Chat Live With Coach Steve Smith
11/12/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Nov. 12, 2002
WACO, Texas - On Thursday, Nov. 14, Baylor baseball coach Steve Smith will drop by to discuss the fall season, Wednesday's signing day, along with other college baseball issues.
Smith will begin his ninth season as head coach at Baylor in 2003; in his first eight seasons, he has compiled a 298-180-1 record. Smith led the Bears to their first-ever 50 win season in 1999 and a Big 12 Championship in 2000, and has piloted the team to five-straight NCAA appearances. Through the 2001 season, Smith ranked 40th among active coaches in winning percentage with a .629 mark.
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 in 1982-1983, Smith led the Southwest Conference with a 1.72 ERA as a junior, bettering league foes and future major leaguers Norm Charlton, Roger Clemens, Doug Drabek and Calvin Schiraldi.
An accomplished pitching coach, Smith has tutored six pitchers in the last 11 years who were selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft. He has also had at least one pitcher named to the all-conference first team in each of the last 11 years. This season's 2002 National League Rookie of the Year, Jason Jennings, learned his trade under Smith's tutelage; Jennings was the consensus National Player of the Year in 1999 before becoming the 16th overall pick by the Colorado Rockies.
In Smith's eight seasons as head coach, the Bears have produced three first-round draft picks, eight all-Americans, five GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, one GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year, 26 first-team all-conference performers, four freshman all-Americans and three conference players of the year. Baylor has also placed 30 players on the Academic All-Big 12 first team in the past six seasons.
Smith won't be stopping by until 2 p.m. CT on Thursday, but you can send your questions here and we will save them for his arrival.
