game starts in fifteen minutes. Now I go in
Speaker 1: dead Pandy. I mean, I'm running, trying to get my
Speaker 1: pants on. I'm trying to get down to the bullpen,
Speaker 1: and I'm telling myself the game's going to start. When
Speaker 1: I say it starts like I'm going to control it somehow.
Speaker 1: Twelve minutes warm up, I've raced to the to the dugout.
Speaker 1: I can get ready for first pitch. This is my
Speaker 1: first postseason game. First batter of the game gets I
Speaker 1: give up a home run. I end up winning the game.
Speaker 1: We ended up winning. And now it's Game seven. So
Speaker 1: now I've settled my nerves a little bit. I'm in
Speaker 1: Game seven and it's in Pittsburgh, and it was a
Speaker 1: dream come true. I got to pitch nine innings to
Speaker 1: shut out. He jumps in my arms again. Now we
Speaker 1: go to Minnesota and we're gonna we're going to pull
Speaker 1: off the trifecta. I get food poisoning. I don't make
Speaker 1: it out of my hotel room for two games, three days.
Speaker 1: I don't even go to the stadium. I come home.
Speaker 1: I pitched Game four, and then of course I pitched
Speaker 1: Game seven, and I agree with you. I think it's
Speaker 1: the greatest World Series ever played between two of the
Speaker 1: teams that get I know how the industry works, and
Speaker 1: you do. Now you do as well, and being in
Speaker 1: the industry, CBS had their head in their hands, going,
Speaker 1: this is going to be the worst watched World Series ever.
Speaker 1: Two last place teams.
Speaker 2: Atlanta Minnesota, And it turned out it. I asked you,
Speaker 2: I was baiting you a little bit. You didn't take
Speaker 2: de bait. Jack mos you face?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Were you a fan?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Because the at this point, you're the young guy. He's
Speaker 2: the older guy. Pitched for Detroit for so many years, Like,
Speaker 2: were you a big fan of Jack's growing up?
Speaker 1: I watched every game. I knew everything about him. Obviously
Speaker 1: we have a lot of years difference between us, and
Speaker 1: going up against him was obviously a dream. Now. He
Speaker 1: was a little bit older and curmudgeon at that time,
Speaker 1: and when they asked him about, Hey, what is it
Speaker 1: going to be like guy that grew up idolizing you
Speaker 1: pitching against you in Game seven, he goes, I don't
Speaker 1: flip and care about him or what you know. He
Speaker 1: wanted to win the game. And we've talked about that game,
Speaker 1: you know, both being getting a chance to go in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. But it was truly everything that
Speaker 1: I did as a kid, as a seven year old
Speaker 1: outside of my brick wall and Lancy, Michigan, a small home.
Speaker 1: I pissed game seven after seven, after seven against this
Speaker 1: brick wall with a strike zone tape, and and I
Speaker 1: tell people all the time, I tell him and every
Speaker 1: talk I give, I went ninety nine and one in
Speaker 1: those games as a youngster. In game seven, because who's
Speaker 1: going to believe one hundred and oh, it doesn't sound believable,
Speaker 1: So I threw in a fluke loss. But when I
Speaker 1: got on the mound, it was everything I had dreamed about.
Speaker 1: I wasn't nervous, I was locked in, it was loud,
Speaker 1: it was in a dome, and it was on the road.
Speaker 1: But I didn't think I was going to give up
Speaker 1: a run if I went fourteen innings. And unfortunately I
Speaker 1: didn't have the tenure that Jack did. He told his
Speaker 1: manager to get the bleep off the mound, and his
Speaker 1: manager did. I could not say that to my manager
Speaker 1: because it wouldn't have went well.
Speaker 2: Really you wanted to go.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely. The scenario was first and third, one out
Speaker 1: after kind of a excuse me, hit and run, and
Speaker 1: Kirby Puckett was at the plate. Well, I'd gotten him
Speaker 1: out and I think I struck him up twice, and
Speaker 1: I knew I was going to get him out, even
Speaker 1: though he's a great player. I just felt like the
Speaker 1: matchup was best for me. And here comes my manager
Speaker 1: and I'm like, there's no way he's taking me out
Speaker 1: against Kirby Puckett. There's a lefty in the bullpen, and
Speaker 1: I was mad and I couldn't do anything, and he
Speaker 1: took me out, brought in Mike Stanton, walked Pucket to
Speaker 1: face Herbeck and Herbck and in double play. So it
Speaker 1: ultimately worked, but in my mind, I wasn't That was
Speaker 1: the only jam the entire game. I got in, and
Speaker 1: Jack Morris got after got out of jam. After the gym,
Speaker 1: he got out of second and third, nobody out in
Speaker 1: the eighth. I'm going to take a little blame here
Speaker 1: for us not winning, and I'll tell you why we are.
Speaker 1: I'm not superstitious, but I'm not not superstitious, like I'll
Speaker 1: do something if it's working, but I'm a little sious.
Speaker 1: So we hadn't scorn a run. And in the dome
Speaker 1: there's like fifty one steps to the clubhouse. The clubhouse
Speaker 1: was above the city above the playing field, so it
Speaker 1: didn't make sense to go up there, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to change the environment. So after I pitched the bottom
Speaker 1: of the seventh, I sat in the same seat, saying,
Speaker 1: I'm changing seats. I'm going up and I'm gonna watch
Speaker 1: it in the clubous. Well, we got second and third
Speaker 1: nobody out, and I'm like, yes, it worked. I'm coming
Speaker 1: down and I'm gonna see the guys score and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give them five and the game's ozer because I
Speaker 1: just need one. And I went down second and third
Speaker 1: nobody out and we didn't score. So I feel like
Speaker 1: if I would have stayed in the clubhouse and we
Speaker 1: scored the runs, you know, and then came down, we
Speaker 1: might have won that game. But so I'll take a
Speaker 1: little blame there for changing. You know.
Speaker 2: I just last week on the on the podcast here
Speaker 2: talk to somebody about this, and I said, with surprise,
Speaker 2: you mean if I'm watching my team and I have
Speaker 2: to go to the bathroom and they score, I was
Speaker 2: talking about football. You mean the next drive, I shouldn't
Speaker 2: go back into the bathroom. I shouldn't go back into
Speaker 2: the bathroom and watch on when they get the ball.
Speaker 2: Next because of course they'll score again, right, And if
Speaker 2: I sit there in front of the TV, They're not
Speaker 2: going to score, right. Listen, I told me I had
Speaker 2: no control.
Speaker 1: Listen, I'm I admit I'm a diehard. Like I'm a
Speaker 1: die hard Detroit Lions fan. And you know what happened. Ye,
Speaker 1: I must have been in five different seats and four
Speaker 1: different stances to find the one place that would have
Speaker 1: stopped this crazy momentum and that crazy game that we
Speaker 1: had in the bag. And I was going to Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I made plans and all these things because I'm fifty
Speaker 1: six years old. They've never been in the super Bowl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So as I'm sitting there watching the game, and the
Speaker 1: seats hot, and then I have to find a defensive
Speaker 1: seat because that didn't get so. Yeah, I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot to that that could happen.
Speaker 2: You know, back in the day. I don't even know
Speaker 2: if you can say this anymore. I don't care. But
Speaker 2: I had a pacific tomahawk chop followed by knocking on
Speaker 2: real wood that I did that. I feel like affected
Speaker 2: and helped you guys win, no doubt of a lot
Speaker 2: of games, if I do say so myself. No doubt
Speaker 2: ninety five. I mean just incredible world series there. I
Speaker 2: mean not just in ninety one, but against the Blue
Speaker 2: Jays and Indians in ninety five, you finally break through.
Speaker 2: I mean, in terms of star power at that point,
Speaker 2: it's you, It's Maddox, it's Glavin by the way, I
Speaker 2: look this up, a combined forty seven and sixteen in
Speaker 2: the regular season, and you're facing Albert bell Manny Ramirez,
Speaker 2: Jim Tome, Kenny Lofton. I mean, you got speed, Eddie Murray,
Speaker 2: you got speed and power, an incredible series, and of
Speaker 2: course you finally break through and win. Talk to me
Speaker 2: just a little bit, Well, tell me what what's your
Speaker 2: face memory?
Speaker 1: Well, that would be yeah, yeah, because we were facing
Speaker 1: I don't understand in sports sometimes we focus so much
Speaker 1: on what people haven't done. Like we were being talked
Speaker 1: about like the Buffalo Bills at the time. You know,
Speaker 1: Buffalo and gone the Super Bowl those years and that one,
Speaker 1: and this was going to be this is going to
Speaker 1: be another one for us, you know, and so there
Speaker 1: was a lot of pressure on us, and we had
Speaker 1: to go through the Colorado Rockies that year, which were loaded.
Speaker 1: That was that unbelievable offensive team, Cincinnati Reds had a
Speaker 1: really good offensive team and in Cleveland's the best offensive
Speaker 1: team I think we've ever faced, and to beat them
Speaker 1: was certainly on the to be on the dogpile. To
Speaker 1: finally win was the greatest feeling in the world. And ironically,
Speaker 1: which was kind of like our signature, we won one nothing.
Speaker 1: We lost one nothing a bunch, and we won one
Speaker 1: nothing a bunch, and it was kind of like we
Speaker 1: didn't get a lot of runs for whatever reason, and
Speaker 1: glad and pitched the game of his life. And I
Speaker 1: was in a tough spot because I was in line
Speaker 1: to pitch another Game seven. And when you're watching a
Speaker 1: game six like that and you're trying to mentally stay
Speaker 1: prepared that in case you don't win, you got to
Speaker 1: get ready for this, it was torture. And for that
Speaker 1: game to end and win, it was like we got
Speaker 1: to act like five year olds because that would have
Speaker 1: been my fourth Game seven. I relished it, I loved it,
Speaker 1: but I wanted so bad for us to win it
Speaker 1: so that you know, you don't have to face another,
Speaker 1: you know, game seven like that.
Speaker 2: It was obviously joy, but it was it also relief.
Speaker 1: Yeah, big time. We were answering questions that were foolish.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no doubt if you ask every player,
Speaker 1: especially the ones that were there the longest, we should
Speaker 1: have won four World Series, no doubt. Our first eight
Speaker 1: World Series losses were all by one runner. That's a
Speaker 1: play here, a hit there, pitch here, anything could go,
Speaker 1: but you lose. And so when you're in this many
Speaker 1: times we were and winning divisions as many times as
Speaker 1: we did, you would think by numbers alone we had
Speaker 1: two or three. But it didn't work out. And in
Speaker 1: ninety six was the backbreaker. Ninety six we had the
Speaker 1: Yankees beat.
Speaker 2: I was just going to ask, yeah, I mean, and
Speaker 2: it's the biggest disappointment.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I thought like ninety three would losing. The
Speaker 1: Phillies was probably one of our best teams, and they
Speaker 1: beat us in a strange way, like bases loaded nobody out.
Speaker 1: They were getting out of jams. In ninety six, we
Speaker 1: win the first two games in Yankee Stadium by like
Speaker 1: some stupid combined number. I win my game like twelve
Speaker 1: to one against Andy Pettitt. We go home and the
Speaker 1: headlines of our paper was Braves better than twenty seven Yankees?
Speaker 1: Why play this out like what what? And so the
Speaker 1: game just just the whole momentum switch. We had a
Speaker 1: six to nothing lead, we blew it, lost it next innings,
Speaker 1: and then again I lose my game, won to nothing
Speaker 1: to Andy Pettitt on an unearned run, and that, basically,
Speaker 1: you know, was the series, and they went on to
Speaker 1: win four out of five Yankees. Did I believe that
Speaker 1: would have been our four out of five? We would
Speaker 1: have been back to back champs. We wouldn't have traded
Speaker 1: David Justice and Marcis Grissom and all those trades that
Speaker 1: came afterwards. It changed the course of really ar trajectory.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was basically because we just didn't
Speaker 1: get it done.
Speaker 2: You're the only pitcher in Major League history with two
Speaker 2: hundred wins and one hundred and fifty saves. In two
Speaker 2: thousand and one, because of energy injuries, you moved to
Speaker 2: the bullpen. Was it difficult transition?
Speaker 1: Really hard? I don't want to say it pissed, no,
Speaker 1: because at the time yes and no. The no part
Speaker 1: was it was my suggestion when I came back as
Speaker 1: a starter at Tommy John. It didn't work out. My
Speaker 1: obo I got ten and itis and I had to
Speaker 1: miss like a month and a half of time we
Speaker 1: were going to be in the playoffs. So I told
Speaker 1: my manager. I said, I'm going to go to the
Speaker 1: minor leagues and learn how to pitch out of the
Speaker 1: pen so I can help you down the stretch. He goes, no,
Speaker 1: I'll wait for you to start. And I'm like, Bobby,
Speaker 1: there's just not enough time. I've missed too much time.
Speaker 1: So I go down. Nobody knows what to expect, and
Speaker 1: I mean, I get locked in. I'm throwing ninety eight,
Speaker 1: ninety nine, and I know what I'm able to do,
Speaker 1: but nobody else says it's it's the minor leagues, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I come up. Tell me. I tell him
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Bobby goes, I'll get you in as soon
Speaker 1: as I can. You know, I'll find a spot for you.
Speaker 1: It's like an eight to nine run game. It's an
Speaker 1: insignificant game. I come out of the pen and I
Speaker 1: remember the place going crazy. I strike out the side
Speaker 1: or something. I'm throwing ninety eight and everybody's like WHOA.
Speaker 1: So I'm pitching the seventh in the eighth because Carson
Speaker 1: was closer, and eventually the last month I became the closer,
Speaker 1: I'm throwing the ball good, nine to eleven happens, so
Speaker 1: baseball gets shut down for a while. Our first game
Speaker 1: back was against the Mets, and I'm in the bullpen
Speaker 1: getting ready to pitch.
Speaker 2: In New York.
Speaker 1: In New York, when Piazza hits that home run, that
Speaker 1: really just I mean, it's the first time in my
Speaker 1: professional career I was actually happy for the other team
Speaker 1: and not mad that we lost because of the circumstances.
Speaker 1: So I finished that year, never really got to pitch
Speaker 1: significant games in the postseason. They didn't get to me much.
Speaker 1: So I think in the offseason, I'm going to go
Speaker 1: back to starting. Well, our general manager had other plans,
Speaker 1: and it kind of shocked me that the plans he
Speaker 1: had was if I'm going to come back, because I'm
Speaker 1: a free agent now, if I'm going to come back
Speaker 1: to the Atlanta Braids, I'm going to come back as
Speaker 1: the closer. And I was like what, And in my
Speaker 1: mind I know what that meant. It's like, well, it's
Speaker 1: a pay cut. He's good, I'm gonna get a pay cut.
Speaker 1: And so I desperately wanted to play my whole career
Speaker 1: with Atlanta. I wanted to play for Bobby Cox. So
Speaker 1: we worked out a deal. Last minute. I turned down
Speaker 1: you know, other deals with other clubs. So I became
Speaker 1: a closer, and I'm going to learn basically on the job,
Speaker 1: because all I did was like a month and change before.
Speaker 1: Long story short, I have three surgeries on my phone.
Speaker 1: They thought they were going to have to take off
Speaker 1: my thumb nail, but I ended up having to learn
Speaker 1: how to hold the baseball completely different. Not a good
Speaker 1: plan to become your first time closer. And I only
Speaker 1: got six innings in spring training due to the injury.
Speaker 1: I was not ready, but I had to fake it
Speaker 1: until I was ready. I gave up a bunch of
Speaker 1: runs in my first couple of games. People started questioning
Speaker 1: whether it was gonna work or not. My general manager
Speaker 1: was questioning whether I sho play golf or not. All
Speaker 1: these things were going on. Meanwhile, I knew it was
Speaker 1: just a matter of time once I got the reps.
Speaker 1: Played a ton of golf, by the way, because I
Speaker 1: told them it's not going to be a problem. And
Speaker 1: that year I got fifty five saves. It was going
Speaker 1: to be that meant you know, now I'm in the closer,
Speaker 1: There's no chance of returning back to the starting rotation.
Speaker 1: So that's the story that nobody knows. And then what
Speaker 1: happened is I go three years as closer. I mean
Speaker 1: I saved a lot of games in a three year period.
Speaker 1: They used me a ton. I got two more elbow
Speaker 1: injuries out of it, but we never won a postseason series.
Speaker 1: So when it came to the time where the gentle manager,
Speaker 1: same gentle manager says, what do you think makes us better?
Speaker 1: I'm now three years removed, I said, me as a starter.
Speaker 1: I said, no disrespect to Mariano Rivera, he's the best
Speaker 1: we've ever had. But they got to him. They got
Speaker 1: to him, that's why they won championships. I said, I'm
Speaker 1: just not being able to be used at that time
Speaker 1: as a starter. At least I can effectively. So that's
Speaker 1: the story. I went back to starting. Everyone said I
Speaker 1: was crazy, dumbest thing I've ever done. I made the
Speaker 1: All Star team, led the team in innings, and you know,
Speaker 1: in a strange way, that led me to the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. That wasn't my path. I didn't want to.
Speaker 1: I didn't try to do something different to get there.
Speaker 1: I wanted to win a championship. So bad that whatever
Speaker 1: it took, I was willing to do it, and it
Speaker 1: was the hardest thing. It's not like it's not quite
Speaker 1: like playing right handed golfing and turnaround playing left handed,
Speaker 1: but it is totally opposite of personalities and physical There's
Speaker 1: so much difference between the two. I had to learn.
Speaker 1: I had to learn on the job.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I mean this is from you know,
Speaker 2: an ignorance perspective, but I mean it feels to me,
Speaker 2: it's always felt to me so impressive because it feels
Speaker 2: like being an All star Hall of Fame marathon runner
Speaker 2: and then a sprinter. Yeah, like that's what it feels.
Speaker 2: That's what it feels like. The difference would be, you know,
Speaker 2: it is everything in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I tell people all the time, like I was
Speaker 1: more exhausted the year I got fifty five saves than
Speaker 1: when I threw two hundred and fifty six innings in
Speaker 1: the regular season, not counting the forty in the postseason.
Speaker 1: That's that's the marathon. You're training once every five days
Speaker 1: to pitch, whereas as a closer, you could be in
Speaker 1: four in a row, five in a row, three out
Speaker 1: of four. I liked being able to affect the income
Speaker 1: I'll come a little bit more. But I tell people,
Speaker 1: if I got in my car and drove to work,
Speaker 1: the same were out every single day, that's starting. If
Speaker 1: I got in a race car NASCAR and went one
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety miles an hour and took different routes
Speaker 1: every day, that's closing. To put it in perspective. I
Speaker 1: got interviewed thirty six times when I was a starter.
Speaker 1: As a closer, I was in seventy eight games, and
Speaker 1: I got interviewed four times, and those were the four
Speaker 1: games that I blew. They don't interview you when you're successful.
Speaker 1: They interview you when you blow a saying. So that's
Speaker 1: the difference.
Speaker 2: You played twenty years twenty one years for the Braves,
Speaker 2: do you regret the year you left?
Speaker 1: I do in this regard. It was workable and it
Speaker 1: was out of my control. I wanted very bad. There
Speaker 1: was a change of guard in the general manager. Looking back,
Speaker 1: I understand they didn't really want me to go to
Speaker 1: spring training with Tom Lavin to compete for a spot,
Speaker 1: and I'm coming off of major shoulder surgery and I
Speaker 1: get all of that, but the way it went down
Speaker 1: was very disappointing to me because there were some inaccuracies
Speaker 1: that were being said about why I left, and they
Speaker 1: were not even close to true. And so Boston gave
Speaker 1: me an incredible opportunity to pitch, and so they valued
Speaker 1: what I could do in the second half. It worked
Speaker 1: awful for me. If I had one you do in life.
Speaker 1: I was very in tune with my body. I worked
Speaker 1: my tail off to rehab at an incredible record rate
Speaker 1: to come back from the shoulder surgery. I have nine
Speaker 1: anchors in my shoulder, and you just can't really pitch
Speaker 1: with nine anchors. But I listened to their protocol versus
Speaker 1: my own, and it went really bad. I didn't pitch well.
Speaker 1: That's a great organization. Their fan base is unbelievable. I
Speaker 1: wanted so bad to do well for them. I end
Speaker 1: up getting released and picked up by the Cardinals. It
Speaker 1: was a great landing for me, a great end of
Speaker 1: my career, classy organization, and they gave me an opportunity
Speaker 1: to pitch relief, and ironically, I set a franchise record
Speaker 1: the first game I pitched for them, most strikeouts in
Speaker 1: a row ever by a starter, which I don't even
Speaker 1: understand how that's possible. With the pitching they've had so
Speaker 1: in the end, it was a great end of my
Speaker 1: career because I got back on the field. But I
Speaker 1: wanted so bad to play my entire career for the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Braves. I'll always be in Atlanta Breve, but those
Speaker 1: other two organizations gave me a chance to get back
Speaker 1: on the field and walk away.
Speaker 2: In my own terms, that's awesome. First ballot Hall of
Speaker 2: Famer in twenty fifteen. I mean, look, I know how
Speaker 2: much that means for you. Do you feel like the
Speaker 2: whole crew that you have there, the fact that you all, Tommy,
Speaker 2: Glavin and Maddox have It's weird because pitchers in baseball
Speaker 2: are seen as such singular and the three of you
Speaker 2: so tied together through all of that success in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Obviously Greg coming a little bit later. Does that make
Speaker 2: it more special? Is that irrelevant to you?
Speaker 1: No? I think it's special in this regard. We didn't
Speaker 1: talk about anything while we were playing, meaning we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about the run we were on, how long all
Speaker 1: of us get into the Hall of Fame. We never
Speaker 1: said anything. And the fact that it worked out the
Speaker 1: way it did mine in my own year and those
Speaker 1: guys obviously connected, this is the way I viewed it,
Speaker 1: they were the two best pitchers I've ever played with,
Speaker 1: of course, and their Hall of famers, and they were
Speaker 1: they won three hundred games. I was the guy with
Speaker 1: all the potential and all the stuff, and I was
Speaker 1: supposed to win Cy youngs. I was the guy with
Speaker 1: a lot of the injuries and the surgeries and always,
Speaker 1: you know, my time came in the postseason. But what
Speaker 1: makes it pretty cool for us is that, you know,
Speaker 1: I just played one more year than they did. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't talk about, hey, let's all go in together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and the fact that that when we look back,
Speaker 1: we know it'll never be replicated. For a lot of reasons,
Speaker 1: we had a blast. And I was fifteen years with
Speaker 1: Glad and ten with the three of them, and we
Speaker 1: played a ton of golf, and I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from each of them. But I was so much different
Speaker 1: than those guys. And the fact that we could pick
Speaker 1: each other's brains and we could all have our moments.
Speaker 1: Ninety six, I finally had mine for a Cy Young
Speaker 1: glab one his and of course Greg won four. It
Speaker 1: just was it was fun to check your ego when
Speaker 1: you came to the park, because you got a chance
Speaker 1: to see a great game and be embarrassed if you
Speaker 1: want to be the guy. And you know, indirectly, we
Speaker 1: kind of had this little inner competition that we never
Speaker 1: talked about. If Tommy went out and threw nine innings
Speaker 1: and gave up two runs and five hits, Greg would
Speaker 1: intuitively want to go nine innings to give up one run,
Speaker 1: and then if he did, I don't want to go
Speaker 1: nine and give up zero. And we felt that a
Speaker 1: no hitter would reset the clock. But we never know.
Speaker 1: None of us ever threw a no hitter, which is
Speaker 1: pretty amazing with all the games that we pitch. And
Speaker 1: I feel like it's gonna sound like solar grapes, but
Speaker 1: I got robbed. There's no doubt about it. You can
Speaker 1: check the archives. It was in San Diego, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you this sat after we're done. But
Speaker 1: Tony Gwinn, Tony.
Speaker 4: Gwynn gave me Maddox, Glavin, Pedro Martinez fits. Okay, he
Speaker 4: gave everybody fits. It's the eighth inning, two outs and
Speaker 4: there's no hits. I got him in San Diego and
Speaker 4: I'm cruising and I know I got I think like
Speaker 4: twelve strikeouts.
Speaker 1: I know if I get Tony gwinn out, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get no hitter. He hits a fly ball to left
Speaker 1: field and it's still one of the greatest lines Skip
Speaker 1: Carry's ever said. Ryan Plusko was playing left field at
Speaker 1: the time because he was the first baseman converted over
Speaker 1: the left field. Yeah, and he ran about fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty feet and got to the track and the ball
Speaker 1: hit the glove and it dropped. Now I know it's
Speaker 1: an air, and everybody probably knows it's an error, except
Speaker 1: for the official scorer who gave it a double. As
Speaker 1: a place the fans go crazy, and I inside, I
Speaker 1: want to I want to explode, right. So I'm trying
Speaker 1: to convince Bobby Cox let me go up for the night.
Speaker 1: They have to change it. There's no way if I
Speaker 1: don't give up on the hit. They got to change.
Speaker 1: He goes John, I've been doing this a long time.
Speaker 1: That man over there, Tony Gwynn, they are not going
Speaker 1: to change it for him. And so I went in
Speaker 1: the clubhouse. I saw these stools that we all have
Speaker 1: in front of our locker, and I went crazy. I
Speaker 1: broke about seven of them. Not proud of it, but
Speaker 1: I felt like they were laughing at me, you know,
Speaker 1: like they were like, ha ha ha, right, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of my no hitter, But you'll never find it
Speaker 1: because it's not documented. And Skip Carrey had this line
Speaker 1: because you know here in skip carry goes, Ryan's running
Speaker 1: the right routes, we just can't get the ball to him.
Speaker 1: Had Ryan just had a hard time playing left field
Speaker 1: because he really was a first baseman, but we needed
Speaker 1: as bad. And so the stat I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you which blows people's mind, we faced Tony Gwynn three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty three times, the four of us, all
Speaker 1: four of us are in the Hall of Fame. How
Speaker 1: many times do you think we struck him out?
Speaker 2: Thirty four?
Speaker 1: Three times?
Speaker 2: That's impossible.
Speaker 1: I got him once. That's exactly right. That's the difference
Speaker 1: of that time frame. And Tony Gwynn, in his greatness Pedro,
Speaker 1: one of the nastiest of all time starters, did not
Speaker 1: strike him out. Maddox did not strike him out. I
Speaker 1: got him once and Gladn got him twice. He hit
Speaker 1: four forty four off of me lifetime, I think four
Speaker 1: point fifty seven or something off of Maddox high off
Speaker 1: of Pedro, and I think Glady was in the three hundreds.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, he was unbelievable. And so when I
Speaker 1: saw him every time at a card show and he
Speaker 1: had this high pitched kind of laugh and chuckle, and
Speaker 1: I'd go, really, Tony three thousand, some hundred minus one hit,
Speaker 1: you think that was a hit? You know, I couldn't
Speaker 1: let it go, and he just would laugh.
Speaker 2: Tiger Woods has gone on record to say that you,
Speaker 2: John Smoltz is the best non PGA golfer that he
Speaker 2: has ever played with. I want for the record to
Speaker 2: state I have never played with Tiger so and.
Speaker 1: There's and that's the thing about that statement. One it
Speaker 1: crushes my handicap from that point on, like nobody would
Speaker 1: give me strokes anymore. Like the matter well my handicap.
Speaker 1: But in fairness, I don't know how many NONPGA players
Speaker 1: Tiger ever played with. Okay, he's played with a few.
Speaker 1: He's he didn't play with you, so you can't you
Speaker 1: can't base it on that. But I did get a
Speaker 1: chance to have the time of my life for about
Speaker 1: ten years playing over thirty five rounds of golf with
Speaker 1: Tiger in his day. And it is still memories that
Speaker 1: I'll never forget shots, I'll never forget moments, I'll never forget,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, he has gears like we all know.
Speaker 1: He had gears that you just know. One I brought
Speaker 1: to play with Tiger could help themselves, but they all
Speaker 1: got sucked into talking trash with him. And you don't
Speaker 1: do that. You don't talk trash to Michael Jordan, and
Speaker 1: you don't talk trash to Tiger Woods. It just puts
Speaker 1: them in another gear. And I would tell him, I say,
Speaker 1: let him be. He might only shoot sixty eight. Let
Speaker 1: him be, don't get him to where he wants to shoot, you.
Speaker 2: Know, sixty two too exactly.
Speaker 1: And we had this one. We had this one match.
Speaker 1: It's the only time I did it, and I didn't
Speaker 1: really do it on purpose. But we're on a par three.
Speaker 1: There's five of us, my buddy who was a twelve,
Speaker 1: and then everyone else was a scratch. And my buddy
Speaker 1: got a hold in one on the par three, and
Speaker 1: the scorecard read one, two, three, four five. There's five players,
Speaker 1: five different scores. And so when I picked the ball
Speaker 1: out of the hole, and my buddy's name is Scott,
Speaker 1: I said, Scott, what is more believable when we get
Speaker 1: back home, the fact that you made a hole in
Speaker 1: one or beat Tiger by four on one pump.
Speaker 2: I knew that was coming, so.
Speaker 1: He kind of shot me a finger and he went
Speaker 1: in the next twenty two homes because we played twenty
Speaker 1: seven he went twelve under par, and it was the
Speaker 1: greatest display of golf. Like I put up the antennas
Speaker 1: and indirectly I thought it was a brilliant line. And
Speaker 1: as he went crazy after that, and I didn't listen
Speaker 1: to my own advice.
Speaker 2: John is well, he's always in contention at any celebrity
Speaker 2: golf event played on the Champions Tour. A couple of
Speaker 2: times come painfully close at the American Century Championship in
Speaker 2: Lake Tahoe, A couple of times two time winner at
Speaker 2: the Tournament of Champions Hilton Grand Vacations. Is that correct?
Speaker 2: Two times?
Speaker 1: Can I can? I? Can I file a small complaint
Speaker 1: on that? Which was the two time winners. I was
Speaker 1: defending champ and they switched horses. I mean, so the
Speaker 1: three peak could not happen. I think it was done
Speaker 1: on purpose. I can't. I can't be for sure, but
Speaker 1: I have not played well since.
Speaker 2: Well well, but I I saw you in the locker
Speaker 2: room on Sunday a couple just a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: You shot sixty nine. Is that right?
Speaker 1: Yes? I did. But but but I played so bad
Speaker 1: the first day, like I didn't even know that. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that I was a golfer after the first day.
Speaker 2: Did I saw more points you the first day?
Speaker 1: I tell you what. I kept looking at a scoreboard
Speaker 1: and you were darn close, and I said, if I
Speaker 1: don't get one more point than you, I might withdraw.
Speaker 1: Not because one point I ended up being a couple
Speaker 1: of points. But I kept looking and I kept saying,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: I played pretty well. Now first day you did. Let
Speaker 2: me ask you this though, You're a two time champion
Speaker 2: Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament Champions, Orlando, Florida. But I am
Speaker 2: a two time first player chosen for the pro am,
Speaker 2: which makes me believe I'm the people's champion. What's better
Speaker 2: winning the event or being chosen first? It's a good question.
Speaker 1: It is a great question, and honestly, because of my
Speaker 1: lack of social media presence, I feel like you have
Speaker 1: an unfair advantage there, and so you are the people's choice.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt. I only get selected because of my
Speaker 1: golfing ability. You get selected because you have the combination
Speaker 1: of so many other things that they'll put up with
Speaker 1: the fact that maybe they're not going to win the
Speaker 1: proram right right. They're looking for a good time.
Speaker 2: They certainly are risingly enough.
Speaker 1: Most people who play with me come away going I
Speaker 1: didn't realize is that funny? Like I'm actually a really
Speaker 1: funny guy that doesn't get a chance to showcase it
Speaker 1: on the stage that you do. Although I did you
Speaker 1: know I do have a role in The Hill. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you saw it. It's the number one
Speaker 1: movie on Netflix, and I've got like a thirty five.
Speaker 2: Le that's very good. I do want to I do
Speaker 2: want to make a clarification. You do have jokes. I
Speaker 2: don't don't know if it's funny. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it was there. Its just a small.
Speaker 1: My delivery, maybe somebody else's hands. In somebody else's hands,
Speaker 1: that joke is funny.
Speaker 2: Hey, listen, you help me with my golf game, I'll
Speaker 2: help you, uh with the delivery. Uh. Eight years, As
Speaker 2: I mentioned at the top, being the the number one
Speaker 2: analyst on Fox Sports for their MLB coverage, calling the
Speaker 2: World Series that special for you? Do you love that
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 1: And and and really, when I got into broadcasting, oh,
Speaker 1: my agent, I said, I'm not just doing this to
Speaker 1: do it. I'm doing it because I want to get
Speaker 1: to the highest level. I want to do it at
Speaker 1: the highest level, and so I worked for a long
Speaker 1: time to get to that point. My opportunity was presented.
Speaker 1: I work with one of the greatest all time and
Speaker 1: Joe Buck. I work for a great company, and I
Speaker 1: get to see baseball that I still love at the
Speaker 1: best time, and that's in October. I do regular season games,
Speaker 1: but the all time best is when I get to
Speaker 1: see players playing the postseason. Everyone who's a fan thinks
Speaker 1: they know the sport and they're fans of the sport.
Speaker 1: But when you've kind of been in that and done that,
Speaker 1: you can give people something that they would never maybe
Speaker 1: know before. And that's really my only goal when I'm broadcasting,
Speaker 1: is to bring in some insights that people made that
Speaker 1: never have gotten a chance to know.
Speaker 2: I love the game of baseball. You and I have
Speaker 2: talked about it a lot. I've always loved the game
Speaker 2: of baseball, and to me, what is so special and
Speaker 2: so unique about the analysts' role specific in baseball is
Speaker 2: I mean, what is it. It's got to be you know,
Speaker 2: five thousand ish games a year, five to six thousand
Speaker 2: games a year over one hundred years, and I'm telling
Speaker 2: you the number of games, particularly when the games are meaningful,
Speaker 2: that something happens that I've never seen before or that
Speaker 2: anyone has ever seen before, makes it, you know, incredibly special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy to think, like again, just my I
Speaker 1: mean this is going on now forty plus years that
Speaker 1: well I've played longer than that, but in the game
Speaker 1: of baseball professionally since the age of eighteen to fifty six,
Speaker 1: you're right. I mean, you think you've seen it, and
Speaker 1: you think that you know pretty much every rule, and
Speaker 1: then something stumps you to go, well, I didn't even
Speaker 1: know that you could do that, or that's somebody. Look,
Speaker 1: the talent's never been greater. And now we get the
Speaker 1: game moving again. You know, changes drove everybody crazy thinking
Speaker 1: that the game was like what's going on? But the
Speaker 1: game's moving again, and the time of the game is
Speaker 1: going to be more pallable for people, and the athletes
Speaker 1: get to adjust and they're going to be fine this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like it's it's almost an annual text
Speaker 2: and I guess it. I don't know, Well, you tell
Speaker 2: me if it's just like annoying or something. But I
Speaker 2: feel like I text you after the World Series every
Speaker 2: year and I say, what is what is true that
Speaker 2: I don't There's not a lot of people that I
Speaker 2: send this message to, even those that I have the number.
Speaker 2: I think you do just a hell of a job.
Speaker 2: I really do, John. I feel like you add so
Speaker 2: much to the entertainment of sports during those postseason games.
Speaker 2: I mean it when I text it to you, I
Speaker 2: only do it once a year, but you know, it's
Speaker 2: coming off the World Series and just going you know what,
Speaker 2: like he just made those two and a half to
Speaker 2: three hours really fun and informative and enjoyable and full
Speaker 2: of drama. So yeah, I congratulations.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that I had to learn, Like in this industry,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't believe. I mean you would believe from the
Speaker 1: social media standpoints, which I don't have anything to combat
Speaker 1: people with, but they're so used. People in baseball are
Speaker 1: used to their home broadcast booth right and listen to them,
Speaker 1: and then come postseasons like John Smoltz, he's the Rangers.
Speaker 1: John Smoltz hates the Arizona Diamondbacks, Joe Davis hates the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Braids. And the best advice Joe Buck gave me
Speaker 1: is he goes, look, a fifty percent of the fan
Speaker 1: base think you're rooting for the other team. You're doing
Speaker 1: a pretty good job, but don't pay attention to that
Speaker 1: because they don't understand that. When you call a home run,
Speaker 1: which I don't, they do for the opposite team, the
Speaker 1: home fans get mad. They're like, why are they so happy?
Speaker 1: But we're in the national broadcast, coming in to be
Speaker 1: completely neutral. And I got more flag for calling the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Braids World Series against the Houston Astros, and everyone
Speaker 1: knows I'm in Atlanta Braids And that was the hardest
Speaker 1: job that I had to do to because I'm going
Speaker 1: to be neutral and do my job. There were fans
Speaker 1: of Atlanta said they were mad at me because I
Speaker 1: wasn't rooting hard enough for the Atlanta Braves to win
Speaker 1: the World Series. And I finally said on the radio,
Speaker 1: I said, what most people don't understand is my words
Speaker 1: I can speak into action. What's going to happen so
Speaker 1: that they I'm like, people can't beat that. They really
Speaker 1: can't be that, and so that's just the nature nature
Speaker 1: of what we do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have seen those. Gosh, there was something on
Speaker 2: the speaking of the social media with Joe Buck the
Speaker 2: opposing fans talking about how much Joe Buck. You know,
Speaker 2: Joe Buck loves the Cowboys. Joe Buck hat'ess the Cowboys.
Speaker 2: Joe Buck loves the Packers. Joe Buck hat's the Packers.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping Joe Davis helps the Dodgers this year, by
Speaker 2: the way, Yeah, any team compete with the Dodgers this year.
Speaker 1: Not in the regular season, they really I mean, I
Speaker 1: think everybody knew. I think baseball people are like, show, hey,
Speaker 1: Tommy's going to the Dodgers. Okay, just a matter of
Speaker 1: how long, how much. I think people kind of you know,
Speaker 1: would have been shocked if that didn't happen. But what
Speaker 1: they've done aside from that is blowing everybody's mind because now,
Speaker 1: you know, the Dodgers have been the class of the
Speaker 1: last ten years, and they've been kind of falling victim
Speaker 1: to what we did. They should have won a couple
Speaker 1: of World Series. They didn't. Yeah, some strategy that you
Speaker 1: know might have got questioned and might have been a reason.
Speaker 1: But they're loaded. And so what it's always come down to.
Speaker 1: Last year they were beat up in their rotation and
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks shocked the world by sweeping them. And I
Speaker 1: think it comes down to the same thing. You know,
Speaker 1: if they're not beat up at the end of the year,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt they're the favorites. And you know, the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Braids are going to be right there in the Phillies,
Speaker 1: some of the same teams. But boy, oh boy, oh boy,
Speaker 1: did the Dodgers. They got a ton of pressure on them.
Speaker 1: And I've said this from day one. If you're a player,
Speaker 1: you want that pressure. You do you just know you're
Speaker 1: really good and everyone's going to give you your best
Speaker 1: shot and you're the favorites. Let's go get it and
Speaker 1: that that's you take it and that and certainly for
Speaker 1: this contract was not about one championship. This contract's about multiple.
Speaker 1: I think to validate this contract, a lot of people
Speaker 1: will say the Dodgers win two World Series. Man, that
Speaker 1: would be unbelievable. It's hard to win one. They should
Speaker 1: win one, and they're probably the favorite to win one
Speaker 1: over the next seven years. But the beauty about baseball
Speaker 1: is it's a long year and the postseason teams get
Speaker 1: hot at the right time and you can run into
Speaker 1: that team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was thinking about this. I'll close on this
Speaker 2: because you know, I get a lot of flat I mean,
Speaker 2: and that's saying it nicely from my friends in Atlanta,
Speaker 2: many of whom who are still there, who get on
Speaker 2: my case about being a Dodgers fan. But you know,
Speaker 2: I've told I've said this many times. It's because I
Speaker 2: love the game of baseball, and I knew when I
Speaker 2: came out to Southern California, I wasn't ever going back,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to be able to watch and the
Speaker 2: way to do that was to go to Javez Ravine
Speaker 2: and I bought in. But I was thinking about this
Speaker 2: talking to you today. John Smoltz did it. John Smoltz
Speaker 2: was a Tiger and now he's a Brave. So anyone
Speaker 2: can change, including me. Boom, Well, suck it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you're trying to set it. You're
Speaker 1: trying to you're trying to ease the paint. It's a
Speaker 1: little different if you were if you were part of
Speaker 1: the office and then you went to go be sign
Speaker 1: felled and then you were like, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: little different when you're a fan and when you're from
Speaker 1: the area.
Speaker 2: Just stop it, John, It's.
Speaker 1: It's a harder justification.
Speaker 2: No, it's not. It's because I love the game. The game.
Speaker 1: Here's what I would say to you. I would say
Speaker 1: to you, you're justified in this this regard. I become
Speaker 1: a Falcon fan when my Lions are in it because
Speaker 1: I live in Atlanta. You are a Dodger fan because
Speaker 1: you live in it in the in LA. But if
Speaker 1: they play Atlanta, you're meeting some crossroads there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't anymore. I'm too invested tickets that
Speaker 2: season tickets. It's like, I can't, John, You're not helping
Speaker 2: me because I was going to tell them all to
Speaker 2: listen to this. And now, let me just say this,
Speaker 2: if you or Tommy or Greg, if you got if
Speaker 2: any of you strapped it back on, put on the
Speaker 2: old jockstrap and put in the cup and did you
Speaker 2: work up by the way.
Speaker 1: I did, I'm I'm shocked. And a lot of pictures
Speaker 1: that didn't. There wasn't a game I'm never wore. That's
Speaker 1: just crazy. Talk.
Speaker 2: I just was talking to somebody about this.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of people that they don't wear them.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. It is beyond crazy. But anyway, so good.
Speaker 2: Anyway, if you do it, if you strap it on,
Speaker 2: strap it on and stick it in, John, I would
Speaker 2: root for you or Tommy or Greg as long as
Speaker 2: you weren't as long as you as long as you
Speaker 2: didn't come back as a giant. Otherwise I would root
Speaker 2: for you. Guys.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, how long how long have you have you been.
Speaker 2: In La Well? I mean I like to make people
Speaker 2: think that I'm still twenty nine, but it's been. It's been.
Speaker 2: It's been twenty years, you know, so let me put
Speaker 2: it this way.
Speaker 1: It longer than Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh wait, I mean there was a there
Speaker 2: was a period of time there where I was, you know,
Speaker 2: when I left I left Atlanta, when I left when
Speaker 2: I graduated from high school, which oddly enough was ninety one,
Speaker 2: but I was. TBS made me be able to watch
Speaker 2: every game. I mean, there was that period time before
Speaker 2: the MLB package and after the Braves started being off TV,
Speaker 2: Like I couldn't even watch the Braves.
Speaker 1: No, you're fine, now, you've lived longer you're fine, You're justified.
Speaker 2: The first couple of years, I actually met Bobby at
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what your your Your hotel was the
Speaker 2: Something Huntington, the Ritz Carlton Huntington over there in Pasadena.
Speaker 2: I met Bobby there and I think Chipper was there
Speaker 2: who I met out in at the American Century a
Speaker 2: couple of times. That was tough. That was tough for me.
Speaker 2: Now that Stan Caston is it's almost it's almost like
Speaker 2: we're connected, me and Stan over at the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it is going to be a fun year.
Speaker 1: I will do a lot of Dodgers games, as you
Speaker 1: can imagine. For Fox, they're going to have eyeballs on
Speaker 1: them all the time. They're going to have to play
Speaker 1: a lot of ESPN game that will be Network Fox games.
Speaker 1: And what I find interesting more than anything because I
Speaker 1: love shoheo Tommy and I've been rooting for him to
Speaker 1: be a two way success Starnar forever, but I don't
Speaker 1: like the fact that is now it's the second Tommy
Speaker 1: John and I think he's such a tremendous talent, but
Speaker 1: his velocity and force that he throws the ball, it'll
Speaker 1: be interesting to see how many years they get out
Speaker 1: of a two way player. You know, They'm sure they're
Speaker 1: hoping this contract will live up to and they're going
Speaker 1: to monetize it and make so much money. I get it,
Speaker 1: like I get all that. It's the other move they
Speaker 1: made that were just as good. It's hard to say
Speaker 1: it could be better than getting the greatest player in
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, John, It's always a pleasure. I know. I will
Speaker 2: see you here. No, you're not. No. I still have
Speaker 2: to work for a living, so I can't. I can't
Speaker 2: just play golf, so I will not be in down,
Speaker 2: which is unfortunate.
Speaker 1: That is that is that's bummed me out. What's the
Speaker 1: what's the end game goal for cameos for you? You've
Speaker 1: got the record, right.
Speaker 2: Like John, John John John Smoltz. Uh, I'll see you. Uh,
Speaker 2: I'll see you in the what is it the north,
Speaker 2: the top of the West. I'll see you out in
Speaker 2: Lake Tahoe very soon. Day one. Just watch that leaderboard
Speaker 2: for me. I'm a sprinter.
Speaker 1: I'm as you are the greatest motivator for me when
Speaker 1: I'm having one of the worst rounds of like you,
Speaker 1: you don't know what you did for me Seeing that
Speaker 1: score and going is that? Is that real? We got
Speaker 1: to get a few.
Speaker 2: More John Smolts, thank you so much, pictures and catchers reporting.
Speaker 2: Let's start the baseball season. Go Dodgers.
Speaker 1: That's right, Thank you.
Speaker 2: John. Great talking to you today. Thanks so much for
Speaker 2: being on here. I hope I didn't take you away
Speaker 2: from the golf course too early today. I am looking
Speaker 2: forward to seeing and listening to you on television this
Speaker 2: summer and fall, and of course on the golf course
Speaker 2: this season. Listeners, thanks for doing what you do listening, namely,
Speaker 2: thank you for listening. That's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be back next week with another episode
Speaker 2: of Off the Beat. Won't you come along? I hope
Speaker 2: you do. I'll see you here. Until then, everybody, have
Speaker 2: a great week. Off the Beat is hosted and executive
Speaker 2: produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Linglee.
Speaker 2: Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes,
Speaker 2: Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan
Speaker 2: Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali Amir Sahed. Our
Speaker 2: theme song, Bubble and Squeak performed by the one and
Speaker 2: only Creed Bratton,