Major League Baseball

Resorting to old pitchers isn't new and isn't smart

Published Aug. 20, 2009 12:54 a.m. ET

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"How does a man decide in what order to abandon his life?" asked Cormac McCarthy in No Country for Old Men.

If you're a big-league pitcher, the hitters will generally tell you when it's time to abandon the career part of your life. They will beat you into submission.




And the long, hot, daily grind of a pennant race is no country for old men.

Just ask John Smoltz. The 42-year-old future Hall of Famer was thrown into a steel cage by Theo Epstein, who apparently hadn't read the probability tables on 42-year-olds coming off arm surgery, going from the National League to the American League.

It was an actuarial blueprint for disaster and a disaster it was. Smoltz went 2-5 with an 8.32 ERA. His first six starts were against teams with a combined record 88 games under .500 and the Red Sox went 1-5 in those games. (If Boston falls short in its wildcard tussle with the Rays and Rangers, the John Smoltz Experiment will almost certainly be the difference.)

Smoltz is now heading back to the kinder, gentler National League to help the Cardinals down the stretch, though one wonders if escaping the DH will be enough for a pitcher who got roughed up by the Nationals in an interleague loss in his first start of the season.

After releasing Smoltz, the Red Sox are now monitoring 43-year-old Tim Wakefield as he tries to fight his way back into the rotation from a low back injury that has spread to the calf of his left (plant) leg. (Does that sound like something that happens to a 26-year-old?) This marks the third season in the last four that Wakefield has been on the DL in August. From 2006-08 he has had a 5.55 ERA after the All-Star break.

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