Homer

The decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris and others, convinced scholars of a linguistic continuity between 13th century BC Mycenaean writings and the poems attributed to Homer. He is 1-2 in All-Star games, putting him in a tie for the most losses. Research (pioneered by the aforementioned Parry and Lord) into oral epics in Serbo-Croatian and Turkic languages began to convince scholars that long poems could be preserved with consistency by oral cultures until someone bothered to write them down. Smoltz gave up a solo home run to Miguel Tejada in the second inning of the American League's 7-5 victory and received the loss. The excavations of Heinrich Schliemann in the late 19th century began to convince scholars there was a historical basis for the Trojan War. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa selected Smoltz as a member of the 2005 NL All-Star team. Modern classicists continue the tradition. As a result, St.

The commentaries on the Iliad and the Odyssey written in the Hellenistic period (3rd to 1st century BC) began exploring the textual inconsistencies of the poems. At the All-Star break, Smoltz was 9-5 with an ERA of 2.68, better than his career average. Another significant question regards the tales' possible historical basis. After these initial difficulties, things would fall into place. See main article Troy.. Because of poor run support, Smoltz would lose his next two decisions despite pitching well. More radical Homerists, such as Gregory Nagy, contend that a canonical text of the Homeric poems as "scripture" did not exist until the Hellenistic period. He allowed six earned runs in only 1 2/3 innings--matching the shortest starts of his career--as the Braves were blown out on Opening Day by the Florida Marlins.

The traditional solution is the "transcription hypothesis", wherein a non-literate "Homer" dictates his poem to a literate scribe in the 6th century BC or earlier. Smoltz's revived career as a starter began inauspiciously. Exactly when these poems would have taken on a fixed written form is subject to debate. Smoltz had also lobbied for a return to the rotation since his conversion to closer, citing evidence by his doctors that starting games would be less stressful on his pitching arm. He called these chunks of repetitive language "formulas.". The change in roles came as a result of the Atlanta Braves losing starting pitchers Paul Byrd to the Anaheim Angels, Russ Ortiz to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jaret Wright to the New York Yankees, and the acquisition of reliever Danny Kolb, who was the closer for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2003 to 2004 -- even though Kolb has been ineffective and has since lost the closer role to Chris Reitsma. The crucial words are "oral" and "traditional." Parry started with "traditional." The repetitive chunks of language, he said, were inherited by the singer-poet from his predecessors, and they were useful to the poet in composition. In 2005, Smoltz returned to the starting rotation.

Could the Iliad and Odyssey have been oral-formulaic poems, composed on the spot by the poet using a collection of memorized traditional verses and phases? Milman Parry and Albert Lord pointed out that such elaborate oral tradition, foreign to today's literate cultures, is typical of epic poetry in an exclusively oral culture. While he posted fewer saves in a season abbreviated by injury in 2003 with 45, Smoltz posted a minuscule 1.12 ERA – 8 ERs in 64.3 innings pitched. An analysis of the structure and vocabulary of the Iliad and Odyssey shows that the poems consist of regular, repeating phrases; even entire verses repeat. In his first full season as a closer, in 2002, Smoltz broke the National League saves record with 55 saves (the previous record was 53; Eric Gagne would equal Smoltz's new record the next year). Most Classicists would agree that, whether there was ever such a composer as "Homer" or not, the Homeric poems are the product of an oral tradition, a generations-old technique that was the collective inheritance of many singer-poets, aoidoi. Adjustments to convert Smoltz from a starter to a closer began in 2001 after several seasons of increased fatigue and fewer innings pitched, culminating in Tommy John surgery after the 1999 season. Thus they were entrusted with remembering the area's stock of epic poetry, to remember past events, in the times before literacy came to the area. He won the National League Cy Young with 26 of the 28 first-place votes.

As these men were not sent to war because their loyalty on the battlefield was suspect, they would not get killed in battles. Smoltz's best personal year came in 1996, when he went 24–8 with a 2.94 ERA and 276 strikeouts. There is a theory that his name was back-extracted from the name of a society of poets called the Homeridae, which literally means "sons of hostages", i.e., descendants of prisoners of war. All three are strong possibilities for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In Greek his name is Homēros, which is Greek for "hostage". During the period of 1991 to 1998, Smoltz, Maddux and Glavine won 7 National League Cy Young Awards (6 with Atlanta – Maddux won in 1992 with the Chicago Cubs). So little is known or even guessed of his actual life, that a common joke has it that the poems "were not written by Homer, but by another man of the same name," and the classical scholar Richmond Lattimore, author of well regarded poetic translations to English of both epics, once wrote a paper entitled "Homer: Who Was She?" Samuel Butler was more specific, theorizing a young Sicilian woman as author of the Odyssey (but not the Iliad), an idea further speculated on by Robert Graves in his novel Homer's Daughter. Before the 1993 season the Braves signed renowned control pitcher Greg Maddux, completing what many consider to be the most accomplished starting trio ever assembled on a single Major League team.

Other scholars, however, maintain their belief in the reality of an actual Homer. The Braves won the World Series in 1995 – but with little help from Smoltz, who had the worst postseason of his career. Many classicists hold that this reform must have involved the production of a canonical written text. He has more postseason career wins than any other player in history. An important role in this standardization appears to have been played by the Athenian tyrant Hipparchus, who reformed the recitation of Homeric poetry at the Panathenaic festival. Over his postseason career, he has a 12-4 record and 2.72 ERA as a starter (14-4 overall). It is generally agreed among scholars that the Iliad and Odyssey underwent a process of standardization and refinement out of older material beginning in the 8th century BC. Smoltz made his first of many postseason appearances in 1991, pitching well in a losing cause.

. Together with teammate Tom Glavine, who also pitched a break-out year in 1989, there was plenty of reason for optimism about the future of Atlanta's pitching staff. It has repeatedly been questioned whether the same poet was responsible for both the Iliad and the Odyssey; the Batrachomyomachia, Homeric hymns and cyclic poems are generally agreed to be later than these two epic poems. In 29 starts, he recorded a 12–11 record and 2.94 ERA while pitching 208 innings. There is considerable scholarly debate about whether or not Homer was actually a real person, or the name given to one or more oral poets who sang traditional epic material. In 1989, Smoltz gave the first of what would be many exceptional seasons at the Major League level. Tradition held that Homer was blind, and various Ionian cities are claimed to be his birthplace, but otherwise his biography is a blank slate. His year-end record was 2–7 with a 5.48 ERA.

A few ancient authors credited him with the entire Epic Cycle, which included further poems on the Trojan War as well as the Theban poems about Oedipus and his sons. Granted the opportunity to make 12 starts that season, Smoltz did not fare well. Homer (Greek Ὅμηρος Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and rhapsode traditionally credited with authorship of the major Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey, the comic mini-epic Batrachomyomachia ("The Frog-Mouse War"), the corpus of Homeric Hymns, and various other lost or fragmentary works such as Margites. He made his Major League debut on July 23, 1988. Smoltz developed in the Detroit farm system for a few years until, on August 12, 1987, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves for Doyle Alexander. John Smoltz was an All-State baseball and basketball at Waverly High School in Lansing, Michigan before the Detroit Tigers drafted him in the 22nd round of the 1985 amateur draft.

. He mixes in a curveball on occasion as well. Smoltz throws a four-seam fastball that tops out in the low- to mid-90s, a 91MPH slider that has long been considered one of the best in the league, and a 92MPH split-finger fastball that he uses as a strikeout pitch. In 2002 he became only the second pitcher in history to have both a season with 20 wins and a season with 50 saves in his career (the other was Dennis Eckersley).

While he is predominantly known as a starter and former Cy Young Award winner, in 2001 he became a closer. John Andrew Smoltz (born May 15, 1967 in Detroit, Michigan, USA) is a Major League Baseball player. Atlanta Braves (1988–present). Led the National League in saves (2002, with 55).

Led the National League in wins (1996, with 24). Finished 4th in National League Cy Young Award voting (1998). Finished 3rd in National League Cy Young Award voting (2002). Finished 8th in National League MVP voting (2002).

National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award winner (2002). National League Championship Series MVP (1992). National League Cy Young Award winner (1996). Seven-time All-Star (1989, 1992-93, 1996, 2002-03, 2005).