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

Name: Starting and Closing: Perseverance, Faith, and One More Year
Author: John Smoltz
ISBN: 9780062120540

by John Smoltz

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Overview

I wasn't afraid to fail. It's really as simple as that.

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—even more than God-given talent—that propelled him through challenges that would have ruined other athletes.

Starting and Closing chronicles John Smoltz's final season in a major league uniform, capping a legendary career that included fourteen years as part of one of the most dominant starting rotations in baseball, a Cy Young Award, and a World Series title—all while battling and overcoming "career-ending" injuries. At age forty-one, Smoltz was making yet another unlikely comeback from his fifth surgery. Recounting the story of 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.

One of the most intelligent, talented, and passionate players in the game, Smoltz delivers insights into modern major league baseball, its place in popular culture, and the value of competition. He writes with unflinching honesty about becoming a true Christian and finding in his beliefs the peace and strength to stay focused—through postseason triumphs and defeats, upheavals in his personal life, and the sting of being sent to the bullpen. What emerges is an inspirational story of spiritual growth and family values, from a man who believed not just in himself but in God's plan for him—and one more year.

About the Author, John Smoltz

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 a seven-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Ya Gotta Believe with Tug McGraw, A Game Plan for Life with John Wooden, and Never Die Easy with Walter Payton.

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Editorials

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Publishers Weekly

Smoltz, an eight-time All-Star pitcher with the Atlanta Braves from 1988 to 2008, took an unusual path toward a likely Hall of Fame career. A premier starting pitcher before having Tommy John surgery, Smoltz became a dominant closer, a role requiring a completely different mindset. In his late 30s, Smoltz rejoined the Braves’ starting rotation, where he enjoyed more success before shoulder surgery marked the beginning of the end. An interesting career does not make for interesting copy, especially when the author admits that he “never wanted to write a book.” Ever so accommodating, Smoltz decides to tell his life story as a way to help others, a nice way of saying you’re in for 300-plus pages of inspiration-tinged platitudes. Among the anecdotes and observations, Smoltz describes a sports-playing childhood in Michigan that fed his competitive spirit, the struggles of rehabbing from career-threatening injuries in 2000 and 2008, and his Christianity. Sadly, Smoltz keeps the reader at arm’s length, whether he’s skimping on the details behind his departure from the Braves or repeatedly offering clichés as keen insight (failure, according to Smoltz, is “an opportunity to grow”). Those qualities, along with Smoltz’s defensive, immodest tone, make for a memoir that reads like an extremely lengthy cover letter. 16-page color insert not seen by PW. (May)