For two decades “Smoltzie,” along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, was one of the three big aces of the Atlanta Braves. In his 22-year career, all but one with Atlanta, Smoltz won over 200 games, a Cy Young Award and was the 1992 NLCS MVP. Later in his career he moved to the bullpen and excelled as the Braves closer. While Maddux and Glavine racked up the wins, often, it was John Smoltz who finished the game for them. Photo matching shows that Smoltz wore this jersey in four relief appearances during the 2002 season: August 3rd, 4th, 16th and September 17th. In the August 3rd game, Smoltz pitched the 9th inning, holding the Cardinals to a single hit as the Braves beat St. Louis 6-1. The next night Smoltz won his second game of the year when the Braves came back to beat the Cardinals 2-1 in the 9th inning. On August 16th, Smoltz picked up his 43rd save of the season by pitching the 9th inning of the 4-1 win over Colorado. And finally, the Hall of Fame reliever was wearing this jersey on September 17th when he pitched 1.1 innings of hitless ball to earn his 52nd save. The home white jersey has the classic “Braves” logo across the chest in red and navy tackle twill above the tomahawk in red, navy and gold tackle twill. Navy and red trim encircle the sleeve openings and run down the front. The Russell label is sewn on the front left tail with “1” EXTRA BODY LENGTH,” size “50” and “1-02” strip tags affixed. The back has “SMOLTZ” in navy tackle twill on a white name plate above his number “29” in red and navy tackle twill. The jersey shows nice game use with puckering and loose threads found on the tackle twill graphics from laundering. The jersey comes with a LOA from Sports Investors Authentication for the game used authenticity and a worksheet detailing the photo match.