Smoltz is Hall worthy

John Smoltz doesn't have as many career wins as Kenny Rogers, Joe Niekro or Rick Reuschel. He doesn't have as many saves as Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams, Roger "The Second Spitter" McDowell or former Clemson fireballer Billy Koch.

But no one in Major League Baseball history has a statistical profile remotely like that of the featured speaker at tonight's eighth annual Hot Stove Banquet. The back of a John Smoltz baseball card looks like a database on the fritz.

"Nobody really understands," the former Atlanta Braves pitcher said by phone from his Alpharetta, Ga., home when asked about the unique difficulty of transitioning mid-career from starter to reliever and back again to starter.

Not easy.

More like a resume that goes accountant/rodeo clown/accountant. Which explains why Smoltz remains the only player in American baseball to have success as a big league starter after doing well as a closer.

"It really was very difficult," Smoltz said. "I had to learn about being a closer on the job."

Smoltz says the Hall of Fame is no big deal.

Yeah, right.

213 and 154

"It doesn't bother me," said Smoltz, who becomes Hall of Fame-eligible in 2015. "People talk to me about that all the time, but I'm not consumed by it. My answer matches the way that I approach life: If it happens, great, and if it doesn't, it's not going to change me."

Strictly speaking, maybe so. But Smoltz, on the golf course or around the batting cage or on the mound, is hypercompetitive.

No doubt, he will get in the Hall of Fame. The question is when, and the more you digest the numbers the more obvious the fair answer is ASAP.

Smoltz, 44, went 213-155 as a starter over his 21 seasons with 144 of his 154 saves coming over three lights-out seasons as a heavy lifting closer, 2002-2004. He won the 1996 National League Cy Young Award. His 15-4 postseason record defines a big-game performer who performed better in October than teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.

He was the fourth-youngest player in the majors in 1988 and the third-oldest in 2009. Smoltz was picked for eight All-Star Games, won a Silver Slugger award for his hitting and earned a Roberto Clemente Award for his charity work.

All the numbers are numbing and don't adequately reward Smoltz for his contributions as a terrific teammate and ambassador.

Crowded house

But Hall of Fame analysis following the one-man Class of 2012 (former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin) is about to get complicated. The performance-enhancing drug cloud comes with the 2013 eligibility of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling also are eligible in 2013. In 2014, Maddux, Glavine, Frank Thomas and Mike Mussina debut as candidates.

Smoltz is joined in 2015 by Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez, plus Gary Sheffield.

Among others.

Perhaps the best case for Smoltz is that if he messed with his Hall of Fame chances by switching from starter to reliever to starter, he didn't think about it at the time.

"Nothing I did was based on personal statistics," Smoltz said. "I wanted to win. I wanted to win probably worse than anybody in the history of the game, and that's all that mattered to me."