Tim Ellsworth

A few days ago, Scott Gladin — one of my regular readers and contributors here — had a chance to meet John Smoltz. I told Scott if he wanted to write something about his evening, I’d be happy to post it here. He kindly obliged. It’s pretty long, but here is his account of his encounter with his hero. (The photo above is Scott with Smoltz).

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Smoltzie
By Scott Gladin

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to meet my longtime idol, John Smoltz. When my mom showed me the letter about it that came in the mail, I pretty much decided for her that we were going. The letter was from The Gathering Place, a true community-based Christian ministry, uniting people through strategic partnerships between churches, para-church ministries, schools, businesses and other community groups which is centered on St. Simons Island, Georgia.

The Gathering Place’s mission statement is to “reach out to young men and women with the gospel of Christ, encouraging them within a fellowship of their peers to grow spiritually and become more effective servants within their local church.”

In other words, this is an organization which is an awesome tool in God’s hand. Every Sunday night during the summer, the “Main Event” is held. This is when thousands of students from the Coastal Empire come together, have fellowship, worship, and listen to an awesome speaker.

Two summers ago, a man by the name of Kenny Grant was the Main Event’s speaker. It just so happens that he is and has been for a long time a family friend of mine. Kenny is a former marine drill sergeant who stands quite low to the ground. He also happens to be African-American, which helps to complete his look of a much shorter Major Payne. Anyway, Kenny is just a funny, warmhearted, awesome man of God who works especially well with young people — but is a great speaker regardless.

That night, Kenny gave a talk which I don’t even remember, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that God reached me through his words, whatever they were. I had grown up in the church and in a Christian home, but I had never fully gotten it. Needless to say, I ended up accepting Christ that night.

When this letter came about a fundraising dinner for the Gathering Place, my parents were more than willing to donate money to the place that helped lead me to Christ and to hear my idol speak. (Just for clarification, idol is meant as a person I look up to — not someone I place higher than God).

After I got my suit dry cleaned and I spent a pretty penny to buy an authentic Smoltz jersey, the day finally came. We arrived on Jekyll Island at the Convention Center where we were greeted and seated at our table. After a wonderful meal (of which was one of the few that actually included more than one fork and two different glasses) we viewed a video and were introduced to the leaders of The Gathering Place. Finally, the time came to get Mr. Smoltz up on stage.

A few guys did a skit to eventually introduce him. The skit showed some players and a coach in a baseball dugout. They went on in their dialogue to explain they were down 19-1 and were pretty much ready to give up. No matter what pitcher they put in, it seemed like each pitch was hammered out of the park. After a few jokes and a few more things, a voice redirected our attention to the other end of the stage. “It looks like you guys need some help,” the voice said as I remembered that John Smoltz was here. After much applause, Smoltz and the coach went through a conversation where the coach didn’t believe it was really him. After that, it was all Smoltz.

To be honest, I don’t even remember how he started or what he talked about at first. I was just in awe that it was really him standing up there. What I do remember that made the most impact was one of the first things I remember. He said that whenever he speaks, he carries about three different talks in his folder onto the stage. If he feels led to go one direction in his talk, he can be prepared.

Anyway, he said that while driving to the event that night, he still had no idea exactly what he was going to say. Actually, it would probably be better to say that he had a generic talk laid out, but he kept getting the feeling that he should go another way. He never figured out exactly how to go about his talk until he was actually standing on stage.

He told the crowd, “You know, I was going to come up here and tell you about the real John Smoltz. I would show you the things you don’t know about John Smoltz, say that I was addicted to drugs for five years of my life, and have spent time in and out of jail. That seems to be the right thing to do when someone gives their testimony; give the crowd a ’shock factor.’”

When he was saying this, I was truthfully shocked. “He’s been in jail; been addicted to drugs?” I thought with horror. I had no idea that this man had gone through those things and been involved in those activities. Soon after, however, he cleared up my mind when he explained, “In all honesty, I’ve always been a good guy. I’ve never done a drug, touched a drug, seen a drug, I don’t drink, don’t curse; anything. I was always the good kid; a nerd, if you will.”

The purpose in saying those things became clear to me. Who says that a testimony can only be given from a person who has been down the wrong paths? No one would pay money to go and dress up to hear a man who has never done anything horribly wrong in his life. Or would they? It was happening right in front of my eyes. I saw just how sad it is that the world usually only
responds to a “shock factor,” as Mr. Smoltz describes.

In reality, everyone has a story. Smoltz explained this by using his own life as an example. He always thought he was sitting pretty high compared to everyone else. He saw all these people around him, on the news, who have mercilessly slain others. There was no way that he could be put in the same category as them and be condemned to Hell.

However, Jesus said this is not true. One example is in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Smoltz elaborated on this by telling about his confusion. He had believed the lies of the world that say there is more than one road to Heaven. Of course in John 14:6, Jesus denies this as well by replying to Thomas, “‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

He finally understood that it didn’t matter that he hadn’t committed such sins as doing drugs, murder, or anything else. He was still a sinner; that is enough for eternal damnation. He talked with the Braves chaplain, who has since moved on, about this. When asked the classic question where he would go if he were to die this moment, Smoltz replied, “That’s it. No more risks for
me.” It was then that he accepted Christ.

“My rules were: I played for me,” said Smoltz in an interview conducted by Doug Greengard for the Agape Press. “Now, it’s a different set of rules so that God gets all the glory. I am as competitive as the next person, but I don’t go to the extreme. I try to live my life so that if no one ever hears me say a word, they watch me and judge me by my actions. If you never heard me say a word, you would say ‘There’s something special about that guy - he’s different.’”

As I was listening to him speak, he had one comment that made a deep impression on me. He said that, “God didn’t create the Ten Commandments to restrict us; not let us have any fun. They shouldn’t be viewed as bad rules. God created the Ten Commandments in order to set us free.” The more I let that soak in, the more it made sense. God knows what’s best, why not listen to Him?

These things that Smoltz said all revolved around one main idea: priorities. I thought it was a very good message coming from a man such as he. Here is a guy who seemingly has everything, the life that the world view would call “perfect.” He has a wonderful family, he has the money, he has the celebrity status. He may have those things, but it amounts to nothing if he doesn’t have God. He is the most important thing.

Although the world makes it difficult to keep God at the top of our priority list, God wins in the end. Smoltz gave an example of just this, one that he received in an email. He said, “Can you name the past ten Stanley Cup winners? The past ten College Football Champions? The past ten Superbowl winners? The past ten World Series winners?” Then he paused and said, “Well I know of at least one,” which caused the crowd to roar with approval. Then, under his breath, he said, “Should’a been more though,” which threw laughter in the mix.

He explained how the world fills our minds with this information, which moves it up our priority list. However, when we have Him, God and His love still win out. “I bet that you can name more than ten people who have impacted your life, more than ten good things that God has done for you.” His point was, it is possible to live a truly good, pure life through him. It is tough to stay on the straight and narrow path, but anything is possible through Him.

After Mr. Smoltz’s talk, I had the pleasure of meeting him. I had brought my jersey along with a Sharpie in hopes of getting it signed to frame in a shadowbox for my autograph wall. As you can imagine, he was quite rushed because of the amount of people. However, he made a point of spending a few moments with each person, shaking their hand, exchanging a few comments,
sometimes taking a picture, and handing them two signed baseball cards.

Although I did not get a picture posing with him, a picture was snapped of me standing by him while he was talking to someone else. Unfortunately, this is the only fairly good picture I got of both he and I in the same frame. It really isn’t a pleasant picture of me, in the tan suit, or really even him, but that doesn’t matter to me so much, it’s a picture of me standing next to John Smoltz. That’s good enough for me. I realize that my expression isn’t very happy, or so it seems. Truthfully, I was just saying over in my head to myself, “Don’t say anything stupid, Scott. Don’t say anything stupid.”

After I spoke to him, I asked him if he would sign my jersey, but unfortunately he said he couldn’t. If that is because he has something in his contract about that, if The Gathering Place asked him not to, or he just plain didn’t have time, I don’t know. Of course I was disappointed, but after awhile, I realized that I still met my hero. After all, there is always spring training…

John Smoltz is feared by opposing teams and loved by those who bear the tomahawk. He does many things on and off the field to make his fans cheer. However, his biggest cheerleader of all is Jesus. After personally looking into his eyes and seeing his soul, I can honestly say that without a doubt, he is a cheerleader for Christ also. He worships and lives for God along with the rest of God’s children, no matter if they bear the tomahawk or if they wear “Mets” in script across their chest. No, the playing field is even here. There is no competition. The truth is, his win - loss record here on earth may be 177 – 128 with 154 saves, but in his soul, in God’s eyes, he is undefeated.