Ozzie Smith explains how he became the Wizard

Folks went crazy for Ozzie Smith at the Show Me Center when the legendary St. Louis Cardinals shortstop capped off Southeast Missouri State University's Speaker Series on Monday night.

The program, titled "An Evening With Ozzie Smith," began with a video montage of classic Ozzie Smith moments -- the double plays, signature acrobatics and, of course, the walk-off home run from the 1985 National League Championship Series before Smith emerged to lecture about the three principles that helped him go to the top of the "Mount Everest of baseball," the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"And ironically enough, they can be found in L. Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz,'" he said. "All great journeys begin with a dream."

Smith's dream was born, he said, on a hot afternoon as a child playing annie-annie-over all by himself. He didn't let his lack of a partner stop him from chucking the ball up on the far side of the roof and hustling around to the back of the house to try and catch it.

"And for those of you who are wondering if I ever caught it, no," he said. "I never did, but that didn't stop me from trying. That was the day I started dreaming of becoming a major league baseball player."

Ozzie Smith, Baseball Hall of Famer and a former St. Louis Cardinal, speaks Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

He likened himself to Dorothy's Scarecrow companion -- in search of a brain with which to think and dream a future for himself. He explained he also was, in a way, the Tin Man, who "desperately wanted a heart to experience love and believe in himself."

He credited his mother for teaching him the importance of love and his high-school baseball coach for giving him "[the] simple strand of faith ... that kept my dream alive."

Finally, he compared himself to the Cowardly Lion, who wanted courage -- not just so he could face adversity, but to look failure in the eye and overcome it. Smith said he wasn't the biggest or strongest or most game-savvy of baseball players, but through an ironclad work ethic and a carefully cultivated commitment to perseverance, he was able to achieve his dreams.

Ozzie Smith, Baseball Hall of Famer and a former St. Louis Cardinal, speaks Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

He went through a litany of modern cultural institutions that also were once-failures: "Gone with the Wind," Dr. Seuss and "War & Peace." Jim Henson and his puppets before they were Muppets, the Beatles in 1962. All of them faced rejection time and time again before achieving their dreams.

"I sincerely believe that there is nothing truly great in any man or woman except their character," he said, before explaining the personal philosophy he held during his 19 years of professional baseball.

"Absolutely nothing is good enough if it can be better, and better is never good enough if it can be made best."

That work ethic allowed him to perform the feats that endeared him to legions of fans in St. Louis and San Diego. The support of fans, in turn, drives Smith to give back to the community.

"The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the ability to serve others," he said.

To prove it, he took questions for nearly as long as he spoke, even autographing a baseball for a fan in the hospital. The question-and-answer session yielded a few interesting insights from the 13-time Golden Glove Award-winner.

He thinks the Angels outfielder Mike Trout is "becoming the face of baseball," but Matt Carpenter's work ethic may be the most impressive of the Cardinals' roster.

Smith said the hardest part of being a pro baseball player was being away from his children. "Trying to be half as good a father as I was a baseball player, that was the toughest thing to deal with," he said.

Also he sees Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina as "the heart and soul of the organization," and Smith's favorite golf course is Sage Valley in Augusta, Georgia.

When asked how it felt to secure his place in the Hall of Fame, Smith said it was an odd feeling. Good, obviously, but not the same type of achievement as marked the rest of his playing career.

"I wanted to be the best baseball player I could be," he explained. "The Hall of Fame was a byproduct of that."

tgraef@semissourian.com