The Best Defensive Shortstop of All Time

The Wizard’s Gold Gloves

5 min readNov 10, 2018

Unfortunately, the 2018 baseball season came to a close during the last week of October. However, we still have a few exciting announcements to look forward to. We’ll have to wait till next week to find out the Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young award winner, and the MVP, but what we did get on November 4th were the Gold Glove Award winners. The Gold Glove is the most prestigious fielding award in the MLB, given out to the best fielders in each position in both the AL and NL. I would like to congratulate all Gold Glove winners, with a special emphasis on the 9 Baseball Treasure representatives selected as the best defenders in the MLB.

Read about each of them here: And the Gold Glove Goes to…

All this talk about the Gold Gloves got me thinking about the ones have made their way into my personal collection. I was browsing an auction online a few years ago when I saw that Ozzie Smith was selling all 13 of the Gold Gloves he won during the 1980s, as well as some of the other memorabilia he earned during his illustrious career.

Growing up playing baseball, I always valued defense. Part of the reason why was because I was never much of a power hitter. But, I also felt like defense is a greatly undervalued and under appreciated aspect of the sport. Playing good defense is a form of art, and something that is incredibly hard to do on a consistent basis. Back when I was younger and still thought that it was my dream to play in the MLB, winning a Gold Glove was on my bucket list of things I wanted to accomplish during my playing career. Although I may not have got my Gold Glove in the same way that I had once dreamed, I still ended up with one. Actually, I ended up with 13.

Ozzie Smith is arguably the best defensive shortstop of all time. He was so good that he was given the nickname, “The Wizard” because it was almost impossible to believe you weren’t watching a magic trick seeing some of the defensive stunts he was able to pull off. He had limitless range, defied the logic of even his teammates with some of the plays he made, and was the cornerstone of one of the best defensive teams ever assembled.

Ozzie Smith was a 15x All Star, he lead the Cardinals to three World Series with one win (1982), and also won 13 consecutive Gold Glove awards. This ties him for fourth overall amongst the most ever won by any player, the most ever won by a short stop. The way he would hurdle the players sliding towards him when turning a double play, sometimes flip the ball behind his back to his second baseman, fully lay out for line drives and ground balls, and always deliver a strong throw made him one of the most entertaining players to watch. It was the way he made these plays so smoothly, along with the signature backflip he would always do on his way out to the field when his name was announced that made him one of the greatest showmen in the MLB.

Smith started his career in San Diego with the Padres in 1978, but was traded to the Cardinals four seasons later. It was here that Smith would spend the rest of his career and become one of the best short stops of all time. While in San Diego, Smith was a below average hitter (.231 average with one homerun). In St. Louis, he worked on his hitting, becoming a threat at the plate — even hitting a walk off home run in the 1985 NLCS. However, his brilliance had little to do with his own numbers. He stole base hits from his opponents every single night he played and was constantly making jaw dropping defensive plays that sucked the morale out of his opposition.

Smith was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and his number was retired by the Cardinals in 1996, the year he retired. These Gold Glove awards are a piece of baseball history. They signify one of the most dominant defensive players in MLB history who played in an era with many other great shortstops.

#JoinTheHunt and discover more baseball treasures —