Starting and Closing: Perseverance, Faith, and One More Year

by John Smoltz, Don Yaeger

Overview

From John Smoltz - one of the best Major League pitchers of the last 25 years, lead baseball analyst of Fox Sports, and all-around stellar guy - comes Starting and Closing, a powerful memoir illustrating what he loves about playing baseball, the strength of his faith, and the changes baseball needs to become great again.

As a seven-year-old kid pitching a ball against a brick wall, John Smoltz decided to be a professional baseball player when he grew up. And from that simple decision until his last season on the mound in the major leagues, it was his faith, work ethic, and love for the game that propelled him through challenges that would have ruined other athletes.

Starting and Closing chronicles the final season in a legendary career that included fourteen years in one of the most dominant rotations in baseball, a Cy Young Award, and a World Series title—all while battling and overcoming "career-ending" injuries. Recounting a season that tested his perseverance and deepened his faith, Smoltz flashes back to watershed moments in the skeptic-defying journey from being one of the best starting pitchers of all time, to closer, to starter again. What emerges is an inspirational story from a man who believed not just in himself but in God's plan for him—and one more year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062120564
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/26/2013
Pages:	293
Sales rank:	452,761
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

John Smoltz is a former Major League Baseball pitcher and active sportscaster. He is best known for his prolific career of more than two decades with the Atlanta Braves, during which he garnered eight All-Star selections and received the Cy Young Award in 1996. He is currently the chairman of King's Ridge Christian School in Atlanta and is a scratch golfer. (Tiger Woods has said that Smoltz is the best golfer outside of the PGA tour.) He lives in Atlanta with his family.

Don Yaeger is an eleven-time New York Times best-selling author, longtime associate editor at Sports Illustrated, and award-winning inspirational speaker. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, son, and daughter.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Why Not? 1

Chapter 2 Burn Notice 11

Chapter 3 So You Say I've Got a Chance?! 25

Chapter 4 Once a Tiger 37

Chapter 5 Perseverance 53

Chapter 6 Bullpen Business 71

Chapter 7 Closing for Dummies 89

Chapter 8 Me and the Homeboys Upstairs 105

Chapter 9 No Decision 119

Chapter 10 1 + 1 ≠ 2 135

Chapter 11 Fairway Tales 149

Chapter 12 Starting Over 167

Chapter 13 Hiccups 179

Chapter 14 Success and Failure 187

Chapter 15 Chasing Rings, Part I 205

Chapter 16 Chasing Rings, Part II 213

Chapter 17 Vindication 231

Chapter 18 A Sweep Worth Savoring 245

Chapter 19 A Hamburger, a Hot Dog, and a French Fry Walk into a Bar… 257

Epilogue 273

Acknowledgments 279

Index 283

Editorial Reviews

When Smoltz talks about baseball, the book comes alive . . . it all has the ring of authenticity and wisdom.” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Passable baseball memoir by retired pitching ace Smoltz, centered around his efforts, at age 41 and after major shoulder surgery, to pitch just one more year. The author knew at an early age he would find his fortune as a professional ball player. For 20 years he was a stellar pitcher, both starting and relieving for the Atlanta Braves as they won 14 straight division championships and a World Series. In 2009, however, age and injury seemed to catch up to him, and he moved on from the Braves to the Red Sox and then briefly to the Cardinals. While he enjoyed mixed success in his final year, Smoltz has more in mind than simply talking about success in baseball. He uses his success as a metaphor for how to succeed in life. While he overcame many injuries and obstacles to stay in the big leagues as long as he did, his advice is too often expressed in sincere but hoary bromides ("I always looked at [failure] as an opportunity to grow") that do little to inspire. Similarly, his deep and honest profession of Christian faith ("I truly accepted Jesus Christ as my savior in 1995") gets lost in odd juxtapositions. For example, at one point he writes, "the two things I can point to that kept me persevering year after year for so many years were my faith in God and golf." Smoltz seems not to mean to give the two equal billing, but some readers may find it odd nonetheless. When Smoltz talks about baseball, the book comes alive. Whether he's discussing the differences between starting pitching and relief pitching and the difficulties of switching from one to the other, as Smoltz did more than once, or why power pitching wins in the postseason, or why the Braves won only one World Series, it all has the ring of authenticity and wisdom. Decent baseball book; mediocre inspirational book.

Kirkus Reviews