After he was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 1985, Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz spent his first season of professional baseball playing for the Tigers’ Class A team in Lakeland, Florida.
Sure, every five days was great being on the mound, but the time in between wasn’t easy.
“I was bored out of my mind,” admitted Smoltz who partners with Joe Davis on the number one Fox Sports broadcasting team. “I realized I was going to go crazy if I didn’t come up with some hobbies.”
So, Smoltz took up both golf and fishing during that season in Lakeland and he hasn’t looked back, especially with golf.
“I love to fish but really got, no pun intended, hooked on golf,” said Smoltz who will compete in the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course July 14th through the 16th.
As a baseball player, Smoltz appreciated what golf had to offer to keep him ready to get back on the mound when it was his turn to pitch. There was a cardio aspect to the sport that he enjoyed, but most of all, it kept him busy and was good for his mental health when he wasn’t playing baseball.
“You pitch once every five days,” said Smoltz. “You got a lot of time on your hands. I think it extended my career by four years and I think it served us well mentally to have something in-between. The mechanics of pitching are not the same but there are some similarities between the two that allowed me to really enjoy doing both.”
Not only did golf fill in the down time when Smoltz was an active pitcher, it also helps him today as a broadcaster. Flying from city to city and staying in hotels isn’t the glamorous part of doing a national television baseball broadcast some may think. Sure, he needs to prepare for the game, but there’s also plenty of free time. Smoltz never misses an opportunity to use it to get on the golf course.
“I would probably go a little stir crazy if I would just fly in and stay in hotels and not get out,” said Smoltz. “It can be very monotonous if you’re not careful.”
Smoltz has done well on the celebrity golf tour winning a couple of tournaments, but playing in South Lake Tahoe is always something special for him. This year, he’ll be joined by the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Jerry Rice, JJ Watt, Steph Curry, Charles Barkley, David Wells, Jon Lester, Colin Jost and Ray Romano.
The field, including six active NFL quarterbacks, five Heisman Trophy winners and a plethora of Hall of Famers, will compete for $600,000 in prize money. It’s a tournament that has raised over $6 million for charities including the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.
Smoltz will be in the booth for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 12th in Seattle and then he’ll make his way to South Lake Tahoe.
“I’m always excited about it,” said Smoltz. “I’m crossing my fingers that nothing goes wrong and I get to play in it every year as many times as I possibly can because it is the greatest tournament that we have as celebrities. I have to get in there at the seat of my pants after the All-Star Game. It works out. It’s a fun time. In the future, if I’m still fortunate enough to keep playing, I’ll spend more time up there and just enjoy the week because it is a great place.”
After his playing career, Smoltz moved to the broadcast booth calling Atlanta Braves games. Then, his national career began as an analyst for MLB Network along with calling regular season and post-season games for TBS. In 2014, he joined FOX teaming with Matt Vasgersian in the network’s number two booth.
In 2016, the moved up to the number one booth to work with Joe Buck.
“It’s been a blast,” said Smoltz. “I’ve worked with about 40 different play-by-play announcers and once you learn styles and you get a chemistry, it’s a lot of fun. Joe (Buck) and I, right away, I thought hit it off and now Joe Davis and I got it as well, so that part of a broadcast is no different than a pitcher/catcher relationship. The best broadcasts are the ones that have the best continuity.”
This season, baseball has gone through some rule changes including the pitch clock and the banning of the shift. For Smoltz, baseball will always be a part of his DNA, but he admits that there was something a little off-kilter with the sport in recent years.
Like many in the baseball world including the fans, the new rules have worked out very well.
“I enjoy the game now,” said Smoltz. “The new rules have enhanced some of the action. For a while, the action was kind of being dormant. The game moves now. I love that and the young talent and the greatness that’s in the game obviously gets to get displayed now if they continue to navigate the action part of the game.”
How would Smoltz, a first-ballot Hall of Famer inducted in Cooperstown in 2015, have handled the pitch clock?
“The pitch clock would never have been an issue for pretty much anybody in our era,” said Smoltz. “That’s just the way we learned to play. That would have been a non-issue. The game was played a lot faster then. Information and a lot of different things have slowed it down so that’s why we got rule changes that are in place.”
As the sport of baseball has evolved with new rules, so has the way that the games are presented on television. There have even been big changes since Smoltz moved from the playing field to the booth like players being miked up during games, the K zone showing where pitches crossed the plate, and other technological advancements.
“I would think that the viewer has a lot more enhancements at their disposal,” said Smoltz. “The technology has to have made it better I would think.”
There’s still more than half of baseball’s regular season to be played and then the fun really starts with the playoffs.
“I love the postseason,” said Smoltz. “I miss that part so much. To be part of it as a broadcaster…to bring in the nuances of what players are dealing with…the pressure…I still love that. That part is pretty cool. A game of the week is good but you can’t make a game of the week a playoff game.”
John Smoltz excelled during his playing career and has excelled in the broadcast booth. He’s also done pretty well in one of his hobbies as he’s carved out a nice side gig on the celebrity golf tour. That intensity he had on the mound will be on display next month as the 56-year-old Smoltz looks to be in the mix to win to win the American Century Championship, celebrity golf’s most prominent tournament.
“I’m running out of time so it’s getting ultra-competitive for me to try to have an opportunity to win,” said Smoltz. “I don’t think I’ve ever shown up at something, besides the Champions Tour, that I got a chance to play in where I felt I had zero chance. I love competing. I love getting better.”
If his playing career and broadcasting career are any indication, maybe the best has yet to come for Smoltz on the golf course.
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
