Day One
John Smoltz: And I’ll never forget being challenged. See, I’m the one that went to, uh, Baseball Chapel every single time. I’m the one that prayed the prayer 500 times. Uh, I wanted to make sure, triple check, double check. I was always doing the things that were surface level to make me feel okay. But it really never was vertical. It was all horizontal.
John Fuller: That’s Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz sharing about his need to really surrender totally and commit his life to Christ. You’re gonna hear his inspiring story over the next couple of days as he shares how God was working in his life for many years. Welcome to Focus on The Family with Jim Daly. I’m John Fuller.
Jim Daly: John, I had this conversation recently at a men’s golf event in Wisconsin. A lot of fun, about 60 guys, and we had a really good time together. Hearing from John and hearing his story about his career and family and spiritual journey. There’s nothing like a former athlete or a current athlete speaking to a group of men. Something magical happens in there ’cause he’s so respected. This guy had a 21-year career in Major League baseball. Mm-hmm. That’s phenomenal. I mean, I think the average is maybe three years. So this guy is somebody you need to listen to about how he would attack the game.
But what was so good is he explains how he attacked life in very much the same way. And the Lord had to get a hold of that and kind of help him to better understand this issue of grace. Uh, this discussion is very timely because, uh, the World Series is about to get underway, and John is the lead analyst for Fox Sports. So if you flip over and watch, uh, the World Series, you’re gonna hear John Smoltz call that game. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, and I believe there will be a lot of good takeaways for you.
John F.: Let’s go ahead and jump into this wonderful discussion now with John Smoltz on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.
Jim: John Smoltz is Major League Baseball’s lead game analyst for Fox Sports. Former pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. How many years were you with the Atlanta Braves?
John S.: Uh, go, uh, 21 years.
Jim: 21 years. That’s such a long time. Uh, you have, let’s see, 200 wins, 150 saves.
John S.: Yep. 213, 154.
Jim: Eight-time All-Star.
John S.: Mm-hmm.
Jim: And World Series Champion in 1995. I think you went to the World Series five times.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: No, that’s good.
Audience: (Laughs).
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: That’s good. When you lost, the other team would say, “They played tough.”
John S.: They did. Yeah. We lose every game by one run. It doesn’t matter. But you lose by one, it’s painful.
Jim: And Cy Young Award winner with over 3,000 strikeouts.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: That’s amazing. That is so good. Uh, recipient of the Roberto Clemente Award. That’s a prestigious award for pitchers.
John S.: Well, that one is the most important, in my mind, the most important award you can win. You only win it once. Uh, only one player can win it. And it embodies the work you do away from the field, uh, on what Roberto Clemente meant and what his mission and what he was trying to do. And obviously that’s how he ended up passing away, um, in his endeavors to make life better for other people. So that one to me is, um, probably the, the one I’m most proud of because it really has nothing to do with stats.
Jim: Yeah. It’s about the heart.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: And, uh, you know, John, I think the, uh, the big thing here, we’re at a men’s golf event, and you look at all of that. I love the last point here, which is husband and father who loves Jesus.
John S.: Mm-hmm.
Jim: So, you know, as guys, we just, we dial into titles, achievements. I mean, every guy wants to be that sports guy to win the World Series, throw the, uh, touchdown pass in, uh, the Super Bowl, whatever it might be. You start thinking about that like at seven, eight, nine years old. And in fact, that’s when you started to think about baseball.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: You were like seven.
John S.: I did. Yeah. I grew up in a musical family. That’s a legit picture. Uh, my mom and dad both played the accordion. They were accordion teachers.
Jim: (Laughs).
John S.: That’s how they met. Um, that’s what they did. Family business was pretty strong when it came to the accordion players. They had some world renowned players in my uncles. And so it was a lot of pressure on me.
Audience: (Laughs).
John S.: Uh, third generation, maybe fourth generation accordion player. My dad, uh, was in a band for over 60 years. And I’ll tell you-
Jim: Wow.
John S.: The, the one thing about it is, you know, I was four, uh, played ’til I was seven. I won a couple trophies. I don’t remember a lot of it, but they did not put the pressure on me to teach me themselves. They let somebody else, which you think about as a parenting lesson, most of us would’ve taught our children what we know. And they let somebody else do that, which I thought was brilliant now looking back, having children. But yeah, that, I played it, it was disciplined. I had to practice. It was not easy. But fortunately, they allowed me to put it down at the age of seven. Don’t know where this came from, but I told my mom that I was gonna be a Major League Baseball player when I grew up.
You know, I knew what I wanted to be. And my mom is a full-blooded Italian that really knew nothing about sports. My dad had gone to the seminary, uh, but then didn’t finish the seminary ’cause then if he did, this conversation would be really weird. Um-
Jim: (Laughs).
John S.: Uh, and, and was a businessman. And then of course, uh, he played in the band, but they let me do it. And I pursued it from seven years all the way through high school. I’m a self-taught baseball player, self-taught basketball, golf, football, everything self-taught. And they just gave me the opportunity. I think they thought that it would fade away and I’d return back to the accordion. Um-
Audience: (Laughs).
Jim: That was their desire for you.
John S.: That, that was their desire. And, uh, it, you know what? They let me do it. And I, and I’m very thankful for it ’cause it could have been a, an easy decision not to.
Jim: Now, as a junior hire, did you ever get that date with the girl because you were playing the accordion?
John S.: No, no. I’m gonna tell you-
Jim: Didn’t happen?
John S.: I’m gonna tell you my, I know we’re gonna get into this, but my dad taught me a lot of things. And one thing he told me, he is not ashamed or afraid of who he was. My dad was a, uh, one of the greatest salesmen. He owned his own business, but he drove me to school in a Red Maverick that was painted for an adding machine that he was selling in his business.
Jim: (Laughs).
John S.: Picture a Red Maverick with the coil on top of the, the roof and all the numbers added on. He would drop me off at school and thought that was the funniest thing he’s ever done when, of course, playing the accordion wasn’t rough enough on me-
Audience: (Laughs).
John S.: Uh, getting dropped off in that at high, at high school was not fun.
Jim: So I, I’ve got, yeah. I’ve gotta ask then, did you borrow the car on your first date?
John S.: No, no, no, no, no. No. That-
Jim: And your date kind of went, “What?”
John S.: He had a horn and a speaker system. He had everything that you could have to, I think, embarrass his children and have a good time with it. But he was a self-promoter, and he promoted himself as he drove the car around town.
Jim: (Laughs) That’s interesting.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: You know, um, I think for guys, again, the ability to get to where you achieved, you know, being a Major League Baseball player, a lot of young boys think about that and dream about it, but to get there, I mean, the cost of that, the intensity to do that. I see that in your golf game. We finished a round of golf. You came back to the putting green and spent like an hour putting balls-
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: … while we sat there and watched you. Is that, I mean, that kind of commitment to wanting to make your game better, did that start at seven?
John S.: It started at four, honestly.
Jim: Oh, my.
John S.: It started with the accordion. I know it sounds a little cheesy, but it, it, I had to put in all this kind of time and dedication and practice, and my dad showed me the way without ever saying it. He showed me that he was never, you know, he was, he’s one of the hardest worker i… I ever knew. And so it started really early. And so I put in the work and, and the time, and, and this is the thing that I think is lost in today’s, I mean, we’re in a different time with kids and technology and social media and everything, but I blocked out anyone and anybody that was not for my dream.
Jim: Hmm.
John S.: So in high school, you have all those pressures and I eliminated parties. I, I looked at it that in life, that what I was trying to accomplish was such a low percentage success rate that why not eliminate everything that would eliminate me from getting to that point? So I, I viewed everything as a hurdle. And when you’re hurdling, the goal is to jump over the hurdle as much as you can. Sometimes you hit ’em and sometimes you don’t. And I just basically with looking back now, 58 years old, the hand of, of God was on my life of protection in so many ways. And I’ll say it like this.
I was intentional in what I wanted and what I avoided. I was very intentional on my upbringing, how my parents brought me, and the moral fiber and the character they taught me. All of that’s good. And all the dreams and aspirations are good. But if you’re not intentional in staying away from the things and the distractions, you get sucked in just like the world sucks you in in so many different ways. I’m 58 and I’m not exaggerating this at all, and this is why I look at God’s hand in my life.
I lived in a business for 24 years, including spring training. It’s not the greatest lifestyle. There are a lot of distractions. There are a lot of potholes. There are a lot of things that can pull you away from your faith. I was not always a Christian in my baseball career, but I’ve never been in a compromising situation in my life. I’ve never been offered a drug. I’ve never been in a place where you would think that exists every day in our sport. And so the intentionality was one thing, but then also God’s hand was another. And I look back and my children have experienced 10 times more things in life than I, I’ve never seen anyone do drugs. Now what’s the odds of that? And so I’m in a locker room of 25 different personalities. And what I learned was when you establish your circle, when you establish your foundation and your character, those circles don’t intersect with other parts of life that might be cool.
The going out guys, the drinking guys, the guys that might be doing drugs, they don’t intersect. And so that protection served me well. Um, I am a goal-oriented, dream-oriented, shoot for the stars type guy, but I was too consumed for the longest time with the outcome. And I learned in my faith how to separate that and not be attached identity-wise to what I was and who I was and what I did. So that whole journey, when I think back to playing the accordion as a little nerd, um, it served me well. You know? It served me well. My parents gave me guardrails to kind of-
Jim: That’s good.
John S.: … navigate life. And, and luckily, um, you know, I avoided most of the stuff that could have derailed it.
Jim: You packed so much in there. We’re gonna unfold some of that. But with the big leagues, uh, you had a funny one when, uh, I think it was the coming outta the bullpen as a closer.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: And they would play the music for you.
John S.: Yeah. Yeah.
Jim: And you had to select the music, but you didn’t really care.
John S.: No.
Jim: And you told the PR team whatever.
John S.: Yeah. So this is that new way. Now, now it’s commonplace, right? Everyone has a walk-up song. So I had just moved from starter to closer and I was trying to learn this new position. I wasn’t happy about it. And I’m just going to dive in headfirst and figure it out. Well, they came to me in spring training, and they said, “Hey, listen, we’re doing something new this year and we’re gonna give everybody the chance to pick their walk-up song. So when you come to the plate, the song that really gets you motivated and ready to hit or when you come to the mound.” And I said to ’em, I said, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Audience: (Laughs).
John S.: And they said, “No, really, everybody’s kind of getting into it.” And they said, “What’s your song?” And I said, “I don’t have a song, and I don’t need a song.” And I literally said, “I played the accordion when I was little. So what do you, what do you think?”
Jim: You told them that?
John S.: Yeah, I told ’em. I said, “You ain’t gonna-… You’re not gonna play Lawrence Welk when I get out to the mound.”
Audience: (Laughs).
John S.: So they said to him verbatim, “I will not be thinking about a song. Play whatever you want. I won’t, I won’t even hear it. I’m coming out of the bullpen trying to get three outs before they tie the game. I will not be thinking about a song.” And they were like, can’t believe it. But I just, I didn’t give ’em a song. So I literally, for the first month and a half, didn’t, I was locked in, never heard the song, never heard what they were playing until this one particular day, uh, come into the mound and Dancing Queen is playing on the loudspeaker. I had the CD. Abba’s one of my favorite bands. It’s not that it wasn’t a cool song, it’s just not a cool song to come in to close the game on.
Jim: (Laughs).
John S.: So in my mind, and the on deck hitter is kind of laughing, and he should, and I’m thinking, all right, somebody made a mistake. Well, I get the three outs luckily. And they come running down and they were apologizing, and they said, “We, you know, da da da da. We didn’t think you were coming in or we hit the right,” I said, “You made your point. I’ll get a song.”
Audience: (Laughs).
John S.: And that’s when Thunderstruck was born. And um-
Jim: That’s a good one.
John S.: I’ll be honest. Um, I got into it pretty much.
Jim: (Laughs) It became your song.
John S.: It became the thing. Yeah, it became my song. And Maddox used to go in, we didn’t have the most technical sound system in the locker room, but in the clubhouse, he would go in when I would come in the game and turn it up as loud as he could as lightning would play on the scoreboard, and the place went crazy. And I did, I ended up digging it and uh, uh, it worked out well. But I owe it all to Dancing Queen.
Jim: Yeah. That’s good. That’s good. I think he made a good choice. What do you guys think? Yeah.
John F.: (Laughs) John Smoltz is our guest on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, and that was recorded to, at a men’s event. I hope you’re enjoying the conversation. Now, much of John’s story is captured in his book called John Smoltz, Starting and Closing. Uh, get a copy online, uh, at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. And let’s go ahead and get back to the conversation.
Jim: Hey, let me ask you, spiritually, where are you at through all this? I mean, this is heavy stuff.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: I mean, the big contract and things like that. You’re, you know-
John S.: So, I, I was a Johnny B. Good, tell me what to do and I’ll do it, right?
Jim: Mm-hmm.
John S.: Um, good old Catholic boy growing up, private school. And I just always wanted to be and, uh, liked and accepted. And so I was a rules follower and very, very much a rules follower, oldest child. And I thought being good was good enough. You know? I thought that if you’re a good person, you know, what could be bad about being a good person?
Jim: Yeah.
John S.: And you know, the biggest thing I realized in my first four years, I had some really great mentors trying to pour into my life. In baseball, when you walk in the locker room, there’s three or four different groups of people waiting to capture it. And back then, a hundred years ago, the Christians were waiting to see who they could get. Right? And then the party guys were waiting to see who they could get. It was all these different sections of the clubhouse that you would try to be accepted by. Well, luckily for me, you know, Jose Alvarez, a big, um, supporter of, he works for Lynx now, and he was always a solid Christian. Marty Clary and Sid Bream. And they always poured into my heart.
And I’ll never forget being challenged, see, I’m the one that, I’m the one that went to, uh, Baseball Chapel every single time. That was our church. We couldn’t go to church ’cause we had a game every Sunday. So Baseball Chapel was our church. I’m the one that prayed the prayer 500 times. Uh, I wanted to make sure, triple check, double check. I was always doing the things that were surface level to make me feel okay. But it really never was vertical. It was all horizontal. Right? So I was living my life in what it would be a good person’s mold, but I was having some inconsistencies.
And I’ll never forget Sid Bream catching me off guard saying, “You need to look at how you’re living your life.” I was like, wow, that’s bold. I mean, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink. I don’t go out. I mean, I got all these don’ts. But what he was really challenging me with, he says, “You know, a vertical relationship versus a horizontal relationship.” And I asked this one simple question in 1995. So on my first years in 1988 and in ’89, I made the All-Star team. And I was kind of going back and forth, you know, success, not success. To me, if I was successful, I was honoring God. If I wasn’t, I was letting him down. Like it was really a kind of a warped way to think about, you know, the gifts he’s given me and the tools I have, it’s all up to me. I can do this.
And so in 1995, I asked our chaplain at the time, I said, “You know, I’ve, I’ve prayed the prayer. You’ve told me what it means to be a Christian, how to walk this walk.” And I said, “But let me ask you a question.” I said, “What prevents me from living my life the way I wanna live it? And then I’ll have an age that I’ll turn my life over to Christ. Like, what, what prevents me from getting to my, let’s just say it’s 38.” And he gave me an answer that was real simple. He said, “Nothing prevents you from getting that in your life with one tiny exception. You may not get to your target date, so why take that chance?” And it was just the simplest connection for me to say, “I’m gonna put all my trust in Jesus. I’m gonna give him all the junk that I’m trying to carry in my backpack, and I’m just gonna release it.”
And it freed me up in a way that I, I honestly tell this story verbatim. 1995, we win the World Series. This is after ’95. So 1996, I knew I was a different person, and I didn’t go into detail with the reporters on how different I was gonna be at, but I did say, “You’re going to see a different person this year.” And they were like, “How so?” I said, “Whether I lose my first game or win my next 14, you’re not gonna know a difference.” And I believe God was giving me an opportunity to handle success for the first time in my life. I lost my first game, and I won my next 14.
Jim: Oh, man.
Audience: (Laughs)
John S.: And, um, blown away by it. Right?
Jim: Yeah.
John S.: And just that whole journey of, of becoming a Christian and really understanding the freedom of just releasing all of life’s junk. I was carrying it on a backpack.
Jim: Yeah. Yeah.
John S.: And I was freed up on the mound to do some things that, and I think to not conflate it, it’s like being a Christian doesn’t guarantee success or a smooth road. And, but it just so happened that my introduction to that right away started with success.
Jim: Yeah.
John S.: I won the Cy Young, I’m having a dream year, I’m 4-0 in the post season going into the last start against the New York Yankees, of which that I’ve completely blocked outta my mind and forgot that we lost one to nothing on an unearned run and 142 pitches.
Audience: (Laughs).
John S.: But-
Jim: Yeah, you might wanna forget about that.
John S.: But I was dealing with things differently for the first time, uh, in my life.
Jim: Let me ask you this, because I think people listening, you’re saying something, last year we had about 292,000 people come to Christ-
John S.: Mm-hmm.
Jim: … through Focus on the Family. And I just want to sit here for a moment, because you said something that most people think about. If I’m good enough-
John S.: Mm-hmm.
Jim: … won’t that be good enough? So let me give you that opportunity to make that clear distinction why works is not what it’s about.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: And you know, listening to you at four years old playing the accordion, you were a man built to work-
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: … in that way. You had your goals; you were driving toward it.
John S.: Right.
Jim: You are the kind of personality that I think this issue of God’s gift of eternal life-
John S.: Mm-hmm.
Jim: … must be in that context really hard.
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: Because I am pretty good-
John S.: No doubt.
Jim: … you’re thinking to yourself. So give it that best shot for the listeners who haven’t fully given that over yet.
John S.: Yeah. So we, our eyes are our measuring stick in a lot of things that we do. And the world can be really confusing when you see certain things. Good is not good enough. That’s what I ended up realizing, that good is not good enough. Good people, um, are a characteristic and a trait you’d want to have in everybody. But the reality is, it’s not about works. And I don’t deserve the grace I’ve been given like we all don’t deserve the grace we’ve been given, that it’s a free gift of life that you get to trust in Christ that I finally understood that it had nothing to do with me. It had nothing to do with my goodness or the fact that I’ve never seen a drug or smoked a drug. You know, I could have been just as lost walking, I, I, I don’t know if this is a fair example or word picture, but I felt like in my life that if there was, there was a fence that I could see over.
And if I was walking down life thinking that Jesus was on the other side of the fence and I knew him, and I would walk in straight ahead, like I know him, he’s right there. But there was still a fence. There was still a fence separating the, the relationship or trusting into him. Like, oh, he’s right there. I’m doing my thing. And then I realized, I gotta eliminate that fence. Like I literally need to get over to the other side to hold his hand, to trust him to the things that he’s given me. And that reality and that setting in was so freeing that being good or good works paled in comparison. Now, it’s a byproduct of what he wants us to do and live out.
He’s given us gifts and spiritual gifts. But I think the biggest thing that I realized is that everything that I was doing, I felt was my responsibility to work towards him. And he was like waiting. It’s like if you could see, another word picture ’cause I love him, as Jesus is sitting on a, on a stool and you’re running a lap and you’re like running and he’s like, “Take another lap.” You know? Like-
Jim: Sounds like a bad coach.
John S.: (Laughs) You know, take another lap. You know? You keep thinking you’re working, you’re getting in shape, you’re, and he is like, “Until you’re empty, there’s nothing you can give me.”
Jim: Yeah.
John S.: And until you’re tired or empty, or I can use you now when you’ve got nothing to give. And that’s the thing I had to get to in a lot of parts of my life. I considered, and I was warned this a long time ago ’cause when you’re on fire and you’re sharing in every church that they want you to share, which can be a mistake when you’re a baby Christian, I was warned, I used to tell people, I have the most boring testimony in the world. And they said, “Don’t keep saying that.” I’m like, why? I said, “It is, it’s boring.” I, I’ve been transformed, but I haven’t been like in my mind transformed from things that you hear all the time. They said-
Jim: Yeah, I’m not a drug addict. All that.
John S.: Yeah. They said, “It will not stay boring.” And boy, were they right.
Jim: Let me ask you this, John. Again, you’re such a interesting person in that regard, your discipline, your ability to achieve something that a lot of people can’t achieve through your goal orientation.
John S.: Mm-hmm.
Jim: When you apply that to becoming a Christian, and you just kind of moved in that direction-
John S.: Yeah.
Jim: … and gave us a little tip. But I mean, then you apply that kind of goal orientation to your new faith. So you have, I’m gonna save a hundred people today. And you start talking to people about the Lord. Describe that in-
John S.: So there’s freedom, and then realizing that, like I, I believed I always wanna be a warrior, a warrior on the field, and I want to be the guy that always threw the pitch, shot the basket, whatever it was. And then before I became a Christian, I realized that doesn’t soften me from being a warrior.
Jim: Hmm.
John S.: I just have a new set of playing rules. And to honor him in the way that he has given us a good playbook to honor him. I still can be a warrior. I’m still gonna mess up, but I can ask for forgiveness and, and that grace can, can be extended. But to be, um, on a baseball team that every eye is looking at you, when you have something to give to another teammate, like your talent, they love you. They’re like, man, all right. He’s our guy. They don’t really care what you believe in for the most part, as long as you’re athletically giving to the team. Right?
Jim: You’re winning.
John S.: You’re winning. But what I believed my greatest asset was, to be consistent that whether I spoke a word or not, that I was leading people somewhat to like, that’s different. He’s different.
Jim: Mm.
John S.: And I didn’t see everybody like a nail and I had the hammer and I was gonna hammer it into him, but I was, uh, on a mission with my family to speak the truth, to try to make sure everybody understood where I was and what freedom there is in that. And I tried to love on people in a different way because now I’m about to change in the way that things I was wired before, I was truth, truth, truth and nothing but truth. There was no grace.
Jim: Yeah.
John S.: And so I had to understand that the combination of the greatest gift that Jesus gives us, he came in truth and grace. He didn’t live in either camp. Like a lot of us live in one camp and it’s not a good place to be. You can be in an all grace camp and there’s not, you gotta have some truth.
Jim: Yeah.
John S.: And vice versa. So I was living that out with my teammates trying to be available, but more importantly with my family, really explaining where I was and why I had so much peace. And hopefully, they would see that over time.
John F.: Hmm. This is Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, and that was John Smoltz, Hall of Fame pitcher sharing about his faith journey and the impact of a baseball chaplain and some Christian teammates who really kind of, uh, guided and directed his life toward Christ.
Jim: Yeah, John. And we’re just getting started with his story. He’s got a lot more to share about some twists and turns that he experienced as he began practicing his faith in earnest. We’re gonna hear that next time on the broadcast. As a young Christian, he wanted to apply that same tenacity and intentionality that made him a great baseball player, a Hall of Famer, like you said. Uh, he wanted to apply that to his walk with the Lord. But that’s easier said than done. And the Christian life isn’t about a formula. And next time, you’ll learn about some of the difficult lessons the Lord would teach John and how he grew to trust God more than ever. Much of his story is captured in his book called John Smoltz, Starting and Closing, which I think is a great title.
John F.: It is.
Jim: Uh, with a gift of any amount, we’ll send you a copy of the book, uh, for supporting Focus on the Family and helping others.
John F.: Yeah. Donate today, and, uh, when you’re online, be sure to look for our Sports and Faith audio collection. It’s available as a free download and contains John’s story as well as uplifting interviews with Darryl Strawberry, Kirk Cousins, Darrell Waltrip, Ernie Johnson, Scott Hamilton and more. And each one of these, uh, dynamic athletes shares their Christian testimony, uh, and talks about overcoming challenges in life.
This is a great collection for a young person in your family, or perhaps a friend. You can sign up and get the Sports and Faith audio collection on our website, and, uh, also make a donation there and request John’s book, uh, that’s focusonthefamily.com/broadcast, or call for questions and details. Our number is 800, the letter A, and the word Family. 800-232-6459. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I’m John Fuller, inviting you back for more of the conversation with John Smoltz, as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.
