If John Smoltz had retired after the 2000 season, when severe arm trouble forced him to sit out the entire season and receive the now common surgical procedure known as Tommy John surgery, he would still be celebrated as one the best pitchers of his era: at that point he was a Cy Young Award-winner, World Series Champion, four-time All Star, and key member of one of the best pitching staffs of all time. But he didn't, making Smoltz's no-holds-barred memoir STARTING AND CLOSING a truly inspirational story about fighting to do the thing you love most, with sharp insights for readers crave from epic sports books.
Smoltz went under the knife, knowing it would be a long shot that he would ever pitch again. On his return to the club in late 2001, Smoltz was tried as a closer and answered the call by saving 10 games down the stretch. His first full season back, he broke the then National League all-time record with 55 saves, beginning a string of three of the most dominant years of any relief pitcher in baseball history: he returned to the starting rotation in '05, earned several All-Star appearances, and achieved the 200-win milestone.
In 2008, Smoltz started off with a bang, becoming the 16th pitcher in Major League history to amass 3,000 strikeouts, but an inflamed shoulder put him on the disabled list and demanded he undergo season-ending shoulder surgery in June. Smoltz's contract with the Braves expired at the end of the 2008 season, but he still wasn't ready to give up. An unsuccessful stint with the Boston Red Sox in 2009, a mismatch professionally and personally, was an emotionally trying time for Smoltz; he was beginning a second marriage to his current wife Kathryn and coming to grips with a body that wasn't as quick to heal. Through the strength of his family and his Christian faith, the 42-year-old Smoltz began making peace with the fact that his playing days were numbered, but summoned his God-given talents notably once more in his first game with the St. Louis Cardinals, to set a Cardinals all-time record by striking out seven batters in a row. And instead of retiring, today renaissance man John Smoltz is a color commentator on TBS and the Major League Network, chairman of a school he helped build, the head of an annual baseball camp, and a scratch golfer with aspirations to join the Senior PGA Tour.
The great value of a book like this is that Smoltz's memory, vast intellect, sincere faith, and wealth of experience on and off the field allow him to analyse baseball from different perspectives and qualify him to comment on the dire situation in which it finds itself (steroids, money, etc.). Like Jim Bouton's classic Ball Four, STARTING AND CLOSING will mirror the times in which it is written and take a look at not just his life in baseball, but baseball in the context of American popular culture.
