Greg Smith Lays One in There

I had another terrific time at the Oakland A's Booster Luncheon. It really does help when there's someone to talk to, someone who likes baseball as much as you do.

Ellen and her aunt, Joy, joined me again to welcome Shooty Babbitt and Greg Smith. Shooty is a celebrity in his own right, a second baseman who played for the A's, but who also has the gift of gab. Shooty is an intelligent questioner, which helps a lot, especially in interviewing a rookie. Shooty is also smart enough to know that he's not the main event here -- the current player is -- but I would love to hear more from him in some future date. I've seen him occasionally before or after a game on local T.V., talking about the match-ups, and he's much better than the other broadcasters they have in the pre- and post-game, except for Ray Fosse.

Greg Smith is the rookie I'm talking about, a left-handed pitcher whom we acquired in the Dan Haren trade last off-season, and what a gem he is. But who knew he'd be such a dynamic speaker? Everybody at the table was in awe of not only his speaking ability but also his knowledge of the game and his ability to impart that to us.

In fact, prodded by Shooty's questions, Greg gave us a pitch-by-pitch description of what he threw to Beltran in the last game (the day before), and his reasons, and it was so dynamic. I really felt as if we were part of his process. I'd love to have the same experience each time at these luncheons.

I mean, you really have to like the teddy-bear quality of a Jack Cust, but his process is mainly see-the-ball, hit-the-ball. There's nothing he's going to explain to you. We get from him the overall joy of being in the major leagues. And he's not going to worry about his strikeouts. He's just not.

Greg Smith is a thinking man's pitcher. I read this morning where Brian Wilson, who plays for the San Francisco Giants, and who closed out the game yesterday, said something to the effect that he was throwing strikes and they were hitting them, so he threw as hard as he could, saying, in effect, "here, hit this." Smith is not like that at all. He has a game plan, and if he can execute, he's sticking to his game plan with the help of his catcher.

We're heading into what I term the dead area of baseball: The All-Star break. As usual, we have one player in the All-Star game (Duchscherer), and if he pitches one inning, I'll be really pumped.