Ozzie Smith: An understandable decision and an unfortunate result

The Semoball Awards have been well over a year in the making. It's actually probably been closer to two years since the idea first began to float around and plans eventually started to be made.

Lucas Presson, who has spearheaded this entire project, particularly from the business and planning side, spent months researching speakers and then it took months -- literally -- to finalize negotiations and details in order to bring Ozzie Smith as our featured speaker at our inaugural event this Saturday.

And now it's all gone.

Well, Ozzie is gone. The Semoball Awards still are going to be awesome and fun and there will still be countless things to enjoy about the night. But just 72 hours before the Semoball Awards were set to start we found out it was likely Smith would not be attending the event.

You can read all about his decision and ESPY winner Kyle Maynard, who will replace Smith, here. The short version is that Smith and fellow Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who died on Monday, were close friends. Smith has been asked to attend and speak at Gwynn's funeral and understandably ranked that responsibility ahead of the Semoball Awards.

It's been hard for me to keep this under wraps. I'd have preferred to share the news right away, but it was important that we find a replacement and figure out what the next step was. Plus, the decision on Smith's attendance wasn't actually final until late Thursday morning, as you can read all about in Jon Rust's column here.

Although obviously disappointed by the late change, I'm confident Maynard will deliver a memorable speech. I'm more confident the night still will be a great experience for all. After all, the speech is just one part of a jam-packed night that's really about celebrating the best athletes in Southeast Missouri. It's been amazing to watch this event develop from nothing to something very big, and I can't wait for the more than 900 people in attendance to see it all the work come together Saturday night.

The doors to the Show Me Center and the red carpet will open at 5 p.m., and I hope to see many, many of you there and take many, many selfies (even though I might be the worst selfie-taker in the universe) with you while making many, many memories.