would there be a way to get videotape of each at bat that resulted in a strikeout for him? does this guy have a greatest hits dvd or anything?

so, i guess he's coming back as a closer ... again.

he's out at least a month, but yeah if he closes again. I think they have a better shot.

if he pitched next year too as the closer, he would have a decent shot at 200-200-3000.

i really didnt like the braves for a long time, but i've always respected old smoltz

Guy is like a scratch golfer. Good on him.

i sure hope his career isn't over.

I saw his press conference and he has every intention of coming back. Let's just hope he can work out the kinks.

I John Smoltz

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/w ... index.html

Man in Full: Smoltz has spent his career defying the odds

Throughout his marvelous, sometimes dominating, oft-interrupted career, you could always count on John Smoltz to lay it all on the line. His effort. His talent. His emotions. His many, many, many opinions.

Smoltz has been, for more than 20 years now, a complete original, a pitcher in full. With dominating stuff and an overpowering will, Smoltz has paved his way toward the Hall of Fame with a Cy Young Award, more than 200 wins, more than 150 saves, 3,000-plus strikeouts and a reputation as one of history's best postseason pitchers. We may never see another like him.

The question now, though, is if we'll ever see him again. Smoltz announced Wednesday that the pain in his right shoulder, something that has been bothering him since last season, is simply too much to endure. He'll undergo season-ending surgery on Tuesday in Birmingham. Ala. And from there ... well, nobody knows.

In his typically defiant fashion, a defiance he clearly thrives on, the 41-year-old Smoltz refused to call this an end to his career. But he could not help but acknowledge the possibility, given his age and his injury, that we have seen the last of the Braves' big, bold, bald right-hander.

"I've had just a wonderful career, and a wonderful time doing it, despite the challenges," Smoltz, in full workout gear and Braves cap, told a press conference Wednesday morning at Atlanta's Turner Field. "So I'm confident that, once they do what they have to do, that I'll deal with the results, whatever they are."

Smoltz has been through this before, of course. He's had four elbow surgeries, including a Tommy John ligament replacement surgery that cost him the entire 2000 season. He had another operation on the elbow that pushed him into briefly calling it quits, a decision that others quickly made him reconsider and, just as quickly, recant.

From 2002-2004, he was one of the National League's most dominant closers, notching a league-best 55 saves in '02. In 2005, defying conventional wisdom and the advice of many around him, Smoltz returned as a starter. From the beginning of that season until his last start on April 27, Smoltz went 47-26 with a 3.18 ERA, amassing more than 222 innings in those first three years.

But the shoulder injury he suffered in a game last year in Milwaukee, which limited his preparation in spring training and was so severe that he didn't even pick up a ball between his April starts, continued to debilitate him. He missed more than a month after that last start, reappearing on Monday as a closer, blowing a save against the Marlins by giving up three hits and two runs in an inning. That was it.

"Had I struck out the side, I'd be having the same press conference," he said Wednesday. "It was too much."

Smoltz expressed his desire to return next year, though he has no contract for '09. But even he conceded that this one is out of his hands. If Dr. James Andrews and his team open up the pitcher's shoulder on Tuesday and see some things that they don't want to see, the future of Smoltz's career might be decided shortly after he wakes up. Certainly, by this time next week, we all should know whether he's going to make another try of it or not.

"I've said things in the past that if I had to go through another [surgery], I probably wouldn't do it," he said. "But I tried to retire in 1999, too. In fact, I did, until I got talked out of it."

The decision to do the surgery, and maybe end his career, was a stunner in many ways and a welcome relief in others. For Smoltz, who will have to think about retirement and a semi-normal life soon enough, surgery will ostensibly ease the searing pain of the last year. He will rejoin the team shortly after his surgery, in a leadership/cheering role, and he may get a chance to help coach his daughter's basketball team. He might, after some recovery time, be able to work in a little time on the golf course.

But without Smoltz -- 3-2 with a 2.00 ERA in five starts this year -- the beat-up Braves' staff is left with a rotation of Tim Hudson, Tom Glavine, Jair Jurrgens, Jo-Jo Reyes and Jorge Campillo. "You'll never replace a Hall of Famer. You just can't do it," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "But we can put guys in there that can help us win."

Smoltz's decision to undergo surgery, and his possible retirement, also mark the first very mortal sign of the end to one of the most dominating trios of pitchers in history. With Smoltz, Glavine and Greg Maddux, now pitching for the Padres, the Braves had one of the best pitching staffs of the modern era, one that led the Braves to 9 straight division titles from 1993-2002. Smoltz, the only one of the three who was around for Atlant's entire streak of 14 conseutive division crowns from 1991-2005, was at his best in the playoffs; he is 15-4 with a 2.65 ERA in 40 postseason games, 27 of them starts.

It's possible, as many have speculated, that Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux all could retire after this season, and that they all could end up on the stage in Cooperstown as first-ballot inductees to the Hall of Fame. First, though, there's the surgery. And if that goes well -- yes, that possibility exists, too -- Smoltz might well dive into his rehabilitation and re-emerge in 2009 as a force on someone's pitching staff.

Starter? Long reliever? Closer? It probably doesn't matter. "I've never seen anything that I couldn't accomplish," he said.

That'd be just like Smoltz. Willful. Competitive. And defiant to the very end.

hey does bobby cox still beat his wife?

Like it's 1991 and she's the dodgers.

Ah, how I've missed you.

TOO FAR

just to add to this thread another Brave Great....

Chipper Jones is hitting .418 right now

so a big ha ha and thanks to Todd Van Poppel for saying he wouldn't sign with the braves in 1990.. what's he doing now bagging groceries?

Chipper hit his 400th last night.

Unbeliveable what he's doing this year. Everytime I check a box score he as at least 2 hits.

he's back