On the surface, 1980s catcher Ozzie Virgil and current veteran outfielder Josh Reddick might not have much in common throughout the long history of baseball and the 22,564 players that have taken the field. You can say the same about Hall of Famer Ted Simmons and speedy outfielder Marquis Grissom, or longtime shortstop Walt Weiss and veteran starter Charlie Morton, or "Nasty Boy" reliever Norm Charlton and Red Sox legend David Ortiz.
But one player — and one amazing, bizarre, hard-to-fathom statistic — links them all. His name is John Smoltz, and throughout the Hall of Famer's two-decade career, he had quite a few teammates who made it to baseball's promised land: the World Series. Since 1982, every single Fall Classic has featured a former teammate of Smoltz (or Smoltz himself), as one Reddit user pointed out (h/t Matt Monagan of MLB.com). Crazy, yes, but true.
He joined Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden on CBS Sports' "All Things Covered" to discuss the truly wild factoid and his hopes that it can continue for a little while longer.
"It's pretty cool to think that that could work out," Smoltz said. "Now there's a lot of pressure in the next two years on a couple teammates of mine that play for the St. Louis Cardinals for this thing to extend — Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright — so there's still slim hope for some of those, but the streak's coming to an end soon, to say it simply.
"But when I heard that I was like, man, that is crazy... and even to the point where it's a little confusing because I was only teammates with one guy or two like two months out of the year in Boston, so people might not connect the dots there."
Perhaps he's referring to the aforementioned Reddick, who played in 27 games as a rookie for the 2009 Red Sox, with whom Smoltz started in eight games before his August release. There's also Octavio Dotel, who appeared in a grand total of nine games for the 2007 Braves, briefly crossing paths with Smoltz during his second-to-last year in Atlanta. And the list goes on, available in its entirety here.
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So who can still extend the streak to span four decades of World Series action? There's Molina and Wainwright, both of whom were Smoltz's teammates in 2009 and are returning to the Cardinals in 2022. Also on that team was a guy you may have heard of named Albert Pujols, who took home the National League MVP award in that same 2009 campaign and who, according to ESPN, said he wants to take the field until he feels he can't go on anymore. If he rejoins the Los Angeles Dodgers, a World Series appearance would take absolutely no one by surprise.
Charlie Morton should be back in action, and he's already been responsible for three of the World Series connections to Smoltz — all with different teams. Rocco Baldelli, also on this list, could bring his Minnesota Twins to the World Series next year, though we aren't sure if managers count. Josh Reddick is NOT retired, according to a source.
If you want to get really deep, Daniel Bard played on the 2009 Red Sox as a rookie, earning the hold on July 11, 2009 in Smoltz's first win as a Red Sox starter. Bard acted as the primary closer for the Colorado Rockies in 2021... but it's safe to say that the World Series is a little bit out of reach for them at this point in time.
In any event, the possibility for the streak to continue is certainly alive, and we're hoping that we get to see World Series No. 40 to which Smoltz is distantly, distantly connected.
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