Still lean and looking as if he could easily turn yet another double play, Ozzie Smith acknowledged that the message he brought the Utah Ute baseball team Tuesday night did not come from a secret reservoir of knowledge. It was common-sense talk that it doesn’t hurt to repeat.
It was the same philosophy that molded the "Wizard of Oz" into one of the greatest, most stylish shortstops who ever laced up a pair of spikes. Always great with the glove, Smith turned himself from a weak slap hitter into a switch-hitting threat at the plate who eventually retired with 2,460 hits and 580 steals for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals.
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"If you don’t put anything in, you shouldn’t expect anything back," he said prior to Tuesday’s banquet in Salt Lake City. "That’s not just true of baseball but of life as well."
Smith, the guest of honor during the fundraiser for the Utes, offered a host of opinions and observations learned in his 57 years. Also, forget about his trademark back flip ever making a return.
"After 57 years, I’m scared now," he said to laughs.
For example, a traditionalist, Smith is against adding more wild card teams and an extra round of playoffs.
"I’ve never been an advocate of another round or a wild card team," he said. "If you play a 162-game schedule, baseball has always been the team that wins the most games wins home field and wins the right to move on.
"It has shown to give small-market teams a better chance, but I’m a baseball purist."
In April 1978, only 10 games into his major league career, Smith made what became the signature moment of his long Major League Baseball Hall of Fame career.
Atlanta slugger Jeff Burroughs laced a hard ground ball toward the shortstop side of second base. As Smith dove for the ball, it took a wicked bad hop. By pure instinct, Smith thrust his bare hand into the air, and the ball stuck.
Smith hit the ground and leaped quickly to his feet in seemingly one motion and threw out Burroughs.
"I played shortstop the way it was most comfortable for me," Smith said. "And I played for a manager who appreciated what I brought."
Traded to St. Louis in 1982, Cardinal manager Whitey Herzog not only pushed Smith to become an even better shortstop, he also turned the lean fielder who would go on to win 13 Gold Gloves into a thinking hitter.
Herzog told Smith in spring training, "Every time you hit a fly ball, you owe me a buck. Every time you hit a ground ball, I owe you a buck. We’ll keep that going all year."
Smith won $300.
The other significant moment — other than earning a World Series ring in 1982 — came during the 1985 playoffs against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Smith, who to that point had never hit a home run from the left side of the plate, cracked a dramatic walk-off homer.
"That was one of those standout moments," Smith said. "Because Jack Buck was at the [microphone] and coined the phrase, ‘Go crazy:’ ‘Smith corks one into right, down the line! It may go. Go crazy, folks, go crazy! It’s a home run, and the Cardinals have won the game, by the score of 3 to 2, on a home run by the Wizard! Go crazy!’ "
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