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Well, it's a pleasure right now
to be joined by a Hall of famer

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when men were men on the mound, a man that won two hundred and

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thirteen games in his career, struck
out over three thousand and also did it

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as a reliever, one of the
best closers when he was in the bullpen

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for a short time. That is
the great world champion, John Smoltz.

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John, thanks a lot for the
time, appreciate it. My pleasure's always

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great to be here in La.
Beautiful day, beautiful weather and great game.

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Do you ever have a chance to
hit any of the golf courses in

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La. LA's got some of the
finest. Yeah. When I was playing

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here, this was guaranteed golf.
You know. I think in twenty one

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years I saw it rain twice.
So whenever we came to the West Coast,

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it was filled with tea times at
La Country Club. Bel Air Sherwood

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foris. We played a lot of
golf courund here and it was a lot

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of fun. Sherwood's my neck of
the woods, so I know it.

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Well. Was there one golf course
that was the most challenging for you?

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Sherwood was the first golf course i'd
ever seen. With the golf carts the

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way that they were, they were
ahead of their time. They had like

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the trunk in the front of the
hood that you could put things that were

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selling jewelry in the locker and the
pro shop. It was a lot of

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fun to go to Sherwood. I
think my favorite is LA Country Club and

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La North So of course they just
played the Open not too long ago,

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so but that's one of my favorite. You have a favorite golfer. We

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always talk about favorite baseball players,
but is there such a thing to love

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a golfer that's not named Tiger Woods? Well, you know what, during

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the playing days, Tom Glavin was
my most low loyal golfer on the road.

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But I like playing with anybody who
likes to play fast. You know,

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I would just say, doesn't matter
what your handicap is. If you're

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going to play like a US Open
Tour player, then we're not going to

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have a lot of fun. But
if you're going to be able to just

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get over your ball, get ready
to hit hit it, and we could

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play as much golf in the day
as as possible. I know, you

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could talk golf all day. One
more question about it. You mentioned Surewood.

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The guy that I know that made
sure Would famous was Wayne Gretzky.

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Did you ever play against Gretzky or
with Gretzky? I have and some of

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the celebrity events back in the past, and also in a member guest out

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of Shadow Creek. But Wayne's golf
game, I think he's, you know,

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obviously one of the greatest all time
athletes ever. He likes to talk

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trash on the golf course. John
Smoltz is our guest John when we're at

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Dodgers Stadium, and John Smoltz this
year. I remember nineteen ninety one when

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the Braves came back from a nine
game deficit at the All Star Break to

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win the division by a game over
the Dodgers. I've been preaching not to

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be complacent around the streets of Los
Angeles. Some of the players have gotten

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upset with me for saying that.
But as good as the Dodgers are and

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as big of a lead they have, do you feel like complacency can set

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in? Oh? It can,
but Dave Roberts will ever let that.

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I think a manager knows when his
team is maybe kind of lighting. Look,

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the roster is definitely the best roster
in the NL West. But injuries

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are also a part of our game
that you never could foresee, and already

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they've been They've had some injuries that
have kind of stabled maybe the wind total.

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Getting north of one hundred plus wins
is what everybody expects. So I

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think there are lessons in the game
that teach you to not look too far

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ahead and not get too far complacent. Because you're mentioning the one that was

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one of the greatest for us.
It started an incredible streak of fourteenth straight

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years. No one saw us coming
the Dodgers. The Reds had no fear

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of the Atlanta Braves in nineteen ninety
one, and we ran a historic second

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half and really went on our last
road trip. We went seven to zero,

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and to catch the Dodgers on the
final day was pretty pretty well.

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We actually caught them on Saturday,
I believe Saturday night. I was able

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to pitch that game against Houston that
clinched our first playoff spot for a long

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time for the Braves. I remember
being here when the Braves came to town

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in September of that season, and
that was maybe the biggest series in a

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long time. It was loud,
Yeah, I pitched in that series.

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If I'm not mistaken, I think
this place realized kind of what we were

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doing, you know, and that
we were chugging along, and we picked

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up I think seven games in the
first ten games of the second half in

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the standing, something like that,
six or seven games, and then it

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was it was game on. You
know. We were the underdog by no

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stretch. We understood that, and
all the pressure was kind of on the

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Dodgers, and that road trip we
were on. They were at home,

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so they got to see all those
miracle comeback wins. You know. I

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don't know how true the story is, but Tommy Lasorda, we were down

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two runs in the ninth inning against
Cincinnati, nobody out in the ninth We

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came back and won that game in
extra innings, and I hadn't understand he

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was eating a play of pasta and
he threw it off his desk when we

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were able to come back and win
that game. Yeah, that sounds like

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Tommy Florida for sure. John Smoltz
is our guest. Obviously, the Braves

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World Series champions, but went there
came a little bit short. The Dodgers.

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Now, the last ten years have
been compared to your Braves teams.

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Can you relate to the feeling around
here when you have all the pressure on

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you. There's something to be said
about that. Now, when you have

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all the pressure on you, it
means you're a pretty good team and you've

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got a good chance of doing something
each year that you set out to do.

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Out leaving string training, we had
a little different scenario. We were

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winning despite having been predicted, you
know, to win. We did that

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in the first five years, but
after that our roster changed quite a bit.

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It's frustrating as a player to come
up short like we did. We

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lost our first eight World Series games
by one run. We were in every

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World Series. It comes down to
execution, a little bit of luck,

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but you've got to be able to
deliver. And I think for the Dodgers

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it's been a little bit of a
mixed bag. Right last year, beat

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up, rotation, a couple of
years ago beat up. Then they had

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to go toe to toe with the
Giants and exhaust every option they had to

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win that series and really had nothing
left for the Braves. They went on

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to win the World Series that year. I think it's every year it's the

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healthier team has a chance to win, then they have the upper hand.

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Experience is phenomenally great when you use
it. But I think if your roster

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is a little banged up and people
know that you got to be healthy despite

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the payroll and despite the roster,
you've got to be healthy at the right

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time of the year. John,
I get tired of hearing about the postseason

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being random. I'm not a big
believer in that. I feel like you

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make your own luck and your fortune. There is another layer to the postseason

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rounds now, But how do you
feel about that when you hear randomness and

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luck? Well, the one thing
that I've noticed over the last five to

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seven years is the strategies and the
philosophies that work in one sixty two.

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The teams that don't DBA from that, they're not winning. Yeah, And

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I just think I know a lot
of pushback have been given by me by

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making those claims. But analytics is
only good as much as you're able to

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use a one sixty two model.
It doesn't work in the best of seven.

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And if you're not able to use
your eyes at that time of the

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year and use the players having spectacular
performances and not utilizing them like it's a

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one sixty two. I think that's
part of it, and I know people

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don't like that, but that's just
part of having experience. In the postseason.

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We've got to let players have their
moments, and we can't just keep

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conducing it down to a one sixty
two model. I'll grant you one sixty

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two analytics has been very successful,
yeah, but I don't think it's proven

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to be successful in the playoffs.
That's where the randomness may be coming from,

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because they can't explain that. And
that's the difficult part about understanding.

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It's a totally different set of circumstances
that you have to go by. You

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got to let your horses be horses, and you got to be able to,

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like I said, be healthy enough
to utilize the best pitching usually wins.

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And if you use those guys and
use your eyes. I'm not crazy

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about taking a guy out in the
fourth fifth inning when he's been dominating just

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because the numbers say in a one
to sixty two that's what you do.

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So I'm a little different there.
I'm not anti analytic, I'm just anti

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all one bucket And if you only
use one bucket of information and that's your

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source for making every decision. I
think you run yourself as a disadvantage at

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that time of the year. So
like, if Tyler Glass now is going

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great, why pull them out of
the game in a postseason game. That's

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exactly right. And I've done a
lot of postseason games where I've seen pitchers

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come out with no reason to come
out other than they just do because that's

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the plan that's decided before him.
Look the World Series that the Dodgers won,

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if people remember the pitcher on the
momb was dominating them in a one

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to nothing lead for the Rays,
and they took them out because of their

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analytic model, and they lost the
World Series. Now they were down in

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the series, but you can't tell
me if they don't win that game,

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they don't have just as much a
chance to win that World Series. And

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so there's there's many examples. Even
as last year, teams are kind of

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with their mouth open when they see
the other pitcher come out. The opposing

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teams like thank you, yeah,
thank you very much. Because in today's

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game, it takes seven pitchers per
game. In a postseason game, five

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to seven is what typically you're seeing. Do you know every one of those

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guys have to be right on.
It only takes one guy to be bad

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to tilt the game the wrong way. So I still ascribe to that philosophy,

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and I've seen teams that win,
and the teams that have won are

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really the wins taking advantage of that
philosophy. Hey, John Smoltz, I

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feel like Bobby Cox believed in you, and I'm sure there were times in

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those playoff games that the numbers or
even yourself you didn't believe you could reach

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that type of level of competition.
I got a chance to do something in

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my era that was so it was
like a dream. You know, finish

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what you start. You let your
pitching determine whether the manager came out and

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took you out, nothing else.
And I got a chance to piss three

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seven games, and two of them, you know, I was able to

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go nine innings, and the third
one I thought I was going to go

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to the nine innings, but I
had to come out in the eighth in

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a tie game zero zero without giving
up a run. It's a little different

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story coming back on three days rest, last game of the year, Game

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seven. But the game that we
mentioned I talked to you about when we

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were able to beat the Dodgers in
ninety one. I gave them five runs

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a pitch nine innings. That'll never
happen again. I don't no chance.

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So he believed in us. In
we were setting the tone. Why change

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the narrative. Why give somebody else
a different look when you're doing what you

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have to do at the mound and
silencing the kind of the If balls are

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getting rocketed all over the place,
absolutely you shouldn't stay in the game,

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even if they're catching them. So
I think we've entered a different era where

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velocity and spin rate and all that
stuff as matters, and the reward system

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has changed the way the game is
played. And that's just a matter of

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fact. All right, John,
We'll see you back here in October.

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We'll see what happens, whether or
not the macro or the micro wins out.

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Yeah. I'm looking forward this year
especially we have the National League,

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Joe and I do. And the
National League is going to be very compelling

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between the current teams if they hold
out, obviously Philly Atlanta and the Dodgers

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and Brewers, who are surprising the
world right now. It feels like it's

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a collision course for the Phillies and
Dodgers, but I know obviously there could

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be upsets. Do you feel like
the Phillies are on a mission to redeem

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themselves? I am a big believer. I know a lot of people downplay

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this. When they asked the feeling
that the Phillies had last year to end

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the season, I think as a
chip on their shoulder. I think every

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player went in the offseason, or
majority of them did, said that ain't

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happening again, not on my watch. They did whatever they needed to do,

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and they've got a complete roster with
veteran guys, and I think that

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has been their mission you have.
They've beat up a little bit with some

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injuries, but they have a huge
lead and I do believe they're the team

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to beat along with the Dodgers because
the rosters speak to There's not many holes

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and they've been there, done that, and I think last year could serve

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them well. If they are to
go on and compete for the World Series,

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that would be electric La and Philly. Wow. John Smoltz, thanks

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a lot for the time. I
truly appreciate your analysis. We learn so

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much from you every time you're on
the air with Joe and I really appreciate

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the time that you take for us
my pleasure. Thanks for having me