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Johnson, Martinez, Smoltz, Biggio enter Hall of Fame
Whether we realized it or not at the time, everyone who attended the Best of Preps Banquet this newspaper hosted June 1 got a sneak peek at the Baseball Hall of Fame acceptance speech John Smoltz delivered on Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Much as he did here before more than 1,200 folks at the Convention Center, the former Atlanta Braves pitching great recalled his parents' early plans back in Lansing, Mich., to turn him into "the next Lawrence Welk by the age of 4" through accordion lessons.
He also noted, as he did here, "That my backup plan (if this Major League Baseball dream didn't work out) was to be a gas station attendant."
Also much like here, he warned today's helicopter parents about the dangers of stressing out their sons' young pitching arms too early.
With words that need to find their own plaque at Cooperstown, Smoltz said, "I want to encourage the families and parents that are out there that this is not normal to have (an arm) surgery at 14 and 15 years old. That you have time, that baseball is not a year-round sport. They're competing and maxing out too hard, too early, and that's why we're having these problems. Please, take care of those great future arms."
Nor did he abandon his stated plan during the Best of Preps banquet to make time in his speech to gig former Braves teammates and 2014 Hall of Fame inductees Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux about their supposed weight gains, especially Maddux, who took time a year ago to tease Smoltz about his rapidly receding hairline.
"I lost 20 pounds for this," Smoltz said. "And they found it."
What he kept as a surprise for the crowd of close to 50,000 was his decision to slip a dark, massively shaggy wig on his bald head, which made the winner of 213 games and saver of 154 more look remarkably similar to actor Harry Shearer's character Derek Smalls in the classic 1984 rock music mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap."
That brief wearing of the wig was probably enough to make Welk roll over in his grave, even if Smoltz also said of his childhood prior to pro ball, "Polka music, 8-track tapes, I enjoyed it all."
Then again, he did tell the MLB Network late Sunday morning concerning his speech, "I'm somewhere between Dumb and Dumber and Forrest Gump."
And to back that up he recalled a moment from a youth tournament in New York City, when he was lit up for four two-run homers in a single inning against a team made up of players from the Dominican Republic.
When his Spanish-speaking coach came to the mound to yank him, Smoltz asked him what the Dominican fans were yelling at him.
The coach told him, "They're saying you need Bengay for your neck because every time you throw a pitch you're having to turn your head to watch it go over the fence."
Yet even without Smoltz's wit and wisdom, this was about as enjoyable a Hall of Fame Sunday as anyone could hope to watch, thanks to fellow inductees Craig Biggio, Pedro Martinez and the Big Unit - Randy Johnson.
After all, here was Biggio, the only player ever named an All-Star at both catcher and second base (he also played in the outfield), choking back tears as he recalled the sacrifices of his late parents. He also spoke of Matt Galante, the Houston Astros coach who somehow converted Biggio from a catcher to a second baseman during six weeks of spring training, despite the fact that the player had never previously played second at any level of the sport.
"I'm not here without that man," Biggio said. "I thank God for Matt Galante and I'm so grateful. When I won my first Gold Glove, I gave it to him."
At that point it was Galante's turn to wipe away a tear.
Here, too, was Johnson, whose fastballs were so wild when he was first called up to the majors in Montreal that he was sent back down.
Always a shy man of few words when not scaring the heck out his opponents from the mound with his 6-10 frame, scraggly beard and wretched mullet, Johnson said next to nothing about his 303 wins and 4,875 strikeouts, but delivered perhaps the most touching line of the afternoon when he turned to his mother and said, "You're the real Hall of Famer."
There was at least one story from Smoltz that didn't make its way into his Best of Preps comments.
Recalling his impending Tommy John surgery in 2000 - which cost him that entire season, but made him the only pitcher to have the procedure and still reach the Hall - Smoltz told of receiving a call from former Dodgers pitcher Tommy John, for whom the arm surgery is named.
"That phone call, at the age of 34, meant the world to me," Smoltz said. "Emotionally, I'd given up. I thought no one would wait for a pitcher my age on my contract. That was a pivotal moment in my career."
And because Smoltz hung around longer Atlanta longer than either Glavine or Maddux, he carried the torch to enshrine longtime Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, much as Glavine had politicked for his great golfing buddy Smoltzie a year ago.
"Chipper Jones should soon be inducted," Smoltz said. "But somebody please steal his Twitter account. Please."
Yet good as they all were, the most memorable moment quite possibly came from the Dominican Republic native Martinez, he of the 219-100 career record, who told the massive crowd, which was filled with both Dominicans and Red Sox fans: "I would like all of you to not look at me as numbers, as baseball, as achievements. I would like you to actually see me as a sign of hope for a third-world country, for Latin America, as someone you can really look up to and say, 'I'm proud of you.'"
At the risk of sounding as sappy as Forrest Gump, we should all be proud of this entire class.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com