Video: John Smoltz on his father’s passing and the greater meaning to ‘Field of Dreams’ | Will Cain

Does John Smoltz play the accordion? Yes, the same John Smoltz who is calling the World Series. In the booth, lead play-by-play announcer Joe Davis is joined by first-ballot Hall of Famer and Emmy Award-winning analyst John Smoltz, with Rosenthal and Verducci covering all the action as FOX Sports steps into the batter’s box for its 26th season of World Series coverage.5 days ago

How fast did John Smoltz throw?
Smoltz not only won a Cy Young Award in 1996, but was possibly the best closer in the game from 2002 through 2004. Smoltz average fastball in relief was over 95 MPH, though it did drop to 92 MPH when he moved back to the rotation as expected.

Is John Smoltz a Hall of Famer?
Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz compares the Orioles’ trajectory to the rise of the Atlanta Braves during the 1990s. Smoltz pitched for the Braves from 1988-2008 and won a World Series with them in 1995.

John Smoltz, a first-ballot MLB Hall of Famer, eight-time All-Star and National League Cy Young Award winner, is FOX MLB’s lead game analyst. In addition to calling the network’s marquee regular season games, Smoltz is in the booth for the All-Star Game and a full slate of postseason matchups which include Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series assignments.

Smoltz joined FOX Sports in 2014, and after just two seasons was elevated to the network’s lead broadcast team. He called his first World Series in 2016 alongside Emmy Award-winning play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, and together they have been the voice of the Fall Classic for four consecutive years. An MLB Legend,right-handed pitcher, Smoltz gained first-ballot admission into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, a testament to the excellence of his memorable playing career. He played 21 seasons in the major leagues, tossing 3,473 innings over 723 games (481 starts) and posting a 213-155 record and lifetime 3.33 ERA, with 3,084 strikeouts. Impressively, Smoltz also registered 154 saves over a four-season stint as a closer from 2001 to 2004, becoming the first player in MLB history to record both 200 wins and 150 saves in his career.

Remembered as one of the cornerstone pieces of the Atlanta Braves dynasty that ruled the National League throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Smoltz joined fellow Hall of Famers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux atop a fearsome starting rotation that helped deliver the Braves 14 division titles, five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series championship. Smoltz was voted to eight All-Star Games and enjoyed his finest season in 1996, when he won the National League Cy Young Award after posting a 24-8 record and 2.94 ERA, leading the National League with career highs in both wins (24) and strikeouts (276).

What is his accordion background?
John Smoltz’s 2015 induction into the MLB Hall of Fame Sunday included a speech with a bunch of fun stories from his life and career. One of the best was him talking about his parents, how they met and what they originally wanted him to be.

John Smoltz could have been an excellent accordion player. But instead of pursuing the interests of his musically inclined parents, he set down the squeezebox at age 7, announced to his family that he was going to be a professional athlete — and then did it.

John shares about his parents in his induction into the MLB Hall of Fame speech, “You didn’t know much about sports or baseball. You pretty much knew about what you knew, and that was playing the accordion because that’s how you guys met. You were accordion teachers, and I thank you for the opportunity that you started me in my quest to be the next Lawrence Welk at the age of 4. I played until the age of 7 and then I hit you with the ultimate whopper of all whoppers.

At the age of 7 I said, “I know what I’m gonna be in life and I’m gonna be a Major League Baseball player.” You loved me enough to give me room to go after my dream. That’s all they knew. My mom and dad are accordion teachers. That’s how they met. They played for 50 years. They played in a band. I went to all the weddings and polkas you could go to and all the parties and dancing that you could imagine and I was supposed to be the heir apparent. And I guess I was good … I got trophies and I was competing in contests. You’ve got to remember that I didn’t come from a prototypical family with athletic genes. Because of that, I learned a lot from my parents in that they let me go in a direction that I was passionate. You loved me enough to give me room to go after my dream. You didn’t discourage me from leaving the accordion for Major League Baseball. You just told me to have a backup dream.”

John’s parents knew about Welk, though, the noted band leader who had his own television show for more than 30 years and was the king of the accordion. In fact, when Smoltz’s father, who also was named John, wasn’t at one of his several jobs around Lansing, he was engaged in the family business of playing the accordion during various functions. He spent more than 50 years in a band, and he was joined by his brothers, who also played the accordion. Not only that, Smoltz’s mother, Mary, played the instrument, and that’s how she met his father. Smoltz’s parents taught others how to play the accordion, including Little Smoltzie at 4 years old.

“Since my dad’s dad played the button box, I was going be the heir apparent,” Smoltz said. “It’s a dying art, but that’s how I grew up, listening to polkas on eight-track tapes. We’d go watch my dad play at weddings, and he’d play at family functions. We had a lot of fun, because that was the culture back then, and I guess I was pretty good.”

“I competed in tournaments all over, and the accordion was always bigger than me, all the way to the age of 7,” Smoltz said, chuckling. “The whole experience taught me a lot. I learned about discipline and about how you can’t miss practice. You have to put a lot of time into playing, and it prepared me for other things I didn’t think it would prepare me for.”

So you see, that the discipline involved in learning the accordion, can prepare a person for many rewarding opportunities in life. And John Smoltz is a perfect example of that!