Starting All Over : Smith Brings Experience of Playing to Front Office

Here was a guy who could play a ball off the wall in deep right field and make the throw to third base, no cutoff needed. He could leg out a single and turn a bloop hit into a double.

The presence of Reggie Smith late in a game would send National League managers scrambling to their bullpens. All Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda had to do was hand a bat to Smith in the late innings and have him walk up and down in the dugout.

It made opposition managers crazy.

Smith was a prospect from Centennial High in Compton who became a star. He signed with the Minnesota Twins as a shortstop and got picked up in a draft by the Boston Red Sox, for whom his rise to the majors was meteoric.

He spent only 2 1/2 years in the minors before making the Red Sox in 1967. There, he learned how to hit from Ted Williams, who, unknowingly, also taught Smith how to teach.

There, Smith also learned the consequences of speaking out for human rights and equality, which often made him the target of racial slurs. The animosity didn’t quiet him, but after eight years he was glad to leave Boston.

But this isn’t about Reggie Smith the ballplayer, even though Lasorda has enough stories about him to fill a book.

Nor is it about Reggie Smith, a black man. This is about Reggie Smith, once again a prospect who happens to be black.

In the last four years, Smith has become one of the Dodgers’ most visible administrators. At baseball’s annual meetings, where team officials talk contracts and trades, Smith was there in suit and tie among the Dodger hierarchy, sitting in on meetings and being consulted on player moves.

He has been promoted three times in four years and is now the organization’s minor league field coordinator, reporting to Charlie Blaney, who is director of minor league operations. Smith has a staff of 30 and is responsible for 200 minor leaguers.

“Reggie is a prospect,” Blaney said. “He can go as far was he wants.”

But Smith hasn’t traded in a bat for a clipboard. He has continued to teach hitting, which he considers his main purpose in life. He has helped Eric Karros, last year’s National League rookie of the year. He has made a big impact on Mike Piazza, the club’s up-and-coming catcher. He is proudest of his work with outfield prospect Billy Ashley.

“Reggie is respected by the players--which is one of the most important things--and is respected by the staff,” said Fred Claire, the Dodgers’ executive vice president.

Monday, Smith was in uniform at Holman Stadium, working with Eric Davis, who is trying to take a hitch out of his swing.

Davis began to hit. Smith watched intently from behind the cage. After a few swings Davis pulled a hard line drive.

Smith smiled.

“Yes,” he said. “That’s it.”

Four years ago, Smith owned a successful computer business in Los Angeles when he was approached by a friend who wanted him to call the Dodgers about a job opening. The friend, Ben Moore, was a member of a group striving to gain opportunities for minorities in baseball’s front offices. The group had been formed shortly after then-Dodger general manager Al Campanis appeared on the ABC program “Nightline” in 1987 and made racially insensitive remarks.

The position was for a roving hitting instructor in the minor leagues. Not exactly front office, but a start.

Smith agreed to call about the job, but he was hoping it wouldn’t work out. He called more for the cause of equality for minorities than he did out of interest. He hoped the Dodgers would turn him down or make him a bad offer, so he would be off the hook.

But the Dodgers reeled him in.

Smith’s job is to oversee the operations on the field at the Dodgers’ six minor league camps. He is in constant communication with Blaney about the players and the operation itself, trying to help put the Dodgers’ minor league system back to where it was a decade ago.

“There’s no question there was an interruption in the Dodgers’ farm system,” Smith said. “We had an infield that played together for nine years and an outfield that was together four or five years. Players coming up only have to stay with the team six years with free agency.”

The Dodgers also made some bad trades and had some draft picks that didn’t work out.

But four years ago, Blaney implemented a plan to turn the system around. He points to Karros, Dave Hansen, Pedro Astacio, Pedro Martinez, Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Ashley and Greg Hansell as evidence that the plan is working.

Smith has helped in their development.

“Reggie has had a big impact on my career,” Piazza said. “I worked with him for two straight weeks in the 1991 season, and it turned out to be a big year for me. Just look at the numbers.”

Piazza batted .250 with six home runs in 1990. In 1991, he batted .277 with 29 home runs.

But as the club waits for Piazza and the other youngsters to develop, Blaney said the Dodgers had to sign players to try to stay competitive.

“Our goal is to have everyone on the major league roster come through the Dodger farm system,” Blaney said.

Smith says he tires of hearing how Claire and Blaney are not baseball people and shouldn’t be in charge of judging talent. He adds that he is happy doing what he is doing and is not interested in taking anybody’s job.

Blaney, who has also tired of the criticism, did his own survey. He found that 15 of 28 general managers and 18 of 28 farm directors never played baseball.

“It’s somewhat of a trend now,” Smith said. “If you surround yourself with people you trust that have good judgment, like they have, I think that’s a pretty good way to run a business.”

Still, Smith says his main love in life is teaching.

“There’s no doubt, I am a teacher,” Smith said. “It’s very difficult for me to explain. When I was younger, in school, the teachers would say that by the time you are 16 years old, you should know what your purpose in life is.

“I knew my purpose was to teach. So I try to learn as much as I can about anything I do, in order to pass it along.”

Lasorda said that when he was hired by the Dodgers in 1977, the first player he went to was Reggie Smith.

“I told him how hard I had worked for the job, and I told him, ‘I need you.’ He said to me, ‘Nobody has ever told me that before.’ ”

How times change.