Player Profile: Reggie Smith

Carl Reginald Smith was born on the 2nd of April 1945 in Shreveport Louisiana, His parents were Lonnie and Nellie Smith. His dad had played one year in the Negro American League as a catcher for the Jacksonville Red Caps. Both of his parents were capable musicians. The family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child.

Their new neighborhood, known then as Zone “61”, is now South-Central LA. It also had a lot of highly competitive baseball teams. One of them was led by Chet Brewer. They were called the Chet Brewer Pirates. Brewer had been a pitcher in the Negro Leagues. He had a 13-year career. His best years were his first 6 with the Kansas City Monarchs. He posted a 51-28 record for them.

Brewer had decided that his post career work would be working with children. He would use the game to get them involved in the community, meanwhile kicking butt on the baseball field. He recruited Smith when Reggie was only 15. Reggie only played on Sundays for the Pirates, and the rest of the week he worked in his dad’s egg-delivery business. He worked with the team enough though that he got an education about the professional baseball players way of life. Some of Brewer’s old teammates would drop by and help and then discuss baseball and tell stories afterwards. Reggie’s post career life would parallel that of his mentors.

Reggie played high school sports at Centennial High School. He was an All-California pick in baseball as a SS and also earned the same honor in football. He was signed as a free agent in June of 1963. His father was ill and wanted his son to have his dream and go to college, but Reggie wanted to help that family and could do that with the money he made playing baseball. Reggie was sent to Wytheville in the Appalachian League. He hit .257 in 66 games and was left unprotected in the Rule-5 draft. The Red Sox snapped him up.

He ascended the Sox system and by 1966 he was at Toronto, the Sox top farm team where he played for Dick Williams on a championship team. Smith led the league in hitting with a .320 mark. “He had a hell of an arm, even if he played SS” said Williams. The Sox manager, Billy Herman, wanted to make him a pitcher. But he was Williams CF and he really could play. At that point in time, he was just learning to switch hit.

Reggie was a late season call-up, but only got into a few games. He got his first three MLB hits off of Fritz Peterson of the Yankees. The Sox finished 9th, but Reggie was definitely part of their youth movement. Williams took over as the Sox manager in 67, and he wanted Smith as his CF. He had also brought Mike Andrews with him to play 2nd base, but Andrews was injured, so Smith started back in the infield. He and the Sox got off to a slow start, but he got hot and so did the team as they finished with a strong run. He had his first career homer from each side of the plate game on August 20th. He hit one from the right side off of George Brunet, a three-run shot, and then he hit one off of Pete Cimino, a two-run shot, that helped the Sox pummel the Angels 12-2. He finished the year with a .246/15/61 line. He hit two homers in the World Series and slugged .542 in the losing effort.

In 1968 he led the league in doubles with 37, and earned his first gold glove for his work in CF. He had a .265/15/69 line for the year. He was even better in 69, he hit .309/25/93. While progressing steadily as a player, there were other challenges that were faced. The pressure of being a professional athlete in Boston was amplified by racial prejudice and bigotry. The Sox were the last team to integrate. And Reggie was one of the very first players brought up with star potential.

Above Williams and the GM, Dick O’Connell, the front office and ownership was notoriously prejudiced. Even Jackie Robinson, who played alongside Williams with the Dodgers, said he could not root for the Red Sox because owner, Tom Yawkey, was one of the most bigoted guys in baseball. Boston Globe op-ed editor, Marty Nolan, sarcastically referred to the Red Sox as ” The Klavern”, a term the Ku Klux Klan used for their regional chapters.

The team itself was somewhat cliquish, but not by perceived ethnicity. Smith’s closest friend and fishing buddy was Yastrzemski. John Curtis, former Red Sox pitcher said ” the race relations in the club house were not all that bad, it was the front office where all of the bigotry was festering. I do not remember one teammate making a racist remark to Reggie while I was a Red Sox player.”

The Boston fans were another matter entirely. Most of them shared the front offices views. Bill “Spaceman” Lee said that Smith used to receive hate mail that started out with a racial epithet and got worse from there. He used to wear a batting helmet in the field to protect himself from objects thrown by his own fans. They threw batteries and heated coins at him. One night some fans drove to his house and emptied the garbage cans he had put out for pickup onto his lawn. That was when John Curtis realized living in Boston was a lot different for Smith than it was for him. As a result, Reggie waged an ongoing war with the Boston fans. That ended when in October of 1973, the Sox traded Reggie to the Cardinals with Ken Tatum for Bernie Carbo and Rick Wise.

Life was easier in St. Louis. One of the big reasons were two of the Cardinals big stars were Lou Brock and Bob Gibson. Being on the same field with a player like Gibson, who was as fierce a competitor as any I have ever seen, Reggie was able to channel his energy. He always felt he was more of an NL type player. Gibson nicknamed him “Spike”, after the unyielding guard dog in the Bugs Bunny cartoons. Because the Cardinals had Bake McBride in CF, they moved Reggie to RF, and he played there most of the time the rest of his career. The Cards finished 1 1/2 games behind the Pirates. Reggie had a very good season with a .309/23/100 line, and he made the All-Star team for the third time.

Reggie’s teammates loved his competitive spirit. The also often spoke of his great work ethic and skills. Teammate and former Dodger, Ted Sizemore, became a seer of sorts when he said he thought Smith would be a pretty good hitting coach someday. Reggie still had issues with the fans sometimes, but it never kept him from performing at a high level. His average dropped a few points to .302 in 1975. He slugged 19 homers and drove in 76. Because of the teams struggles, he played some games at 1st base.

In 1976, the team and Reggie were struggling. He was hitting only .218. Fearing they would not be able to re-sign him after the season when he became a free agent, they traded him in June to his hometown Dodgers for C Joe Ferguson and a couple of minor leaguers. In 65 games with LA, he hit .280 with 10 homers to bring his season stats to .253/18/49. Far below his usual production.

1977 was Reggie’s best year offensively. He was the hub of a potent offense that for the first time featured 4 players hitting 30 or more home runs. Smith posted a .307/32/87 line and had an OPS+ of 168. A career high. He brought a quiet intensity to a rather quiet clubhouse. His teammates appreciated his competitiveness. Most of them marveled at his desire to always be learning something new, and then mastering it. Smith plays seven instruments. He got his pilot’s license; he also became a very good photographer. Anything he tried; he became very good at. Reggie was one of the brighter offensive players in the World Series, hitting .273 and slamming 3 homers in the losing effort to the Yankees.

In 1978, the Dodgers would advance to the series again. Smith did his part with a .295/29/93 line. His OPS+ of 162 was second in the league. Once again, LA lost to the Yanks in the series. Smith this time was a non-factor. Getting only 5 hits in 25 at bats. He did have a homer and 5 RBI’s. At age 33 he was losing some of his range in the outfield. In 1979, Reggie was injured in mid-season, and as a result, he only played in 68 games.

Hoping for better things in 1980, he worked hard in the offseason to get better physically. He was much better in 1980, .322/15/55. But he got injured again, and by July he was done as an everyday player. He would return in 81, but only got into 41 games. He had 5 plate appearances in the three-postseason series. He had 2 hits and 2 RBI’s. After the season, he was not re-signed and became a free agent. Now 36 years old, he signed with the Giants. The Giants manager was Frank Robinson. Reggie had a solid season for SF .284/18/56. Robinson was the only other player who had appeared in All-Star and World Series games in both leagues. Reggie finished his MLB career with a .287/314/1092 line. His lone Championship ring came with the 81 team.

In 1983 He signed with the Yomiuri Giants. In a dark literary twist of fate, ended his career in back in a racially hostile environment. In spite of injury, he produced at a .285/.409/.627 rate in part-time play. The team’s owner, Matsutaro Shoriki, said it was Smith’s contributions that helped them win the pennant. But beanball incidents, an on-field brawl, disputes with the umpires’ large strike zone for African players, and racial epithets from fans that escalated to a physical attack on Smith and his son, cast a pall over all of his contributions. He played one more year in Japan, and then hung them up.

After his retirement in 1984, he drifted away from baseball for a while. Then in 1993, he became the field coordinator for the Dodgers minor league system. In 1994, he became the big clubs hitting coach. He served in that position until 1999. He coached the 2000 Olympic baseball team that won the gold medal. he was also the batting coach for the 2006 team in the World Baseball Classic.

Reggie’s passion though is teaching, and in that capacity, he opened a baseball camp in 1995, and then the Reggie Smith Baseball Center in Encino in 1998. It is still going strong. Reggie is very active in charity work, and stages different events to raise funds. He coached the NL All-Stars in 2021 as part of Dave Roberts staff. He has turned down several offers for major league positions to concentrate on his charitable work and teaching young ballplayers. The man with the fire to win and compete at the top level is passing his passion for the game on to a new generation.