Baseball mourning Smith... the king of the diamond
JOHN Smith, the legendary Llanrumney and Wales baseball all-rounder, passed away last week after fighting a courageous battle against leukemia over the last few years.
Legend is a word that can be used too liberally but Smith could only be spoken of in these terms where baseball is concerned.
Smith was born in 1952, the son of John Smith, a Cardiff docker and Florence his mother.
The docks are synonymous with the diamond game and many great players have been produced from the docking fraternity of Cardiff Bay.
It was in 1967 when Smith started a collection of baseball honours which was truly remarkable.
He won the Cardiff schools’ player of the year award after being captain of his hometown team.
It was in 1970 when his youth club leader, Jimmy Thomas, realised that Smith and his friends, who included his best pal and brilliant Welsh backstop Ivor Hughes, were an exceptional bunch of baseball players and so started arguably the greatest team of them all.
Smith left school to follow his family tradition and work in Cardiff Docks, where he would unload crates of orange boxes from South African ships.
Many of the damaged produce would become baseballs in Smith’s dinner hour, bowling them at a painted target in the bulk end of docked ships.
Llanrumney breezed baseball’s lower leagues and by 1974, aged 22, Ginger - or ‘The Carrot’ as he was affectionately known - had bowled his way to his first Welsh cap and major club trophy.
Along with Smith and Ivor Hughes, the Llanrumney team were now household names in Cardiff.
They included Paul Crosse, a brilliant batsman and fielder who could run out any batsman with his throwing arm, Steve Haines, a baseballer who was tactically astute as well as being brilliant along with class acts like Mike Smith Phillips, Tony Hinchey, Jeff Stevens and base one Phillip Imms.
And there was also room for a youngster who could play a bit of rugby in the winter... David Bishop!
Once their bandwagon of trophies started, it would not halt.
The Dewar Shield (baseball’s Premiership) was won from 1975 to 1989 consecutively.
The Welsh Brewers Cup was won amazingly eight times on the trot, 1975 to 1983, and the WBU Cup was won a mere matter of 12 times in this period.
Smith would play for Wales a record 16 times before eventually being broken by Chris Duffin, the opening bowler from a fantastic
Caerau Ely team.
When Smith broke the record in 1988 he took it from Tommy Denning and Denning’s daughter congratulated him as the new record holder with a letter sent from Australia.
Records continued to be set by Llanrumney and their talisman bowler.
Ivor Hughes, Steve Haines and Smith would total over 40 caps between them.
Smith would go on to be the only player to captain Wales on three occasions and the only player ever to win the illustrious Welsh baseballer of the year award three times.
There have been many great bowlers, batsmen and fielders in the diamond game but if you genuinely asked most players over a lengthy period of time who was their best player they played against, ‘Smithy’ was very rarely missing from the top slot.
Bishop, the ex-Wales rugby and baseball international, spoke of the great times he had learning his trade as an express bowler off his Llanrumney mentor Smith.
“He would rip through top-class line ups when I was a teenager, acting as his change bowler and then throw me the ball to finish teams off, he was the best baseballer of his time and a joy to learn from,” said Bishop.
Smith was not only revered in Cardiff, he also pulled in the crowds in Newport in some epic battles against the likes of Alexander Old Boys and St
Michaels, who also produced topclass international players.
Tony Hicks, a Llanrumney born Grange Albion ex-player, spoke of his early years as a child watching Smith and his team play on Ball Road.
“They were our superstar baseball team and John was my personal sporting hero and someone who every Llanrumney child wanted to emulate,” he said.
Ex Old Illtydians and Wales international Paul Gorin added: “There was some outstanding talent around in the 70s and 80s but surely Smithy was the ultimate number one of our time.”
There were some wonderful players in different eras of the sport, especially bowlers who often determined most results. From the legendary Paddy Hennessy to the latter-day pace ace Matthew Hopkins the bowler is usually king of the diamond.
Smith was a very strong family man and was also supported at any game by his wife Lyn and later in his career by his two sons, Craig and Lee.
Craig would go on to play on the European pro-golf circuit and obviously struck the ball as well with a club as his father did with a bat.
Even though Llanrumney were serial winners on the park they definitely enjoyed the social side of the game and were always followed by their bandwagon of family and friends whatever the weather.
I recall writing an article about
Smith some 15 years ago and described him then as the Dennis Lillie of baseball bowlers and the Viv Richards of Welsh batsmen rolled into one - and that he remains.
In Cardiff, around those times, especially the 70s, if John Toshack was the winter hero John Smith was definitely the summer hero.
So on behalf of the Welsh baseball fraternity, it’s a massive thank you for a glorious diamond career to its main man William John (Smithy) Smith.
The funeral of John Smith takes place at Thornhill Crematorium Tuesday 30th November 9.30am.