Early Life and Early Career
Lee Smith was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised in the small town of Castor in Bienville Parish. Buck O'Neil claimed credit for having scouted him. At age 17, partly on O'Neil's recommendation, Smith was drafted in the second round as the 28th overall pick by the Chicago Cubs in the 1975 draft. Smith began his professional career as a starting pitcher. In 1978 with the Class AA minor league Midland Cubs, Smith struggled as a starter with an ERA near 6.00, prompting manager Randy Hundley to move him to the bullpen. Smith resisted the move and briefly tried college basketball at Northwestern State University. At the behest of former Cubs outfielder Billy Williams, Smith returned to Midland as a reliever for the 1979 season and pitched well enough to earn a promotion to Class AAA baseball for 1980. With the major league Chicago Cubs struggling to a last-place finish, Smith came into the big leagues as a September call-up that season.
Read more about this topic: Lee Smith (baseball)
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“The girl must early be impressed with the idea that she is to be “a hand, not a mouth”; a worker, and not a drone, in the great hive of human activity. Like the boy, she must be taught to look forward to a life of self-dependence, and early prepare herself for some trade or profession.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn’t of much value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)