Bob Smith (smithbo03)
From BR Bullpen
Robert Gilchrist Smith
- Bats Right, Throws Left
- Height 6' 2" Weight 190 lb.
- Debut April 29, 1955
- Final Game September 23, 1959
- Born February 1, 1931 in Woodsville, NH USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Lefthander Bob Smith was signed as an amateur free agent by the Boston Red Sox before the 1948 season. The seventeen year old went 0-6 in his first season in 16 games and followed that with an 8-10 record in 1949. In 1950 the young pitcher had his first winning season when he went 13-5 with the Oneonta Red Sox of the class C Canadian-American League. It would be 1954 with the Shreveport Sports that would bring Smith's qualifications to light as the young man went 13-5 with a league leading 2.89 ERA and helped his team to the Texas League pennant.
Smith would make his debut in the big leagues with a one and two-thirds inning relief performance for the Red Sox in 1955 and spend the rest of this year with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association where he had a 10-6 record with a 2.48 ERA. He would be with the San Francisco Seals of the PCL in 1956, winning 8 and losing 11 with a 4.38 ERA before working out of the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers bullpens, from (1957-59) closing out his major league run with a 4-9 record in 91 appearances.
Smith would continue in the minors until 1964, closing out his 13 year (1948-64) minor league run at age 33 with the Seattle Rainiers of the PCL with a 6-4 record and a 3.94 ERA in his last active season. This would give the left-hander an 88-85 record with a career 4.03 ERA in 418 appearances during his minor league years. After baseball Smith worked in the forest products and paper manufacturing industry and became the purchasing manager for the Boise-Cascade Company in Vancouver, Washington, and later in Ashdown, Arkansas for Great Northern Nekoosa Paper Company. Smith retired in 1993 to Aiken, SC.
