July 19, 2024 • 12 mins
DV catches up with Hall of Fame pitcher, John Smoltz.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, it's a pleasure right nowto be joined by a Hall of famer
when men were men on the mound, a man that won two hundred and
thirteen games in his career, struckout over three thousand and also did it
as a reliever, one of thebest closers when he was in the bullpen
for a short time. That isthe great world champion, John Smoltz.
John, thanks a lot for thetime, appreciate it. My pleasure's always
(00:21):
great to be here in La.Beautiful day, beautiful weather and great game.
Do you ever have a chance tohit any of the golf courses in
La. LA's got some of thefinest. Yeah. When I was playing
here, this was guaranteed golf.You know. I think in twenty one
years I saw it rain twice.So whenever we came to the West Coast,
it was filled with tea times atLa Country Club. Bel Air Sherwood
(00:45):
foris. We played a lot ofgolf courund here and it was a lot
of fun. Sherwood's my neck ofthe woods, so I know it.
Well. Was there one golf coursethat was the most challenging for you?
Sherwood was the first golf course i'dever seen. With the golf carts the
way that they were, they wereahead of their time. They had like
the trunk in the front of thehood that you could put things that were
selling jewelry in the locker and thepro shop. It was a lot of
(01:10):
fun to go to Sherwood. Ithink my favorite is LA Country Club and
La North So of course they justplayed the Open not too long ago,
so but that's one of my favorite. You have a favorite golfer. We
always talk about favorite baseball players,but is there such a thing to love
a golfer that's not named Tiger Woods? Well, you know what, during
(01:32):
the playing days, Tom Glavin wasmy most low loyal golfer on the road.
But I like playing with anybody wholikes to play fast. You know,
I would just say, doesn't matterwhat your handicap is. If you're
going to play like a US OpenTour player, then we're not going to
have a lot of fun. Butif you're going to be able to just
get over your ball, get readyto hit hit it, and we could
(01:53):
play as much golf in the dayas as possible. I know, you
could talk golf all day. Onemore question about it. You mentioned Surewood.
The guy that I know that madesure Would famous was Wayne Gretzky.
Did you ever play against Gretzky orwith Gretzky? I have and some of
the celebrity events back in the past, and also in a member guest out
of Shadow Creek. But Wayne's golfgame, I think he's, you know,
(02:17):
obviously one of the greatest all timeathletes ever. He likes to talk
trash on the golf course. JohnSmoltz is our guest John when we're at
Dodgers Stadium, and John Smoltz thisyear. I remember nineteen ninety one when
the Braves came back from a ninegame deficit at the All Star Break to
win the division by a game overthe Dodgers. I've been preaching not to
(02:40):
be complacent around the streets of LosAngeles. Some of the players have gotten
upset with me for saying that.But as good as the Dodgers are and
as big of a lead they have, do you feel like complacency can set
in? Oh? It can,but Dave Roberts will ever let that.
I think a manager knows when histeam is maybe kind of lighting. Look,
the roster is definitely the best rosterin the NL West. But injuries
(03:05):
are also a part of our gamethat you never could foresee, and already
they've been They've had some injuries thathave kind of stabled maybe the wind total.
Getting north of one hundred plus winsis what everybody expects. So I
think there are lessons in the gamethat teach you to not look too far
ahead and not get too far complacent. Because you're mentioning the one that was
(03:27):
one of the greatest for us.It started an incredible streak of fourteenth straight
years. No one saw us comingthe Dodgers. The Reds had no fear
of the Atlanta Braves in nineteen ninetyone, and we ran a historic second
half and really went on our lastroad trip. We went seven to zero,
and to catch the Dodgers on thefinal day was pretty pretty well.
We actually caught them on Saturday,I believe Saturday night. I was able
(03:50):
to pitch that game against Houston thatclinched our first playoff spot for a long
time for the Braves. I rememberbeing here when the Braves came to town
in September of that season, andthat was maybe the biggest series in a
long time. It was loud,Yeah, I pitched in that series.
If I'm not mistaken, I thinkthis place realized kind of what we were
(04:12):
doing, you know, and thatwe were chugging along, and we picked
up I think seven games in thefirst ten games of the second half in
the standing, something like that,six or seven games, and then it
was it was game on. Youknow. We were the underdog by no
stretch. We understood that, andall the pressure was kind of on the
(04:32):
Dodgers, and that road trip wewere on. They were at home,
so they got to see all thosemiracle comeback wins. You know. I
don't know how true the story is, but Tommy Lasorda, we were down
two runs in the ninth inning againstCincinnati, nobody out in the ninth We
came back and won that game inextra innings, and I hadn't understand he
was eating a play of pasta andhe threw it off his desk when we
(04:56):
were able to come back and winthat game. Yeah, that sounds like
Tommy Florida for sure. John Smoltzis our guest. Obviously, the Braves
World Series champions, but went therecame a little bit short. The Dodgers.
Now, the last ten years havebeen compared to your Braves teams.
Can you relate to the feeling aroundhere when you have all the pressure on
(05:17):
you. There's something to be saidabout that. Now, when you have
all the pressure on you, itmeans you're a pretty good team and you've
got a good chance of doing somethingeach year that you set out to do.
Out leaving string training, we hada little different scenario. We were
winning despite having been predicted, youknow, to win. We did that
in the first five years, butafter that our roster changed quite a bit.
(05:38):
It's frustrating as a player to comeup short like we did. We
lost our first eight World Series gamesby one run. We were in every
World Series. It comes down toexecution, a little bit of luck,
but you've got to be able todeliver. And I think for the Dodgers
it's been a little bit of amixed bag. Right last year, beat
up, rotation, a couple ofyears ago beat up. Then they had
(06:00):
to go toe to toe with theGiants and exhaust every option they had to
win that series and really had nothingleft for the Braves. They went on
to win the World Series that year. I think it's every year it's the
healthier team has a chance to win, then they have the upper hand.
Experience is phenomenally great when you useit. But I think if your roster
(06:20):
is a little banged up and peopleknow that you got to be healthy despite
the payroll and despite the roster,you've got to be healthy at the right
time of the year. John,I get tired of hearing about the postseason
being random. I'm not a bigbeliever in that. I feel like you
make your own luck and your fortune. There is another layer to the postseason
(06:40):
rounds now, But how do youfeel about that when you hear randomness and
luck? Well, the one thingthat I've noticed over the last five to
seven years is the strategies and thephilosophies that work in one sixty two.
The teams that don't DBA from that, they're not winning. Yeah, And
I just think I know a lotof pushback have been given by me by
making those claims. But analytics isonly good as much as you're able to
(07:02):
use a one sixty two model.It doesn't work in the best of seven.
And if you're not able to useyour eyes at that time of the
year and use the players having spectacularperformances and not utilizing them like it's a
one sixty two. I think that'spart of it, and I know people
don't like that, but that's justpart of having experience. In the postseason.
We've got to let players have theirmoments, and we can't just keep
(07:25):
conducing it down to a one sixtytwo model. I'll grant you one sixty
two analytics has been very successful,yeah, but I don't think it's proven
to be successful in the playoffs.That's where the randomness may be coming from,
because they can't explain that. Andthat's the difficult part about understanding.
It's a totally different set of circumstancesthat you have to go by. You
(07:45):
got to let your horses be horses, and you got to be able to,
like I said, be healthy enoughto utilize the best pitching usually wins.
And if you use those guys anduse your eyes. I'm not crazy
about taking a guy out in thefourth fifth inning when he's been dominating just
because the numbers say in a oneto sixty two that's what you do.
So I'm a little different there.I'm not anti analytic, I'm just anti
(08:07):
all one bucket And if you onlyuse one bucket of information and that's your
source for making every decision. Ithink you run yourself as a disadvantage at
that time of the year. Solike, if Tyler Glass now is going
great, why pull them out ofthe game in a postseason game. That's
exactly right. And I've done alot of postseason games where I've seen pitchers
come out with no reason to comeout other than they just do because that's
(08:31):
the plan that's decided before him.Look the World Series that the Dodgers won,
if people remember the pitcher on themomb was dominating them in a one
to nothing lead for the Rays,and they took them out because of their
analytic model, and they lost theWorld Series. Now they were down in
the series, but you can't tellme if they don't win that game,
(08:52):
they don't have just as much achance to win that World Series. And
so there's there's many examples. Evenas last year, teams are kind of
with their mouth open when they seethe other pitcher come out. The opposing
teams like thank you, yeah,thank you very much. Because in today's
game, it takes seven pitchers pergame. In a postseason game, five
to seven is what typically you're seeing. Do you know every one of those
(09:13):
guys have to be right on.It only takes one guy to be bad
to tilt the game the wrong way. So I still ascribe to that philosophy,
and I've seen teams that win,and the teams that have won are
really the wins taking advantage of thatphilosophy. Hey, John Smoltz, I
feel like Bobby Cox believed in you, and I'm sure there were times in
(09:35):
those playoff games that the numbers oreven yourself you didn't believe you could reach
that type of level of competition.I got a chance to do something in
my era that was so it waslike a dream. You know, finish
what you start. You let yourpitching determine whether the manager came out and
took you out, nothing else.And I got a chance to piss three
(09:56):
seven games, and two of them, you know, I was able to
go nine innings, and the thirdone I thought I was going to go
to the nine innings, but Ihad to come out in the eighth in
a tie game zero zero without givingup a run. It's a little different
story coming back on three days rest, last game of the year, Game
seven. But the game that wementioned I talked to you about when we
were able to beat the Dodgers inninety one. I gave them five runs
(10:16):
a pitch nine innings. That'll neverhappen again. I don't no chance.
So he believed in us. Inwe were setting the tone. Why change
the narrative. Why give somebody elsea different look when you're doing what you
have to do at the mound andsilencing the kind of the If balls are
getting rocketed all over the place,absolutely you shouldn't stay in the game,
even if they're catching them. SoI think we've entered a different era where
(10:39):
velocity and spin rate and all thatstuff as matters, and the reward system
has changed the way the game isplayed. And that's just a matter of
fact. All right, John,We'll see you back here in October.
We'll see what happens, whether ornot the macro or the micro wins out.
Yeah. I'm looking forward this yearespecially we have the National League,
Joe and I do. And theNational League is going to be very compelling
(11:00):
between the current teams if they holdout, obviously Philly Atlanta and the Dodgers
and Brewers, who are surprising theworld right now. It feels like it's
a collision course for the Phillies andDodgers, but I know obviously there could
be upsets. Do you feel likethe Phillies are on a mission to redeem
themselves? I am a big believer. I know a lot of people downplay
this. When they asked the feelingthat the Phillies had last year to end
(11:24):
the season, I think as achip on their shoulder. I think every
player went in the offseason, ormajority of them did, said that ain't
happening again, not on my watch. They did whatever they needed to do,
and they've got a complete roster withveteran guys, and I think that
has been their mission you have.They've beat up a little bit with some
injuries, but they have a hugelead and I do believe they're the team
to beat along with the Dodgers becausethe rosters speak to There's not many holes
(11:48):
and they've been there, done that, and I think last year could serve
them well. If they are togo on and compete for the World Series,
that would be electric La and Philly. Wow. John Smoltz, thanks
a lot for the time. Itruly appreciate your analysis. We learn so
much from you every time you're onthe air with Joe and I really appreciate
the time that you take for usmy pleasure. Thanks for having me
Well, it's a pleasure right nowto be joined by a Hall of famer
when men were men on the mound, a man that won two hundred and
thirteen games in his career, struckout over three thousand and also did it
as a reliever, one of thebest closers when he was in the bullpen
for a short time. That isthe great world champion, John Smoltz.
John, thanks a lot for thetime, appreciate it. My pleasure's always
(00:21):
great to be here in La.Beautiful day, beautiful weather and great game.
Do you ever have a chance tohit any of the golf courses in
La. LA's got some of thefinest. Yeah. When I was playing
here, this was guaranteed golf.You know. I think in twenty one
years I saw it rain twice.So whenever we came to the West Coast,
it was filled with tea times atLa Country Club. Bel Air Sherwood
(00:45):
foris. We played a lot ofgolf courund here and it was a lot
of fun. Sherwood's my neck ofthe woods, so I know it.
Well. Was there one golf coursethat was the most challenging for you?
Sherwood was the first golf course i'dever seen. With the golf carts the
way that they were, they wereahead of their time. They had like
the trunk in the front of thehood that you could put things that were
selling jewelry in the locker and thepro shop. It was a lot of
(01:10):
fun to go to Sherwood. Ithink my favorite is LA Country Club and
La North So of course they justplayed the Open not too long ago,
so but that's one of my favorite. You have a favorite golfer. We
always talk about favorite baseball players,but is there such a thing to love
a golfer that's not named Tiger Woods? Well, you know what, during
(01:32):
the playing days, Tom Glavin wasmy most low loyal golfer on the road.
But I like playing with anybody wholikes to play fast. You know,
I would just say, doesn't matterwhat your handicap is. If you're
going to play like a US OpenTour player, then we're not going to
have a lot of fun. Butif you're going to be able to just
get over your ball, get readyto hit hit it, and we could
(01:53):
play as much golf in the dayas as possible. I know, you
could talk golf all day. Onemore question about it. You mentioned Surewood.
The guy that I know that madesure Would famous was Wayne Gretzky.
Did you ever play against Gretzky orwith Gretzky? I have and some of
the celebrity events back in the past, and also in a member guest out
of Shadow Creek. But Wayne's golfgame, I think he's, you know,
(02:17):
obviously one of the greatest all timeathletes ever. He likes to talk
trash on the golf course. JohnSmoltz is our guest John when we're at
Dodgers Stadium, and John Smoltz thisyear. I remember nineteen ninety one when
the Braves came back from a ninegame deficit at the All Star Break to
win the division by a game overthe Dodgers. I've been preaching not to
(02:40):
be complacent around the streets of LosAngeles. Some of the players have gotten
upset with me for saying that.But as good as the Dodgers are and
as big of a lead they have, do you feel like complacency can set
in? Oh? It can,but Dave Roberts will ever let that.
I think a manager knows when histeam is maybe kind of lighting. Look,
the roster is definitely the best rosterin the NL West. But injuries
(03:05):
are also a part of our gamethat you never could foresee, and already
they've been They've had some injuries thathave kind of stabled maybe the wind total.
Getting north of one hundred plus winsis what everybody expects. So I
think there are lessons in the gamethat teach you to not look too far
ahead and not get too far complacent. Because you're mentioning the one that was
(03:27):
one of the greatest for us.It started an incredible streak of fourteenth straight
years. No one saw us comingthe Dodgers. The Reds had no fear
of the Atlanta Braves in nineteen ninetyone, and we ran a historic second
half and really went on our lastroad trip. We went seven to zero,
and to catch the Dodgers on thefinal day was pretty pretty well.
We actually caught them on Saturday,I believe Saturday night. I was able
(03:50):
to pitch that game against Houston thatclinched our first playoff spot for a long
time for the Braves. I rememberbeing here when the Braves came to town
in September of that season, andthat was maybe the biggest series in a
long time. It was loud,Yeah, I pitched in that series.
If I'm not mistaken, I thinkthis place realized kind of what we were
(04:12):
doing, you know, and thatwe were chugging along, and we picked
up I think seven games in thefirst ten games of the second half in
the standing, something like that,six or seven games, and then it
was it was game on. Youknow. We were the underdog by no
stretch. We understood that, andall the pressure was kind of on the
(04:32):
Dodgers, and that road trip wewere on. They were at home,
so they got to see all thosemiracle comeback wins. You know. I
don't know how true the story is, but Tommy Lasorda, we were down
two runs in the ninth inning againstCincinnati, nobody out in the ninth We
came back and won that game inextra innings, and I hadn't understand he
was eating a play of pasta andhe threw it off his desk when we
(04:56):
were able to come back and winthat game. Yeah, that sounds like
Tommy Florida for sure. John Smoltzis our guest. Obviously, the Braves
World Series champions, but went therecame a little bit short. The Dodgers.
Now, the last ten years havebeen compared to your Braves teams.
Can you relate to the feeling aroundhere when you have all the pressure on
(05:17):
you. There's something to be saidabout that. Now, when you have
all the pressure on you, itmeans you're a pretty good team and you've
got a good chance of doing somethingeach year that you set out to do.
Out leaving string training, we hada little different scenario. We were
winning despite having been predicted, youknow, to win. We did that
in the first five years, butafter that our roster changed quite a bit.
(05:38):
It's frustrating as a player to comeup short like we did. We
lost our first eight World Series gamesby one run. We were in every
World Series. It comes down toexecution, a little bit of luck,
but you've got to be able todeliver. And I think for the Dodgers
it's been a little bit of amixed bag. Right last year, beat
up, rotation, a couple ofyears ago beat up. Then they had
(06:00):
to go toe to toe with theGiants and exhaust every option they had to
win that series and really had nothingleft for the Braves. They went on
to win the World Series that year. I think it's every year it's the
healthier team has a chance to win, then they have the upper hand.
Experience is phenomenally great when you useit. But I think if your roster
(06:20):
is a little banged up and peopleknow that you got to be healthy despite
the payroll and despite the roster,you've got to be healthy at the right
time of the year. John,I get tired of hearing about the postseason
being random. I'm not a bigbeliever in that. I feel like you
make your own luck and your fortune. There is another layer to the postseason
(06:40):
rounds now, But how do youfeel about that when you hear randomness and
luck? Well, the one thingthat I've noticed over the last five to
seven years is the strategies and thephilosophies that work in one sixty two.
The teams that don't DBA from that, they're not winning. Yeah, And
I just think I know a lotof pushback have been given by me by
making those claims. But analytics isonly good as much as you're able to
(07:02):
use a one sixty two model.It doesn't work in the best of seven.
And if you're not able to useyour eyes at that time of the
year and use the players having spectacularperformances and not utilizing them like it's a
one sixty two. I think that'spart of it, and I know people
don't like that, but that's justpart of having experience. In the postseason.
We've got to let players have theirmoments, and we can't just keep
(07:25):
conducing it down to a one sixtytwo model. I'll grant you one sixty
two analytics has been very successful,yeah, but I don't think it's proven
to be successful in the playoffs.That's where the randomness may be coming from,
because they can't explain that. Andthat's the difficult part about understanding.
It's a totally different set of circumstancesthat you have to go by. You
(07:45):
got to let your horses be horses, and you got to be able to,
like I said, be healthy enoughto utilize the best pitching usually wins.
And if you use those guys anduse your eyes. I'm not crazy
about taking a guy out in thefourth fifth inning when he's been dominating just
because the numbers say in a oneto sixty two that's what you do.
So I'm a little different there.I'm not anti analytic, I'm just anti
(08:07):
all one bucket And if you onlyuse one bucket of information and that's your
source for making every decision. Ithink you run yourself as a disadvantage at
that time of the year. Solike, if Tyler Glass now is going
great, why pull them out ofthe game in a postseason game. That's
exactly right. And I've done alot of postseason games where I've seen pitchers
come out with no reason to comeout other than they just do because that's
(08:31):
the plan that's decided before him.Look the World Series that the Dodgers won,
if people remember the pitcher on themomb was dominating them in a one
to nothing lead for the Rays,and they took them out because of their
analytic model, and they lost theWorld Series. Now they were down in
the series, but you can't tellme if they don't win that game,
(08:52):
they don't have just as much achance to win that World Series. And
so there's there's many examples. Evenas last year, teams are kind of
with their mouth open when they seethe other pitcher come out. The opposing
teams like thank you, yeah,thank you very much. Because in today's
game, it takes seven pitchers pergame. In a postseason game, five
to seven is what typically you're seeing. Do you know every one of those
(09:13):
guys have to be right on.It only takes one guy to be bad
to tilt the game the wrong way. So I still ascribe to that philosophy,
and I've seen teams that win,and the teams that have won are
really the wins taking advantage of thatphilosophy. Hey, John Smoltz, I
feel like Bobby Cox believed in you, and I'm sure there were times in
(09:35):
those playoff games that the numbers oreven yourself you didn't believe you could reach
that type of level of competition.I got a chance to do something in
my era that was so it waslike a dream. You know, finish
what you start. You let yourpitching determine whether the manager came out and
took you out, nothing else.And I got a chance to piss three
(09:56):
seven games, and two of them, you know, I was able to
go nine innings, and the thirdone I thought I was going to go
to the nine innings, but Ihad to come out in the eighth in
a tie game zero zero without givingup a run. It's a little different
story coming back on three days rest, last game of the year, Game
seven. But the game that wementioned I talked to you about when we
were able to beat the Dodgers inninety one. I gave them five runs
(10:16):
a pitch nine innings. That'll neverhappen again. I don't no chance.
So he believed in us. Inwe were setting the tone. Why change
the narrative. Why give somebody elsea different look when you're doing what you
have to do at the mound andsilencing the kind of the If balls are
getting rocketed all over the place,absolutely you shouldn't stay in the game,
even if they're catching them. SoI think we've entered a different era where
(10:39):
velocity and spin rate and all thatstuff as matters, and the reward system
has changed the way the game isplayed. And that's just a matter of
fact. All right, John,We'll see you back here in October.
We'll see what happens, whether ornot the macro or the micro wins out.
Yeah. I'm looking forward this yearespecially we have the National League,
Joe and I do. And theNational League is going to be very compelling
(11:00):
between the current teams if they holdout, obviously Philly Atlanta and the Dodgers
and Brewers, who are surprising theworld right now. It feels like it's
a collision course for the Phillies andDodgers, but I know obviously there could
be upsets. Do you feel likethe Phillies are on a mission to redeem
themselves? I am a big believer. I know a lot of people downplay
this. When they asked the feelingthat the Phillies had last year to end
(11:24):
the season, I think as achip on their shoulder. I think every
player went in the offseason, ormajority of them did, said that ain't
happening again, not on my watch. They did whatever they needed to do,
and they've got a complete roster withveteran guys, and I think that
has been their mission you have.They've beat up a little bit with some
injuries, but they have a hugelead and I do believe they're the team
to beat along with the Dodgers becausethe rosters speak to There's not many holes
(11:48):
and they've been there, done that, and I think last year could serve
them well. If they are togo on and compete for the World Series,
that would be electric La and Philly. Wow. John Smoltz, thanks
a lot for the time. Itruly appreciate your analysis. We learn so
much from you every time you're onthe air with Joe and I really appreciate
the time that you take for usmy pleasure. Thanks for having me
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