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:
“As I went forth early on a still and frosty morning, the trees looked like airy creatures of darkness caught napping; on this side huddled together, with their gray hairs streaming, in a secluded valley which the sun had not penetrated; on that, hurrying off in Indian file along some watercourse, while the shrubs and grasses, like elves and fairies of the night, sought to hide their diminished heads in the snow.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Hard if, though cast away for life with Yankees,
A Frenchman couldn’t get his human rating!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“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)