Greg Smith

Greg Smith was no different than hundreds of other youngsters who started playing baseball before they could lace their shoes.

The son of Don Smith and the late Linda Smith got his introduction to baseball like most others, dragging an oversized bat out into the yard and getting in a few swings and playing catch with his dad.

Youngsters of his era — the mid-1970s — were unlike today’s aspiring big leaguers. They were limited to a TV game of the week on Saturdays, although most had dreams of seeing their picture on a bubble-gum card.

A graduate of the Red Bank Dixie Youth association, Smith played at Baylor where he was first drafted by the Dodgers, and then at Vanderbilt where he was an All-American after leading the Southeastern Conference with a .411 batting average. He was then drafted by the San Diego Padres.

Now 42, Smith did not get to the big leagues as a player but rather as a scout, first with San Diego and then with the Minnesota Twins.

“I was 23 and somebody in the (Padres) organization asked me what I wanted to do when I was through playing,” he said. “They asked me if I might be interested in scouting. I said no because (scouts) are old and fat and bald and I’m 23.

“It was very hard to volunteer and say I wasn’t going to play any more. A lot of times the choice is made for you and you deal with it. Volunteering not to play any more was a hard thing to do, but it is one of the best decisions I have every made. If they had said I had to quit and go to work in a bank, and no offense to people that work in banks, but the decision would have been a lot harder.”

During Smith’s tenure as Minnesota’s scouting director, the Twins drafted such players as Matt Anderson, Jeff Weaver, Brandon Inge, Cody Ross, Jason Frasor, Nook Logan, Mike Rabelo, Ryan Rayburn, Curtis Granderson, Joel Zumaya and Justin Verlander. Each has played or is playing in the big leagues.

He moved to Pittsburgh last fall — only his third major league team in close to two decades of scouting — and went through his first draft as the Pirates’ director of scouting in June.

“I will feel a lot better when we get all of these guys signed, but I think we did a very good job in our first year. I’m pleased with our scouts and our process,” he said. “I’m excited about the players we drafted and will be even more so once we get them in a Pirates uniform. One thing about picking high in the draft is the opportunity to get some of the better players. Now we need to get them in the parks and playing.”

Making personnel decisions for a big-league club is a long way from afternoons and evenings spent on a youth baseball field, but Smith vividly recalls those days.

“As a little kid playing baseball is what your summers were whether it was Dixie Youth, Dizzy Dean or American Legion. I remember playing on a grass infield at Red Bank, and all of us felt like we were in the big leagues because of the grass,” he said. I was extremely fortunate and not only because of my dad. I had the good fortune to come across people that affected my life, my career and my experiences. There were so many good coaches that shaped, directed and guided me and my teammates.

“At that age you played with the kids in your neighborhood or kids you went to school with and as you get older you meet people from different walks of life.”

He says most of the coaches he had, including his father, knew the game but also knew how to make it fun.

“They taught you how to go about the game but also how to have fun doing it. Everybody want wants to win but looking back the one thing I would say about the early times was that they made it fun,” he recalled. “There is frustration about making an out seven times out of time and it isn’t fun for any kids to make an out. Learning to deal with the frustration helps shape kids and it helps if they’re still having fun.”

Smith, who has traveled to every state and most cities during his time as a player and scout, still tries to find time to stop and watch a youth game. It is part of his heritage.

“Some times I’ll drive by a little league park to watch and sometimes it’s at that age where everybody runs to the ball when it’s hit, but you’re seeing kids having fun and that’s what you really want to hit home at that age,” he said. “I remember a lot of those times whether it was putting on those little socks for the first time or my cleats for the first time. Those are things you remember.”