Mike sez there’d be no Fame without Reggie Smith

COOPERSTOWN — Newly minted Hall of Famer Mike Piazza once actually quit the game he loves, so frustrated in the minors that he bolted the Class A Vero Beach Dodgers back in 1990. Sunday, in one of several emotional parts of Piazza’s induction speech, he recognized the man who brought him back — then-Dodgers’ hitting coordinator Reggie Smith, the former slugger.

“There’s always a handful of people in your life who change the direction of your destiny,” said Piazza, losing a battle

against tears. “Reggie was this for me.”

As Smith tells it, he had just come back from 16 days on the road watching the Dodgers’ minor-league affiliates. He walked into his house at 6 a.m. and the phone rang with the news that Piazza had quit.

“It was a difficult time for him,” Smith recalled before the ceremony. “He wasn’t playing, wasn’t getting to catch much because there were others ranked ahead of him and he was learning to catch.

“An incident occurred where he overheard something and didn’t care for it and that was a tipping point for him. He got discouraged. I couldn’t let that happen because I fought so hard for him and he had gotten that far. Mike had something you couldn’t teach — he had power and power takes time to develop. That’s what he needed, time. I wanted to make sure he got it.”

Smith flew to Florida that night, found Piazza and convinced him to resume playing. “I fined him, too — took some of his money,” Smith said. “Was I thinking he’d be a Hall of Famer one day? No. I couldn’t say that. I told him he had to work hard and Mike decided to do that. He did all the things I asked him to and I’m so proud that he’s here.”

Piazza recalled Smith as an “imposing” coach who “strutted around like a peacock and had a drill sergeant voice. If you said something he disagreed with, he’d snarl at you and your spine would shrink.”

But, Piazza recalled with emotion, Smith helped him greatly. They refined Piazza’s long swing together, making it quicker, with Smith using drills he had learned in Japan. Piazza advanced to the point where, during a tee drill, “I could eventually square up a line drive with my eyes closed.”

Smith cared so much about Piazza, the star recalled, “that he came to my house and told me I was coming back and to do exactly what the Dodgers said.”

Then Piazza talked directly to Smith: “Reggie, thank you for this and thank you for helping me. You are a great hitting coach, but the biggest lesson you taught me was how to get through the game of life and to never quit.”

In a conversation with a reporter, Smith refused to take any credit. “That was in him already,” Smith said. “It just took opportunity. I believe in fate. Things happen for a reason. I was supposed to be there at that moment in time for him and he came back. I wanted him to know, yeah, I do care about you. Don’t give up.

“Look where we are today,” Smith said, looking over at the stage where, shortly, Piazza was set to make his induction speech. “It’s a great story and I’m proud to be a small part of it.

“I had to be here today.”