Attackers, Reporters Can Attest: His Hard-Headed Image Was Real

As Reggie Smith walked to his car after a game late in the 1978 season, two toughs attacked him in the nearly deserted Dodger Stadium parking lot.

One of the men broke the window of Smith’s car and the other smashed a beer bottle over Smith’s head.

“People always told me I had a hard head,” Smith said.

Enraged, Smith fought back. He mopped up the parking lot with his assailants, sending them to the hospital. And after they had recovered, they were found guilty of assault.

The two men had learned, as many others had, that it wasn’t wise to challenge Reggie Smith.

Smith was perceived as an angry young man, and he worked hard to maintain that image. He snapped at sportswriters and fought with his teammates.

“(Sportswriters) created an image for me, and I tried to live up to it for the sake of gaining an advantage,” Smith said. “It probably cost me popularity, but I never really cared about that.

“I felt I needed to put up a wall around myself to get ready to play the game. I wasn’t an angry man because when I got away from the park I left the ballgame there.

“But there weren’t too many people who knew me. Those that did laughed (at his reputation).”

Smith comes across these days as a mellow fellow.

“I’m not playing now and I can be myself,” he said.