Tonight John Smoltz, Atlanta Braves pitcher, made major league history. He is now #16 on the all-time strikeout list by hitting # 3,000 strikeout against the Washington Nationals. Smoltzy has always, and will always remain, my favorite sports figure. I am so proud of him ... I cried when he struck Lopez out. I truly did!
I know some may think this is stupid and silly ... and I don't care if you're one of them. This feat is incredible ... he has shown strength, perseverance, and fight-to-the-end attitude to reach this milestone.
Hats off to you, John ... congratulations!!!!
From Sports Illustrated:
ATLANTA -- At this stage in his long career, being a strikeout pitcher is not what John Smoltz really needs to be. He'll be 41 next month, you know. He's closing in on 3,500 innings of hard, sometimes painful work. He's been through four elbow operations and, as of this moment, his right shoulder is being particularly bothersome. It wouldn't be such a bad idea, once in a while, to sacrifice a few strikeouts for a couple more quick, groundball outs.
But you can't change what you are -- well, Smoltz can, but it's getting a little late to do that again -- so a strikeout pitcher is what he'll remain, right up to the time he decides to hit the golf course for good. And when he makes his trek to the Hall of Fame sometime in the next decade, which he surely will do, he'll be feted as a great strikeout artist then, too. One of the best ever.
Tuesday, with the sun dropping behind the stands on the third-base side of Turner Field on a beautiful spring evening, Smoltz muscled his way past the most important milestone of his wonderfully quirky career, strikeout No. 3,000. Only 15 other pitchers in history have done that -- it's a feat that's been accomplished less often than a perfect game (17), 300 career wins (23), 500 home runs (23) or 3,000 hits (27) -- and of those who have, Bert Blyleven is the only one eligible for induction into the Hall who isn't in yet. Only five members of the fraternity of 3,000 -- Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Nolan Ryan and Curt Schilling -- have done it in fewer innings.
This was a career-defining moment for Smoltz, a Cy Young Award winner as a starter in '96, the National League's most dominant closer for the better part of three years in the early part of this decade and, all along, one of the toughest postseason pitchers of his or many other generations. You could tell it was important to him, too. The normally steady Smoltz had to step off the mound on a couple of occasions to compose himself with a small but screaming crowd of 23,482 egging him on. He said later he was as nervous as he was in his first pennant race, 17 years ago. "They caused me to do something I'm really not wanting to do, which is rev up ... with two strikes," he said. "I've never been that anxious with two strikes."
When he fooled the Nationals' Felipe Lopez into swinging over a splitter in the dirt for No. 3,000 -- after shaking off a couple of signs -- a grim-faced Smoltz pumped his fist quietly and allowed himself a long, slow exhale. He walked forward to hug his catcher, Brian McCann. He embraced third baseman Chipper Jones and worked clockwise around the rest of the infield. He wandered behind the mound to tip his hat to the crowd.
"He was awfully strong. He couldn't have been any stronger," said Braves manager Bobby Cox.
"He was awesome, man. Smoltzie was Smoltzie tonight," said McCann.
This was, in many ways, the final frontier for Smoltz to cross. It was a whiff that can't be ignored, a strikeout to shut up the skeptics.
"They normally don't ...," Smoltz, searching for the right words, said of his strikeouts, "... it's no big deal. But today, for one single moment, it certainly was an incredible moment. I think the course of my career has made this very special."
Smoltz is, and always has been, a different kind of a pitcher, hard to categorize, hard to figure. Packed with talent but with no idea of how to pitch when he came up in 1988, he worked and willed himself into being one of the best starters in baseball. In 1992 he added a split-fingered fastball to a high-90s fastball and a devastating slider, perfected the pitch in his Cy Young year (when he went 24-8 with a 2.94 ERA) and became, not too arguably, the most naturally gifted pitcher in maybe the best rotation ever assembled. With Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, Smoltz was the mainstay of the Braves' streak of 14 straight division titles, the only of the three around for the entire run.
Yep ... my little boy is now a teenager. It seems completely unreal. I mean, it doesn't surprise me that in a few months Hannah will be 17. THAT, I can handle. But wow ... my little Eli ... is losing his innocence. Well, perhaps that's overstepping it a bit. He is still VERY innocent, but now he is ever closer to becoming ... a brat. UGH.
His birthday was just as he likes it ... uneventful and nearly unmarked. We didn't have a cake ... we had Skittles. We didn't wrap presents ... he opened them as they arrived in the mail. He wanted four DVD's: "The Day After Tomorrow" ... "School of Rock" ... "Wayne's World II" ... and "2007 World Series - Red Sox v. Rockies." With Skittles and DVD's in hand, he was on top of the world.
I am thankful that his birthday fell on spring break. Otherwise, his teachers might make mention that it was his birthday ... and that would send him under the table. It makes no difference how much I tell them NOT to bring attention to him ... they do it anyway. I am considering getting a t-shirt designed to read: PLEASE IGNORE ME. I DO NOT LIKE TO BE NOTICED. Thanks, my mom :)
Anway .. it will only be a little while before Ron will have to teach Eli how to shave. The boy is sprouting hair like nobody's business :-)
Also, the motivation of seeing Karli's face when she meets us at JFK is pushing this idea. She'll be mortified ... we will have succeeded.
I had intentions of giving a title of RON'S NEW TOY ... but I soon realized I've actually used that title before. It is apparent that Ron really likes his toys ...
Well, we had our first Thanksgiving in our new house. We moved in last year a week before Christmas, so this was the first Thanksgiving. I, of course, cooked for an army even though it was just me, Ron, and the kids. I did have a method to my madness, which was that I didn't have to cook again for FOUR days. Can you say ... leftovers?
