Do not have a personal connection to Lee Arthur Smith, except one face-to-face interview in 1975 and one phone interview in 1987. Have not talked to him otherwise.
But we are so proud of and so happy for the big country boy from Castor, Louisiana -- or next-door Jamestown, if you want to extend his home territory.
But as of Sunday, it is reality, and we had two immediate reactions:
(1) Love it. He is one of our favorites, he "belongs" to North Louisiana.
(2) Wonder what Jerome Holtzman would have thought today?
(Many baseball fans, and almost every baseball writer, know the name Jerome Holtzman. There is a personal story here, centered on Lee Smith. Read on.)
The tall and then-lanky baseball and basketball star from Castor High School I interviewed for a Sunday sports story in The Shreveport Times (April 20, 1975) grew into an imposing, thick hard-throwing right-handed pitcher -- one of the top relievers/closers in baseball history.
The Times and Shreveport Journal were always his home-area newspapers, even after he left for fame in Chicago, Boston, St. Louis and other major-league stops.
And the personal connection: That part of Bienville Parish is familiar to us. My wife, Beatrice, grew up in Jamestown -- where Lee was born and, in young adulthood, resided in a huge new home.
Little did I know when I made the visit to Castor in 1975 how connected to that area I soon would be, how many visits to Jamestown were headed. Nor did we know where Lee Smith was headed.
In The Times story in 1975, a "pullout" quote from Lee read: "I like playing basketball ... more than baseball. But if I get a good enough offer in baseball, I'll sign."
Seven weeks after the story ran, Lee Arthur was picked in the second round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Chicago Cubs, the 28th pick overall. The Cubs scout who recommended him -- and soon signed him -- was a baseball legend, Buck O'Neil.
But he did not give up basketball. The next couple of times I saw him was when he was a member of the Northwestern State University basketball team playing against Centenary (he played some as a reserve 6-foot-5 forward) in the 1976-77 season.
Saw him again in 1978 and '79 when he came to SPAR Stadium in Shreveport as a pitcher (a starting pitcher, incidentally) for the visiting Midland Cubs (Texas League).
By 1980, his sixth pro season, Lee made it to the majors.
For 18 consecutive seasons (16 full seasons), he pitched in the big leagues. So that was 1,022 regular-season games -- only six starts (five in 1982, none thereafter) -- and four postseason games (two with the Cubs in 1984, two with the Red Sox in 1988).
When he retired -- at age 40 in 1998, after 12 minor-league games -- he was the alltime leader in MLB saves (478).
He since has been surpassed, by Mariano Rivera (652) and Trevor Hoffman (601). But, gosh, that's pretty nice company.
Which is why members of the "Today's Game" Hall of Fame committee selected Lee for the Hall (along with White Sox/Orioles designated hitter Harold Baines, a "marginal" choice in our view).
And what's fitting is that next July 21 in Cooperstown, Lee Arthur Smith will be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame on the same day as Mariano.
Although he wound up pitching for eight major-league teams, it is with the Cubs that Lee is most associated. So we borrow from the bleedcubbieblue.com web site:
"Lee Smith was a dominant Cubs closer from 1980 until he was traded away after the 1987 season, including three 30-save seasons and being the closer on the Cubs' 1984
National League East championship team."
Which bring us to the Jerome Holtzman part of this story.
---
One December day in 1987, for about five minutes, it was me vs. Jerome Holtzman debating the merits of relief pitcher Lee Arthur Smith.
He was one of America's greatest sportswriters, baseball writers. Me? A nobody from Shreveport covering major-league baseball winter meetings [for The Times] at the Dallas Anatole.
It was the only MLB winter meetings I ever covered; Mr. Holtzman probably covered more than 50, and everything important in the sport for that long.
It was the day Lee Smith was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Boston Red Sox. Mr. Holtzman was delighted; I was aghast at his delight.
We were both in the room when the trade was announced. Dammit, I didn't like his reaction, and he came to realize that. As if it mattered, or he cared one little bit.
Please don't disparage the big kid from Castor.
Jerome Holtzman, for five-plus decades, covered the Cubs and White Sox, usually for a half-season each, and here -- from Wikipedia -- is how highly regarded he was:
"His influence and viewpoints made him something of a legend among newspapermen. Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard, who was sports editor of the [Chicago] Sun-Times for part of Holtzman's career, called him 'the dean of American baseball writers,' and went on to say, 'He never smiled, but he had the keys to Cooperstown. No major leaguer ever got into the Hall of Fame if Holtzman didn't want him there. He had tremendous sources. He was writing about the possibility of a baseball players union and a baseball players strike long before anyone else.' "
OK, but by December 1987, Mr. Holtzman was not at all a Lee Smith fan. And I was.
Holtzman never forgave Lee for a large failure in the 1984 National League Championship Series and, what's more, a difficult 1987 season.
In the 1984 NL Championship Series, the Cubs -- with a 2-1 games lead in the best-of-five series, and one victory from breaking the 1945 curse -- lost Game 4 to San Diego when Lee gave up a walkoff home run to Steve Garvey. The Padres then won Game 5 and went to the World Series.
From bleedcubbieblue.com again:
Smith had a rough year in his final year with the Cubs in 1987, with 12 blown saves and at times was booed off the mound. At the end of that season, it was felt that the Cubs needed to move on from him and he was traded to the Red Sox for Al Nipper and Calvin Schiraldi, one of the worst deals in recent Cubs history. Smith would go on to post six more 30-save seasons and three of more than 40, although he pitched in just one more postseason ..."
Mr. Holtzman's negative views on Lee, as I remember it, had to do with Lee's blown saves, ballooning weight and sore knees -- items referenced in my column from the '87 winter meetings.
But when new Cubs director of baseball operations Jim Frey was asked about that, he praised Lee, even after he had traded him (at Lee's request, incidentally).
"Wait, I've been one of his biggest defenders when some others in Chicago weren't," Frey is quoted in my column. "He almost never refuses the ball, he gets up and throws every day, he can work several days in a row, he's reliable, and he's not an old man. This guy is a horse, and he's been a horse.
"We know we're giving up one of the premier stoppers. ..."
My column includes numerous quotes from Lee. I do not remember this, but obviously I talked to him by phone that day. He made it clear that he was ready for a change of scenery from Chicago, and he was upbeat -- as he always was.
---
Here is an irony to Jerome Holtzman's view of Lee Smith then: One of Holtzman's greatest contributions to baseball is that he was the creator of the save statistic. He came up with that in 1959, and it was adopted as an official statistic beginning in the 1969 season, the first official new stats category since the RBI (run batted in) in 1920.
So, maybe Lee Smith owes Mr. Holtzman thanks, no matter what the man thought in 1987.
And when he retired from newspapers in 1999, Mr. Holtzman was named official history of Major League Baseball, a position he held until his death (stroke) in mid-July 2008.
But, gosh, I wish he had been easier on Lee that December day in 1987.
---
After Lee's playing career, he was a minor-league pitching instructor for a long while, including the San Francisco Giants' chain, which put him in Shreveport to work with the Captains during the 1990s.So the accompanying photo was taken at Fair Grounds Field.
It was fitting because Shreveport was the "big city" for the country boy from Castor (and Jamestown).
And now we can say that we were fans of this Baseball Hall of Famer for decades.
---
Posted this on Facebook today, repeating it here ...
Many, many stories written about Lee Smith over the years. This is the best story -- July 1987, Shreveport Journal, by Teddy Allen and John James Marshall, a first-place national award-winning story, a great read.
http://www.designatedwriters.com/classic/lee-arthur-smith/?fbclid=IwAR0AyNyoevMRfex29ojdGrgi5Isys0duqi4ssv0NgIeGklZSZlbm9Ur6Lk8
---
From Tommy Canterbury: Wow. Sure know Lee. The Webster Parish area had some super basketball players in the mid-1970s. We (Springhill) were 35-4 in '74 -- Bobby White), Castor with Lee Arthur, Jerry Walker at Doyline, Rene Bailey at Minden, Floyd Bailey at Central (Dubberly). Bob Wilkie, fraternity brother and great friend all these years, was Lee's high school coach. Very successful businessman in Minden now. He tells the story of him and coat-and-tie Dodgers execs with basically a blank check finding their way down the dirt road to Lee's home. Said his mother came to the door and knew Bob, of course, so she let them in. They ask to see Lee. She said you are welcome to wait, but "him and his Paw are off cutting pulpwood. They'll be back 30 minutes after sundown." Bob looked at the Dodgers' people and said: "I told 'ya." I was sitting by Lee on a flight to Chicago many years later, and I asked him about that story. He said I told Paw the Dodgers were coming today. He said s get in the truck, there's work to do."
ReplyDeleteFrom Bud Dean: Happy for him, I coached him in the 8th grade at Castor.
ReplyDeleteFrom John Whitmore: I belive Bud [Dean] has a connection with Lee as either a teacher or administrator. Enjoyed the blog.
ReplyDeleteFrom Gerry Robichaux: Another great story. You must have just "crossed the hall" [to The Times] when you covered the winter meetings.
ReplyDeleteNico, did Lee play American Legion Baseball in Castor?
ReplyDeleteThink he played for the Legion team in Minden, which drew from several surrounding towns in Webster and Bienville Parishes. Might have played in 1974 and for a bit in 1975 until he signed his pro contract. The Legion team coach was Jimmy Williams, according to one of the comments we received.
DeleteFrom Vince Langford: That was terrific for Lee Smith. I appreciate that era of relievers more than ever as time goes on. That's kind of what baseball should be about, a kid from a tiny town getting into the Hall of Fame.
ReplyDeleteNow Harold Baines being in the Hall of Fame? I say no. I was OK with Jack MOrris last year, but a lot of writers were outraged.
From Joel Bierig (longtime Chicago newspaper baseball writer): Jerome [Holtzman] and I were good friends, and he also was at my wedding. I learned a lot from him. Unfortunately, Smitty [Lee Arthur] had turned a bit surly toward the media in the couple of years before the trade -- which also explains why some in Chicago weren’t sorry to see him go.
ReplyDeleteThe trade definitely was a disaster, and I agree, Smitty was really a good guy, though I didn’t get to see that full side of him until after he retired. I got to visit with him quite a bit at the Cubs' annual winter fan conventions and promised to do whatever I could to help his Hall of Fame campaign. I always had him on my HOF ballot anyway.