Smoltz recalls bellhop joke he played on teammates

John Smoltz, one of the new electees to the Baseball Hall of Fame, once spent time as a bellhop. Well, not exactly. But he pretended to be one once for about 30 minutes to pull off a joke on his teammates after they arrived at a hotel late one morning on a road trip.

Smoltz told his "Glory Story" on Tuesday on MLB Network, and it had nothing to do with any of his many accomplishments on the baseball field.

The Braves had arrived in Chicago at about 3 a.m. and everyone began dropping their bags at the door. The doorman became overwhelmed and left his stand.

Smoltz sprung into action.

"I got a chance to jack with every one of my teammates," he said.

As the rest of his teammates were calling down for their bags, Smoltz answered the phone, disguising his voice with a British accent and being as rude as possible.

"I can't help you," Smoltz said to former catcher Paul Bako before hanging up.

Then Smoltz, still in character, called Bako back minutes later to apologize, and he asked if he could call him a cab. Once Bako obliged, Smoltz replied, "You're a cab," and hung up again. Smoltz went on to tell some of his teammates their bags were damaged, and he made them physically come down from their hotel rooms to check their bags out.

"Which was ticking every one of them off," Smoltz said.

Smoltz's antics lasted for about a half-hour before the bellman returned, kicked him out of the stand and ended his fun.