The truly great players you never have to look up their stats to know they belong in the Hall of Immortals/ You can tell just by watching them play, they are just that good.
Ozzie Smith was just that good.
Watching him play was watching an artist with a glove. He would make hard plays look simple. He made impossible plays look easy.
And while early in his career he was considered an offensive liability, he continued to improve that part of his game as well, earning a Silver Slugger award in 1987.
The Cardinals won 2 World Series titles in the 80s. The star or those teams wasn’t a big slugger (Terry Pendleton aside – and let’s not discuss that please), nor was it a star pitcher. The star was a small glove man up the middle.
Ozzie clearly is an Immortal.
For some background on what this is, check out the introduction post here.