Lee Smith Signs With Houston

The Houston Astros signed Lee Smith, the major leagues’ career saves leader, to a minor league contract Sunday and assigned him to triple-A New Orleans.

Smith, 40, a seven-time All-Star, had retired last July, then made an unsuccessful comeback attempt in spring training with the Kansas City Royals, who released him. Over 18 seasons, Smith has earned 478 saves with eight teams. He is expected to join the Zephyrs in Tacoma on Monday.

Astro General Manager Gerry Hunsicker sent club personnel to check on Smith’s condition at a workout in New Orleans before signing him.

Smith made 25 appearances for the Montreal Expos in 1997, going a 0-1 record with five saves and a 5.82 earned-run average.

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Eddie Murray again had his No. 33 retired by the Baltimore Orioles, only this time they did it right.

Murray had his number previously retired by the team, but it was after he was traded from the Orioles to the Dodgers in 1988 and without a proper ceremony. Sunday, the future Hall of Fame entrant was surrounded by former teammates and friends as the Orioles rewarded him with a 1998 Corvette convertible.

Murray, now a bench coach with the Orioles, played 12 1/2 of his 21 major league seasons with Baltimore. He was traded after the 1988 season but returned in July 1996 in a trade with the Cleveland Indians.

He hit his 500th career homer on Sept. 6 of that season against Detroit, becoming one of only three players with 500 homers and 3,000 hits. Murray, 42, was always a popular player within the clubhouse, but he rarely granted interviews and regularly shunned the press.

Murray ended the ceremony with the words: “You talk about lost for words. All I can say is I love you. Let’s get on with the ballgame.”

He then got onto the back of the car and was driven around the stadium as the crowd chanted, “Eddie! Eddie!”

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Forrest “Frosty” Kennedy, a minor league slugger who was one of 11 baseball players to hit 60 home runs in a season, has died. He was 72.

Kennedy died Friday night of a heart attack in Covina, the Pasadena Star-News, reported Saturday.

Kennedy hit 60 home runs in a 144-game season while playing for Plainview, Texas, in the Class-B Southwestern League of 1956. He hit his 60th homer in his final at-bat on the final day of the season. He hit .327 that season, with 184 runs batted in, and scored 151 runs.

He averaged .342 during a 10-year minor league career that began in 1948. He hit over .400 the next season , and again in 1953 at Plainview.

In recent years, he was the owner and operator of the BMX bicycle track at Whittier Narrows.

A standout in football and baseball at El Monte High , Kennedy served three years in the Navy. Later, Kennedy played semipro baseball and softball, and signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He was a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Minor League Hall of Fame, and his photo and statistics are displayed in the Babe Ruth Wing at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He never played in the major leagues.

He is survived by a son, William, and a brother, Florren.

Services were pending.