Hall of Famer John Smoltz interview!

John Smoltz, the Hall of Famer, our good buddy John. First of all, thank you very much for joining us. What was it like being a part of that rotation with greg Maddux? Well, you never know how long it's gonna last. And when he got here, we knew we were gonna be something special and personalities, we all found a way to, to work with each other because we never really had that huge ego. But I remember the day we got the news and I just said we are going to be really, really good and we were, we did it for 10 years. We had a blast and we all learned from each other. John, we always look at greatness in the past in our sport and trying to figure out how it translates today. You watch games, you call games all the time. What's the biggest difference pitching wise when you are on the mound to now to the pitchers? Now, the biggest thing is it is it he had so much information, you know, we talk about the information that exists today. Well, greg had kind of the analytics back Then and for Tommy and myself and greg, we all three were different, but we all learned from each other. We picked each other's brains. We asked a lot of questions. I think that's the biggest difference in staffs today. I don't know how many pitchers actually ask each other do things together, go play golf. Um We had a blast and we had this inner competition that nobody talked about. We wanted to be kind of one up each and nobody, nobody threw a no hitter. So we never had to reset the clock and we were all striving for that perfect game. And Greg threw more perfect games in the sense of how he executed than anybody else. I'd ever seen small II, I tell everybody how blessed I was to come up in 98 and ride the bench with you guys for five years because I li literally just listen to you guys tell stories back and forth and just picked up just so much knowledge. II I think the question I have for you. Did he ever help you with any anything or give you a different way to look at, attacking a hitter and vice versa? Absolutely. That was the biggest thing that each of us were able to do. He taught me how to have a great year. Um He taught me how to not be so obsessed with the outcome um in 1996 and he said, ride the wave as long as you can and I was able to do that in ways that I probably would have never been able to do. Having watched him, having watched Glavin. Glavin told me how to hide my emotions. Maddox taught me how, how to be in a position to be my best version of myself. And we didn't pitch like each other. You know, we didn't throw the same stuff and that's what was great about the three of us, john. OK. We got him. Who, who's, who's Maddox today? John the closest? Oh man, I don't, I don't know that, I don't know that anybody comes close to Maddox today. Um You know, I know Kyle Hendrix always got the poor man's Maddox comp but there really isn't anybody that I can think of in the game today that thinks like him does what he did come up with theory he did and, and really beyond belief. I mean, he, he just thought of things nobody else did. He had theories, nobody else would think about. He believed them. It wasn't a gig, it wasn't something that was like he just put on. The one thing about Greg Maddux is he did interviews poorly on purpose. He wanted people to know where he was coming from. If he was a poker player, he was never showing his hand, he never showed his cards and he never will. And I'm sure even in this documentary, there's gonna be some a shucks. I don't know because we did more interviews about greg than Greg did about himself. We got to take him inside though , tell people how like, you know , back in the day it was this big thing to get on the plane and it was like a fashion show, not for myself and john Small, but a lot, a lot of guys were getting on. I think Greg wore the same outfit to and from every road trip for about a AAA three year window if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. It, it took a while to catch on to his little stick, you know, um, he had more at the time, more video game cartridges than certain person, certain things you would wear if you know what I mean? Like, he, I would see him on the golf course and go, wait a minute. Aren't those your suit pants? He's like, yeah, I mean, what I'm like, what? And, and cares in the world about how he looked and there were a lot of things that he went about that most people would go. This is not a big leaguer. There's no way this guy is a Hall of Famer, but that's the part of his life that he didn't care and you know what he was going to go and do things his own way. How was he when he first walked in, when, when he first came over as a free agent and walked in the door? How did, how did he endear himself to the group, you know, the big thing and look, I don't know if I touched upon this documentary. He was, he was great. Right. He walked in and we knew instantaneously we were gonna be together, um, do a lot of things , but he was, he was upset about the Chicago Cubs. Let's not, I mean, he, he definitely was a little bitter and, uh I can understand, you know, all those things that went down and how the went down and it took a little while to reset and say I'm an Atlanta brave and move forward. But we had to remind him to turn the page a few times when it came to the Chicago Cubs. But I get that. But it was a, it was so easy Transitionally because he liked to play cards. He liked to play golf, he liked to mess around and have fun. So that part was easy and, and, and I'm just telling you there, there were rumors we were gonna get Barry Bonds and nobody believed him. And when this trade came down, our whole team went to another level and that's how important it was for us. Well, uh once again, the documentary, the latest edition of MV Network presents Sunday right here on the Network eight o'clock Eastern, one of a kind profiling Greg Maddux John Smoltz is in the dock. Chipper Jones and a host of others. Barry Bonds is in the dock. So we look forward to that. And john, we look forward to hearing you on the call tonight for the Phillies and Braves have a good game. Appreciate it. Thanks guys for having