“Man, he’s taking up all the room,” Smith said, lamenting Rice, who spoke at the Rox’ offseason fundraiser last year and was recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his 15th and final year of eligibility.
For his own part, Smith, whose 478 career saves place him third all-time in Major League Baseball, has been on the Hall ballet the past five years, but to no avail.
“They told me (Jonathan) Papelbon spoke the year before (Rice), but the one guy I was concerned with was Jim Rice, hoping I could follow that same path,” said Smith, 51, who has been the San Francisco Giants’ roving pitching instructor since two years after he retired in 1998.
“Maybe the Rox will be a good luck charm for me, too, with — maybe — an induction to the Hall.
“Jimmy was on there for 15 years and his stats didn’t get any better. With baseball it’s more of a prestige thing. Like you gotta pay your dues. Like you have to do in the minors. I’m not bitter about it. I’m just glad to get enough votes to stay on the ballet because there’s a lot of guys I played with who I thought were really good players that are not on the ballet anymore.”
Smith, who was scouted by Negro Leagues legend Buck O’Neil and drafted by the Cubs in 1975, almost didn’t stick around the minors long enough to pay his dues — in baseball, that is.
“(Basketball) was my first love,” Smith said when informed a huge high school game was being played across the parking lot from Campanelli Stadium between Brockton and Durfee. “But my fastball was better than my jump shot.”
Despite his 6-foot-6 frame, the Shreveport, La., native played shooting guard for three years at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., before giving baseball one more shot.
Smith said he originally quit the sport after being moved to the bullpen.
“(Cubs Hall of Famer) Billy Williams gave me a nice talking to about giving this baseball thing another chance,” Smith said. “I can’t say I don’t reckon what he said to me.”
As it turns out, once Smith got to “The Show,” he not only spent his entire career pitching out of the bullpen, but he recorded the game’s final out more times than any other pitcher in history. He finished 802 games in 18 seasons and pitched for eight different teams, including a three-year stint with the Red Sox from 1988-1990.
While in Boston, Smith met his wife, Cheryl, who was attending Boston College. The couple, who now reside in Shreveport, lived in Quincy for two years and have five children ranging in age from 21 to 5-year-old twins.
It was Cheryl who convinced her husband to take the job as the pitching instructor for South Africa’s 2006 World Baseball Classic team after debunking his misconceptions about the country being in the Serengeti jungle.
“I was like, they don’t play baseball in South Africa,” Smith said before adding that once he got there he was impressed by a few cricket bowlers. “I saw a couple guys I’d like to get on the mound.”
Playing without a single MLB player, South Africa gave Canada a scare before finishing 0-3 in the 2006 Classic. Smith said his team will feature a handful of pro players this year.
Smith also coaches in the annual European Baseball Academy for Major League Baseball International in Tirrenia, Italy, which provides instruction to young players from Europe and Africa.
“It means a lot,” Smith said of being an ambassador for the game abroad. “I’ve gotten a lot more publicity through that than my actual playing days, because when I played they didn’t have all those things.”
Smith headlined Friday night’s event at the the Shaw’s Center, which also included former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, baseball promotions trailblazer Mike Veeck, and Rox new manager Chris Carminucci.
And even though Smith, like Rice, now has the luck of the Rox on his side, don’t expect the self-described “Southern boy’’ to hold his breath when Hall of Fame induction season rolls around again this year.
“My first couple years I used to stay around the television and see if I was gonna make it,” Smith said. “Now, I set up a fishing trip.”
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