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Wizard of Oz: Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith talks about collecting, old-school baseball, and his famous backflips
Ozzie Smith, who starred at shortstop for 19 years in the big leagues, turns 70 the day after Christmas. Watching him play was like getting a Christmas present a few months early.
Starting in 1978, Smith played his first four MLB seasons with the San Diego Padres and was runner-up for NL Rookie of The Year. By the end of his time as a Padre, he earned the first of 15 All-Star Game appearances and two of 13 Gold Gloves. That baker’s dozen of trophies for his defensive prowess, by the way, came in consecutive seasons. For several campaigns, Smith ranked first in the NL at shortstop in range and/or fielding percentage.
After the 1981 season, San Diego swapped Smith to the St. Louis Cardinals, where his star would shine even more. In 1982, he played a key role in the Cardinals winning the World Series.
Although Smith hit only 28 home runs in his big-league career, he stole 580 bases, accumulated 2,460 hits, and posted a respectable .262 lifetime batting average while earning a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of nearly 77. Those offensive numbers combined with stellar work on defense helped “The Wizard of Oz” earn a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002—his first year of eligibility—with nearly 92 percent of the vote.
Putting his relatively light-hitting but powerful defensive skills in perspective, Smith once noted, “I may not drive in 100 runs a year, but I can prevent 100 runs from scoring against us.”
Smith will be signing autographs at the 2024 National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland. During the Fall of 2023, Chantilly (Va.) Show, Smith chatted with Sports Collectors Digest.
Did you collect sports cards growing up?
You know what we did? We put them in the spokes of our bikes. We had no idea there was such a thing as a collectible. When we got baseball cards, it was more for the gum than the cards. We just didn’t know, and look just how far things have come with collectibles.
Which baseball players and teams did you follow as a kid?
I grew up in Southern California, and I used to catch the bus to Dodger Stadium. Those were the days of Maury Wills, Bill Grabarkewitz, Ron Fairly, Wes Parker, Sandy Koufax, and Don Drysdale.
You always had matchups: Koufax and [Juan] Marichal, [Bob] Gibson and Drysdale; that was the era in which we grew up. And so for me, actually getting to meet these guys after their careers were over, being in the Hall of Fame gives you a chance to spend time with them now. Those were some of the people I grew up watching and admiring.
Did you have a favorite player from your formative years?
My favorite player to watch was Roberto Clemente. You could never pattern yourself after Clemente because his style was so unique, but he was fun to watch, and he brought a lot of energy. When I grew up watching the game, it was Maury Wills stealing a base, watching the Dodgers win a ball game 1-0 with one hit. That’s the kind of baseball you had back then because of the pitching matchups.
A lot of “small ball?”
People say ‘small ball,’ but it was baseball being played the way we were accustomed to seeing it played. You get a guy on base, you get him over [to second], you get him in. That game’s out the window now because they swing the same way 0-2 as they do 2-0. It’s all or nothing, and I think that’s what frustrates a lot of us who grew up on the game and tried to play it the right way. You get two strikes on you, you choke up and try and put the ball in play, because that’s the only way you can put pressure on the defense, you force them to make a play.
And I don’t think starting pitching is that important anymore. That’s why they’re experimenting with giving this guy one inning, give another guy an inning. Analytics say you don’t want the pitcher to go through the lineup three times. Those things like that are unimportant now. That’s where the game has changed.
What are your thoughts on the pitch clock?
I don’t mind the pitch clock. I think for people who felt baseball was too slow, it certainly needed to be sped up, but then you slow it back down because of instant replay; they instant replay everything now. I think the idea of instant replay was right to determine whether a ball was fair or foul.
Did you save any memorabilia from your career?
I think as your career goes on, you play against the likes of Johnny Bench and Andre Dawson and those people, and I was fortunate to have a restaurant, too, so I needed stuff to go in my restaurant.
For people like myself, that was the majority of the collecting that I did. I didn’t collect cards, but I did collect bats. The doors to my restaurants were baseball bats; we had baseballs all around the areas, so it was collecting things like that with autographs from the game’s greats, the greats I grew up watching. That was the extent of my collecting.
You were known for being quite acrobatic on the field, including the occasional backflip at shortstop. When was the last time you did a backflip, and how did it go?
2002, and it wasn’t pretty.
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