Dec. 7, 2000

Go to the chat

WACO, Texas - Join head baseball coach Steve Smith for a live chat next Thursday. Smith, the head coach of the 2000 Big 12 champions, will join ESPN.com and GoBaylorBears.com for a live chat on Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.

Smith is entering his seventh season as head coach at Baylor and owns a 225-130-1 career record. He led the Bears to a Big 12 regular season championship in 2000 and their first-ever 50-win season in 1999.

The 2000 Big 12 Coach of the Year, Smith came to Baylor from Mississippi State, where he was an assistant under Ron Polk for five seasons. Prior to that, he served as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M.

A former standout pitcher at Baylor from 1982-83, Smith led the Southwest Conference with a 1.72 ERA in 1982, bettering league foes and future major league pitchers Norm Charlton, Roger Clemens, Doug Drabek and Calvin Shiraldi.

Almost two decades later, Smith is passing his pitching knowledge on to his players. In the past seven years, he has tutored five pitchers who were selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft, including Jason Jennings, the 1999 consensus national player of the year and the 16th pick by the Colorado Rockies in 1999.

In Smith's six years as Baylor's head coach, he has produced five All-Americans, five GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans and one GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year. Baylor has also had 18 first-team all-Big 12 performers, including the Big 12 Player of the Year in 1998 and 1999 and the Big 12 Freshman Pitcher of the Year in 2000.

Smith will stop in to chat on Thursday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. CT. Feel free to drop him a question here and we'll save it for his arrival.