John Smoltz calls 1991 the greatest year of his life, both athletically and personally.
The 23-year-old right-hander pitched in the pennant-clinching victory over the Houston Astros and the seventh game of the National League championship series as the Atlanta Braves drove toward the World Series. And to top it off, two months ago, his wife gave birth to their first child.
Yet, as happy as Smoltz has been lately, one question gnaws at him as he and his teammates look forward to beginning spring training later this month in West Palm Beach, Fla.: What would happen if he pitched as well during the entire 1992 season as he did in the second half of 1991?
Smoltz almost lost his spot in the starting rotation, as he won only two of his 13 decisions in the first half of the season. But following the All-Star break, he was a different pitcher. He went 12-2 with a 2.62 earned run average to help Atlanta to a 94-68 record, an improvement of 29 victories over 1990.
With the help of a personal psychologist to help his mental approach, Smoltz didn’t lose a decision after Aug. 15. He recorded the two clinching victories for the Braves in the pennant race and pitched well enough to win the seventh game of the World Series. Smoltz left a scoreless game in the eighth inning, and Minnesota’s Jack Morris beat the Braves 1-0 to give the Twins the world championship.
In the past two seasons, Smoltz is 5-24 in the first half of the season and 23-4 in the second. This tale of two seasons in something Smoltz would like to put behind him.
“I wonder what could happen if I put together two second halves in the same season,” he said. “But very few guys do that because it’s so tough to do. It’s a 36-game season. The reason I believe it’s so tough to be dominant all year is you go through 18 games in the first half of the season and 18 games in the second half, so you’re realistically starting all over after the All-Star game. This year, I’m not setting any major goals as far as numbers. I just want to retain the same focus all year.”
Whenever the subject of the Braves’ 1991 season comes up, the word miracle isn’t far behind. But everything didn’t fall neatly into place as Atlanta made its trip to the World Series. The Braves endured injuries to David Justice and Sid Bream and lost lead-off man Otis Nixon to a drug suspension during the final stretch.
Yet, the one constant was pitching. In addition to Smoltz’s 14-13 record, Cy Young winner Tom Glavine was 20-11, 20-year-old Steve Avery won 18 games, and Charlie Leibrandt won 15.
The Braves hope to find a fifth starter this spring, and it is expected to be either Pete Smith, Armando Reynoso or Mike Bielecki, a winter acquisition from the Chicago Cubs.
“We believe we have the core of personnel in place to be a contender at the very least,” said Atlanta manager Bobby Cox. “We think we have a pitching staff that compares favorably with any in the game. (The starters) went virtually all of 1991 without missing a turn. That took some luck, sure, but it also reflects their top-flight conditioning and work ethic.
“Maybe they can’t do it again, but I think they can put up similar numbers.”
Smoltz agrees with Cox. But he expects Braves’ pitching to be better than it was in 1991.
“I think it can be better,” he said. “We’ve got the best five starters in the game. The bullpen is solid. We’ve become one of the best-run teams in baseball, and it’s taken us a long time to get to this point.
“We’ve got the maturity, experience and some awesome talent coming back. To my knowledge, nobody else will have that.”
The Braves acquired Smoltz from the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 12, 1987. He was called up from Triple A-Richmond the following season. Since coming to the major leagues, Smoltz has compiled a 42-29 record.
Smoltz’s best year got even better last week. He agreed to a one-year contract with the Braves to avoid arbitration. Smoltz was asking for $1.75 million, but signed for $1.525 million.
“It’s really been a different kind of off-season than it’s been in the past,” Smoltz said. “It’s been the greatest year of my life so far. When we won the division, I thought that was the best thing that could happen to me. Then, we won the pennant, and I thought that was.
“I thought the game after we won those World Series games in Atlanta. Then, my son was born, and that beat everything.”
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Thursday, May 29, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Braves' Olson Puts Series Loss Behind Him
Like his teammates, Atlanta Braves catcher Greg Olson is enjoying his status as a member of the National League champions who came within an eyelash of a World Series title last season.
Atlanta, which finished in the cellar of the Western Division in 1990, captured the division title and defeated Pittsburgh in seven games for the pennant before dueling fellow last-to-first Minnesota in a dramatic seven-game series that ended in a 1-0 10th-inning defeat in the Minneapolis Metrodome.
But that 1-0 loss haunted Olson because he had another ending in mind for the miraculous season.
Olson has enjoyed the card shows and charity work that has come his way since October, such as the Braves Care-A-Van that made a stop at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium last week.
But it’s excursions like this weekend’s visit to Montgomery for the Buckmasters Classic that enables Olson to put the 1991 season and the trappings that have come with it into perspective.
The Minnesota native had Super Bowl tickets, but decided to take the opportunity to participate in his second love instead.
“I couldn’t do everything that was offered to me,” Olson said. “I did get to go wild boar hunting in Texas on the ESPN Outdoors show. But I’ve always heard what a great event the Buckmasters is, so I decided to ski the Super Bowl and come over to Montgomery.”
Olson joked about one of the events the Buckmasters had in store for him and other baseball players like Boston Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs.
“Jackie Bushman (Buckmasters founder/president) called me and said he was going to set up a hitting clinic for me and Wade Boggs,” Olson said.
“Boggs hits what, .340 lifetime, and I hit .250? That’d be a lot of fun.”
Lately, Olson has had his share of fun, but there was a time when he thought he was doomed to be a career minor-leaguer.
He was selected by the New York Mets out of the University of Minnesota in the seventh round of the 1982 June free agent draft and signed by the Minnesota Twins as a minor-league free agent in 1988 before the Braves signed him in 1989.
Olson was finally called up from Richmond in 1990 and became a blue-collar necessity in Atlanta’s stretch drive toward the division championship, catching all but two innings in 32 straight games from Sept. 1 to Oct. 5.
“Your mental attitude can take you a long way in any profession,” Olson said. “It helped me last year.
“It took me a long time to get here, and I’ll do anything to stay. The last place I wanted to be was on that bench. I got to fulfill a dream, and when you’re fulfilling a dream, it doesn’t matter how tired or banged-up you are.”
Olson finished the season with a .241 average, six home runs and 44 runs batted in, but batted .373 with runners in scoring position and two outs.
For quite some time after the Series, Olson couldn’t really appreciate what he and his teammates accomplished by bringing a championship to a city once dubbed “Losersville” by Sports Illustrated.
Finally, he was able to spend some time in the outdoors where he loves to be when away from home plate. That helped him contemplate Atlanta’s once-in-a-lifetime year.
“That was the only way I could ease my mind,” Olson said. My dog is really my second son and walking out in nature really helped because I was so down after the World Series. I wanted to forget all about it.
“But now I realize what a tremendous season it was. We used to have the voodoo stadium. This summer, it’s the hottest ticket in town. Everybody wanted to go to Fulton County Stadium and do the Tomahawk Chop. You just can’t put into words what the Braves did for the city last year. And to turn it around, you can’t put into words what the city did for the Braves.”
The same could be said for Olson’s contributions in his first complete season in the major leagues. Without his daily work down the stretch, the ending would doubtlessly have been quite different.
But Olson doesn’t foresee having to be the Braves’ iron man behind the plate again this season.
“I’m not sure it would be possible to do that again,” Olson said, “and I don’t think Bobby (Cox) would want me to. I’ll have Damon Berryhill backing me up, and I’m not sure what Mike Heath’s status is.”
Within a month, the Braves will begin work to defend their title when they report to West Palm Beach, Fla., for spring training. Olson acknowledges he expects the atmosphere to be markedly different from previous Atlanta springs, and he’s eager to get back to work.
“I got a chance to see some of the guys (pitchers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine and infielder Mark Lemke) at a banquet in Atlanta last week,” Olson said. “Seeing those guys again gives you that itch to put back on the cleats and get back in the clubhouse.”
Atlanta, which finished in the cellar of the Western Division in 1990, captured the division title and defeated Pittsburgh in seven games for the pennant before dueling fellow last-to-first Minnesota in a dramatic seven-game series that ended in a 1-0 10th-inning defeat in the Minneapolis Metrodome.
But that 1-0 loss haunted Olson because he had another ending in mind for the miraculous season.
Olson has enjoyed the card shows and charity work that has come his way since October, such as the Braves Care-A-Van that made a stop at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium last week.
But it’s excursions like this weekend’s visit to Montgomery for the Buckmasters Classic that enables Olson to put the 1991 season and the trappings that have come with it into perspective.
The Minnesota native had Super Bowl tickets, but decided to take the opportunity to participate in his second love instead.
“I couldn’t do everything that was offered to me,” Olson said. “I did get to go wild boar hunting in Texas on the ESPN Outdoors show. But I’ve always heard what a great event the Buckmasters is, so I decided to ski the Super Bowl and come over to Montgomery.”
Olson joked about one of the events the Buckmasters had in store for him and other baseball players like Boston Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs.
“Jackie Bushman (Buckmasters founder/president) called me and said he was going to set up a hitting clinic for me and Wade Boggs,” Olson said.
“Boggs hits what, .340 lifetime, and I hit .250? That’d be a lot of fun.”
Lately, Olson has had his share of fun, but there was a time when he thought he was doomed to be a career minor-leaguer.
He was selected by the New York Mets out of the University of Minnesota in the seventh round of the 1982 June free agent draft and signed by the Minnesota Twins as a minor-league free agent in 1988 before the Braves signed him in 1989.
Olson was finally called up from Richmond in 1990 and became a blue-collar necessity in Atlanta’s stretch drive toward the division championship, catching all but two innings in 32 straight games from Sept. 1 to Oct. 5.
“Your mental attitude can take you a long way in any profession,” Olson said. “It helped me last year.
“It took me a long time to get here, and I’ll do anything to stay. The last place I wanted to be was on that bench. I got to fulfill a dream, and when you’re fulfilling a dream, it doesn’t matter how tired or banged-up you are.”
Olson finished the season with a .241 average, six home runs and 44 runs batted in, but batted .373 with runners in scoring position and two outs.
For quite some time after the Series, Olson couldn’t really appreciate what he and his teammates accomplished by bringing a championship to a city once dubbed “Losersville” by Sports Illustrated.
Finally, he was able to spend some time in the outdoors where he loves to be when away from home plate. That helped him contemplate Atlanta’s once-in-a-lifetime year.
“That was the only way I could ease my mind,” Olson said. My dog is really my second son and walking out in nature really helped because I was so down after the World Series. I wanted to forget all about it.
“But now I realize what a tremendous season it was. We used to have the voodoo stadium. This summer, it’s the hottest ticket in town. Everybody wanted to go to Fulton County Stadium and do the Tomahawk Chop. You just can’t put into words what the Braves did for the city last year. And to turn it around, you can’t put into words what the city did for the Braves.”
The same could be said for Olson’s contributions in his first complete season in the major leagues. Without his daily work down the stretch, the ending would doubtlessly have been quite different.
But Olson doesn’t foresee having to be the Braves’ iron man behind the plate again this season.
“I’m not sure it would be possible to do that again,” Olson said, “and I don’t think Bobby (Cox) would want me to. I’ll have Damon Berryhill backing me up, and I’m not sure what Mike Heath’s status is.”
Within a month, the Braves will begin work to defend their title when they report to West Palm Beach, Fla., for spring training. Olson acknowledges he expects the atmosphere to be markedly different from previous Atlanta springs, and he’s eager to get back to work.
“I got a chance to see some of the guys (pitchers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine and infielder Mark Lemke) at a banquet in Atlanta last week,” Olson said. “Seeing those guys again gives you that itch to put back on the cleats and get back in the clubhouse.”
Braves' Smoltz Savors '91 Season
John Smoltz calls 1991 the greatest year of his life, both athletically and personally.
The 23-year-old right-hander pitched in the pennant-clinching victory over the Houston Astros and the seventh game of the National League championship series as the Atlanta Braves drove toward the World Series. And to top it off, two months ago, his wife gave birth to their first child.
Yet, as happy as Smoltz has been lately, one question gnaws at him as he and his teammates look forward to beginning spring training later this month in West Palm Beach, Fla.: What would happen if he pitched as well during the entire 1992 season as he did in the second half of 1991?
Smoltz almost lost his spot in the starting rotation, as he won only two of his 13 decisions in the first half of the season. But following the All-Star break, he was a different pitcher. He went 12-2 with a 2.62 earned run average to help Atlanta to a 94-68 record, an improvement of 29 victories over 1990.
With the help of a personal psychologist to help his mental approach, Smoltz didn’t lose a decision after Aug. 15. He recorded the two clinching victories for the Braves in the pennant race and pitched well enough to win the seventh game of the World Series. Smoltz left a scoreless game in the eighth inning, and Minnesota’s Jack Morris beat the Braves 1-0 to give the Twins the world championship.
In the past two seasons, Smoltz is 5-24 in the first half of the season and 23-4 in the second. This tale of two seasons in something Smoltz would like to put behind him.
“I wonder what could happen if I put together two second halves in the same season,” he said. “But very few guys do that because it’s so tough to do. It’s a 36-game season. The reason I believe it’s so tough to be dominant all year is you go through 18 games in the first half of the season and 18 games in the second half, so you’re realistically starting all over after the All-Star game. This year, I’m not setting any major goals as far as numbers. I just want to retain the same focus all year.”
Whenever the subject of the Braves’ 1991 season comes up, the word miracle isn’t far behind. But everything didn’t fall neatly into place as Atlanta made its trip to the World Series. The Braves endured injuries to David Justice and Sid Bream and lost lead-off man Otis Nixon to a drug suspension during the final stretch.
Yet, the one constant was pitching. In addition to Smoltz’s 14-13 record, Cy Young winner Tom Glavine was 20-11, 20-year-old Steve Avery won 18 games, and Charlie Leibrandt won 15.
The Braves hope to find a fifth starter this spring, and it is expected to be either Pete Smith, Armando Reynoso or Mike Bielecki, a winter acquisition from the Chicago Cubs.
“We believe we have the core of personnel in place to be a contender at the very least,” said Atlanta manager Bobby Cox. “We think we have a pitching staff that compares favorably with any in the game. (The starters) went virtually all of 1991 without missing a turn. That took some luck, sure, but it also reflects their top-flight conditioning and work ethic.
“Maybe they can’t do it again, but I think they can put up similar numbers.”
Smoltz agrees with Cox. But he expects Braves’ pitching to be better than it was in 1991.
“I think it can be better,” he said. “We’ve got the best five starters in the game. The bullpen is solid. We’ve become one of the best-run teams in baseball, and it’s taken us a long time to get to this point.
“We’ve got the maturity, experience and some awesome talent coming back. To my knowledge, nobody else will have that.”
The Braves acquired Smoltz from the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 12, 1987. He was called up from Triple A-Richmond the following season. Since coming to the major leagues, Smoltz has compiled a 42-29 record.
Smoltz’s best year got even better last week. He agreed to a one-year contract with the Braves to avoid arbitration. Smoltz was asking for $1.75 million, but signed for $1.525 million.
“It’s really been a different kind of off-season than it’s been in the past,” Smoltz said. “It’s been the greatest year of my life so far. When we won the division, I thought that was the best thing that could happen to me. Then, we won the pennant, and I thought that was.
“I thought the game after we won those World Series games in Atlanta. Then, my son was born, and that beat everything.”
The 23-year-old right-hander pitched in the pennant-clinching victory over the Houston Astros and the seventh game of the National League championship series as the Atlanta Braves drove toward the World Series. And to top it off, two months ago, his wife gave birth to their first child.
Yet, as happy as Smoltz has been lately, one question gnaws at him as he and his teammates look forward to beginning spring training later this month in West Palm Beach, Fla.: What would happen if he pitched as well during the entire 1992 season as he did in the second half of 1991?
Smoltz almost lost his spot in the starting rotation, as he won only two of his 13 decisions in the first half of the season. But following the All-Star break, he was a different pitcher. He went 12-2 with a 2.62 earned run average to help Atlanta to a 94-68 record, an improvement of 29 victories over 1990.
With the help of a personal psychologist to help his mental approach, Smoltz didn’t lose a decision after Aug. 15. He recorded the two clinching victories for the Braves in the pennant race and pitched well enough to win the seventh game of the World Series. Smoltz left a scoreless game in the eighth inning, and Minnesota’s Jack Morris beat the Braves 1-0 to give the Twins the world championship.
In the past two seasons, Smoltz is 5-24 in the first half of the season and 23-4 in the second. This tale of two seasons in something Smoltz would like to put behind him.
“I wonder what could happen if I put together two second halves in the same season,” he said. “But very few guys do that because it’s so tough to do. It’s a 36-game season. The reason I believe it’s so tough to be dominant all year is you go through 18 games in the first half of the season and 18 games in the second half, so you’re realistically starting all over after the All-Star game. This year, I’m not setting any major goals as far as numbers. I just want to retain the same focus all year.”
Whenever the subject of the Braves’ 1991 season comes up, the word miracle isn’t far behind. But everything didn’t fall neatly into place as Atlanta made its trip to the World Series. The Braves endured injuries to David Justice and Sid Bream and lost lead-off man Otis Nixon to a drug suspension during the final stretch.
Yet, the one constant was pitching. In addition to Smoltz’s 14-13 record, Cy Young winner Tom Glavine was 20-11, 20-year-old Steve Avery won 18 games, and Charlie Leibrandt won 15.
The Braves hope to find a fifth starter this spring, and it is expected to be either Pete Smith, Armando Reynoso or Mike Bielecki, a winter acquisition from the Chicago Cubs.
“We believe we have the core of personnel in place to be a contender at the very least,” said Atlanta manager Bobby Cox. “We think we have a pitching staff that compares favorably with any in the game. (The starters) went virtually all of 1991 without missing a turn. That took some luck, sure, but it also reflects their top-flight conditioning and work ethic.
“Maybe they can’t do it again, but I think they can put up similar numbers.”
Smoltz agrees with Cox. But he expects Braves’ pitching to be better than it was in 1991.
“I think it can be better,” he said. “We’ve got the best five starters in the game. The bullpen is solid. We’ve become one of the best-run teams in baseball, and it’s taken us a long time to get to this point.
“We’ve got the maturity, experience and some awesome talent coming back. To my knowledge, nobody else will have that.”
The Braves acquired Smoltz from the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 12, 1987. He was called up from Triple A-Richmond the following season. Since coming to the major leagues, Smoltz has compiled a 42-29 record.
Smoltz’s best year got even better last week. He agreed to a one-year contract with the Braves to avoid arbitration. Smoltz was asking for $1.75 million, but signed for $1.525 million.
“It’s really been a different kind of off-season than it’s been in the past,” Smoltz said. “It’s been the greatest year of my life so far. When we won the division, I thought that was the best thing that could happen to me. Then, we won the pennant, and I thought that was.
“I thought the game after we won those World Series games in Atlanta. Then, my son was born, and that beat everything.”
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