john smoltz is in my hall of famer collection

with the announcement a week ago regarding former dodger fred mcgriff's election to the national baseball hall of fame, i figured it was time to post about an addition to my hall of famer collection, and i've made a few since i last posted about it.  this one features a teammate of mcgriff's - john smoltz.

smoltz wasn't included in my initial cut of hall of famers to chase for my mini-collection, but i've added him now. here's the card that i have to represent him in that collection:

that's a 2021 topps clearly authentic autograph, numbered 18/99.  here's the back.

getting a good photo of encased acetate cards like this is tough.

although i don't believe i ever saw smoltz pitch in person, i saw him on tv a lot thanks to the superstation and the national world series broadcasts in most years during the 1990s. paired with greg maddux and tom glavine, he mixed things up in the braves' rotation by being the hard throwing righty. i figured that if i had those two guys in my collection, i should have smoltz, too.

additionally, i decided to go for more (but not all) of the guys who have surpassed the 3000 strikeout milestone, and smoltz has that feat on his resume. in fact, smoltz is once again low man on that list as his 3,084 strikeouts as the pitchers who have approached his total since he retired after the 2009 season - cc sabathia, justin verlander, and max scherzer  - have all passed him on the leaderboard. what is different now on that leaderboard is that jim bunning is no longer the pitcher with the most career strikeouts without reaching 3,000. that honor currently belongs to zack greinke who i personally doubt will ever reach the milestone.

as for smoltz and my baseball memories, watching game 7 of the 1991 world series ranks high on the list. he held the twins scoreless through 7 and a third innings before being lifted, but jack morris was doing the same to the braves. when smoltz retired, he was the all-time leader in postseason strikeouts with 199 (since passed by clayton kershaw and verlander) to go along with a tidy 2.67 era in 209 innings pitched. in hindsight, i am glad that smoltz and his teammates got one ring out of their incredible run, even though i was cheering for the indians that particular season.

you can see my full hall of famer collection here.  welcome to the collection, john smoltz!