ATLANTA (AP) -Put away those rockin’ chairs. Hold off on that retirement party.
John Smoltz isn’t ready to walk away from the mound just yet.
Sure, the 41-year-old pitcher is headed for season-ending surgery, and there’s little precedent for someone his age to return from such a major operation.
But Smoltz has defied the odds before, and he’s hoping to pull off one more improbable comeback for the Atlanta Braves before he goes out on his terms.
Don’t bet against it.
“He’s demonstrated time and time again the ability to come back from an injury or adjust to a new way of pitching or adjust to what his role is in the game,” 42-year-old teammate Tom Glavine said Wednesday. “Sooner or later, our bodies are going to shut down. But if there’s any way that John can put that off, he’s going to do it.”
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones pointed out that Smoltz was throwing in the mid-90s during a one inning-and-done relief appearance on Monday, the outing that finally persuaded him to undergo surgery.
“He’s still got it. That’s the biggest thing to me,” Jones said. “We all feel that he can still be as dominant as he ever was.”
The only pitcher in baseball history with 200 wins and 150 saves already has returned from four operations on his elbow. No wonder he’s hoping to make it back for his 22nd season.
“I’ve pulled off a lot of miracles,” Smoltz said at a hastily called news conference before the Braves’ 6-4 loss to the Florida Marlins. “I probably shouldn’t have played this long. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can extend it.”
Smoltz’s shoulder began hurting just over a year ago during a start in Milwaukee. He’s been on the disabled list three times since then and tried all sorts of radical solutions to cope with the pain.
He came up with a new routine at spring training, spending most of his time on the back fields pitching against minor leaguers. When the discomfort persisted through his first five starts, he decided to return to the closer role he held from 2001-04, believing that fewer innings would help him get through the season.
But that one inning against the Marlins convinced him it was futile to continue.
“I certainly was prepared for it,” Smoltz said. “I never had two days in a row where I felt good.”
Initially diagnosed with severe inflammation, Smoltz isn’t sure what the real problem is. He’ll put his future in the hands of Dr. James Andrews, the sports surgeon who’ll perform the arthroscopic procedure in Birmingham, Ala.
“We won’t know until they get in there,” Smoltz said. “I’m sure when I wake up, the first question I’ll ask is, ‘What did you find?’ I’ll have no problem with whatever they tell me.”
If nothing else, he’s hoping for a better quality of life. Smoltz said it’s been difficult to sleep, play with his children or just do ordinary chores around the house.
“We’re talking about enjoying life a little bit more than I’ve been able to enjoy it,” he said. “It’s very difficult. A shoulder is like a lower back problem; it puts you in a pretty bad mood. You use your shoulder for everything.”
After becoming the 16th pitcher in baseball history to reach 3,000 strikeouts, Smoltz hoped to make it through the rest of the season as a closer using a new three-quarters throwing motion. He came off the disabled list Monday and immediately got a chance for his first save since 2004.
He couldn’t hold a 4-3 lead, giving up three hits and two runs. Smoltz said his poor showing had nothing to do with the decision to have surgery.
“If I had struck out the side, we would still be having this press conference,” he said. “It was just too much.”
His loss was a huge blow to an Atlanta team already dealing with a rash of injuries to its pitching staff.
“Not having him at all for the rest of the season is devastating, flat out devastating,” Jones said. “Going into this season, I said there’s one guy on this club we cannot do without. That’s John Smoltz.”
Smoltz won the NL Cy Young Award in 1996 and has more postseason wins (15) than anyone. But he’s been plagued by injuries throughout his 21-year career.
He had his first elbow operation after a strike ended the 1994 season, and another arthroscopic procedure limited him to 26 starts in 1998. Then, Smoltz missed the entire 2000 season recovering from Tommy John ligament replacement surgery. After experiencing a setback, he switched to the bullpen midway through the following season, believing it would relieve the stress on his elbow.
Smoltz had 154 saves during his three-plus seasons as the closer, including an NL-record 55 in 2002.
After yet another arthroscopic operation on his elbow, another change.
Deciding that pitching every fifth day would be better for his arm, Smoltz returned to the starting rotation. He pulled off the unprecedented move, going 44-24 over the last three seasons. But the shoulder began hurting a year ago, and the pain never went away.
Smoltz began this season on the DL, then pitched extremely well in his first four starts. But he lasted only four innings against the New York Mets on April 27, giving up seven hits and four runs. It might go down as the final start of his career.
If that’s the case, Smoltz has no complaints. He got to spend his entire big league career with one team, and nearly all of it playing for the same manager.
“I gave it everything I had every single time I went out there,” he said. “Whether I was 70 percent or 100 percent, I gave it everything I had.”
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AP freelance writer Amy Jinkner-Lloyd contributed to this report.
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