Hot Stove: Zane Smith

Left work Wednesday about 5:15. Was driving in rain and traffic for the next 1-1/2 hours. Headed up to the Hot Stove meeting in Cumming.

Former Braves pitcher Zane Smith arrived early as well, dressed in sweats and royal adidas sneakers. A regular guy. Old school. Though he spent more years pitching for the downtrodden Braves of the late 80's (83-89), he spoke fondly of his three seasons with the division winning Pirates (90-92). Playing for the Expos was good (the fishing) and bad (fans were too quiet). He and Lemke disliked their time playing for the Red Sox (hitter friendly strike zone in a hitter's park).

Growing up in North Platt Nebraska, Zane was a running back who almost went to play for the Huskers. Instead he went to Indiana State to play baseball, missing Larry Bird by one semester. Zane dominated in college, owning even the future major leaguers he faced, including Kirby Puckett. As a kid he watched the Reds on TV. Tom Seaver was one of his heroes.

Drafted by the Braves, his first manager in Anderson SC was Brian Snitker. Zane is happy Snit has found success as the Braves manager. Leo Mazzone was his pitching coach in Durham. Other stops included Greenville and Richmond. Found success in the majors, and only played in the Puerto Rican winter league one season, where he met Tony Perez and Dave Concepcion.

Both times Smith was traded, it was to the team in the other locker room. Always pitched well against the Mets, which is one of the reasons why Pittsburg traded for him. Strawberry couldn't hit him, but Steve Garvey and Terry Pendleton could. Faced off a couple of times against Nolan Ryan, who showed young Zane respect by feeding him curve balls, since Smith was successfully bunting off the Texan. Zane can't remember if Ryan ever struck him out. When Smith was called up late in the 1983 season he collected six hits, establishing himself as a good hitting pitcher.

In the 91 playoffs Zane and Steve Avery squared off in two 1-0 duels, each winning one of the games. It was during those playoffs that Glavine taught Zane the circle change. For the most part he had to figure out pitching himself, though he received much better instruction in the minors than he did in college. If he had to do it over again, Zane said he would've turned pro after high school, if anything just for the instruction. In addition to Snit and Leo, one of his minor league coaches was Willie Stargell, who kept wanting to hit off Zane. Ted Simmons helped turn Zane from a thrower to a pitcher. Joe Torre was one of his favorite managers, and thought highly of Torre's pitching coach Bob Gibson.

In Boston Mark McGuire hit three homers off Zane, but later in Oakland Smith shut him down. Zane pitched well in Three Rivers Stadium. He liked Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium and Candlestick Park. The Astrodome was okay, but as a rule didn't like the cookie cutter stadiums. Phil Niekro was an early teammate, and Zane enjoyed playing in the Knuckler's golf tournament. Called John "Holy" Smoltz. Has gotten Lemke out on the golf course, though the second baseman likes to keep to himself. Zane is proud of low career ERA. He doesn't watch baseball – "it's not the game I played". After the meeting Zane stuck around to chat, making good eye contact.

South Forsyth head baseball coach Bayer brought two players, his son Ty (a switch-hitting outfielder / pitcher who signed with Kennesaw) and pitcher Baylor Hicks (signed with Columbia). The teens listened intently, though coach dad tried to distract them when the talk turned blue.

Both players had previously played other sports, but coach said the GHSA's overlapping schedules makes it hard on multi-sport athletes. Baseball starts a week early next year (January 9) to accommodate playing the final round of the playoffs in Truist Park during a Braves road trip. Coach Bayer grew up in Chicago, attended Miami of Ohio with Ben Rothlisberger and Wally Szczerbiach, then had a cup of coffee in the low minors.

At January hot stove, former Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris is scheduled to attend. His wife Mandi used to work with me. Other notes:

We don't have many that attend. Big crowd this month (16). Jerry Cawley, Tom Curren, Hugh Tinsley, Cecil Castleberry, Eddie Cook, Johnny, Bobby Smith, Stan Harwood (retired from Denmark High), Darrell Pruitt. The 32nd year of Hot Stove.

Over the summer former regular Brian Morrow "died suddenly" while on vacation. He worked at the CDC. He was only 52. No kidding.

Jerry and Johnny will watch ballgames every day, all day. Jerry counted 1585 teams from the minors and college, not counting high schools – so he always has a game to watch, even in freezing weather.

When Don Larsen pitched his perfect game, he threw 96 pitches. Took only 2 hours 5 minutes. Hugh Tinsley was in 10th grade, and watched at school. So did Tom Curren – with his principal father Edward Malloy, future president of Notre Dame.

Johnny once sold 60 selected baseball cards from the late 50's for $1,000.00. It was probably a deal for the collector, but Johnny has more stuff than he knows what to do with it – including a 1968 UGA basketball program from the LSU game, with Maravich on the cover. Johnny started subscribing to Sports Illustrated in 1964 – and still does to this day.

At a Rangers game Eddie sent a program over for commission Fay Vincent to sign. The commissioner was sitting next to the owner of the Rangers – who signed the same program, much to Eddie's dismay. The owner's name: George W Bush.

On the rainy trip home we headed north to drop off Hugh, near Jotemdown Road. Was after 10:30 before I got home. A good evening with good people. 

Lifted weights at the gym this morning.