Jan. 25, 2002

Go to the Chat

WACO, Texas - On Monday, Jan. 28, at 2 p.m. CT, Baylor baseball coach Steve Smith will make a special visit to chat about the upcoming season.

Smith is in his eighth season as head coach of the Bear program. In his first seven seasons at the helm, Baylor compiled a 262-154-1 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 four straight NCAA appearances. Through the 2001 season, Smith ranked 40th among active coaches in winning percentage with a .629 mark.

Smith, the 2000 Big 12 Coach of the Year, 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 five pitchers in the last 10 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 10 years. In 1999, right-hander/designated hitter Jason Jennings won the Golden Spikes Award as the best player in college baseball and was the 16th overall pick by the Colorado Rockies.

Smith won't hit the chat room until Monday. Feel free to drop him some questions here and we'll save them for his arrival.