USA TODAY International Edition
Smith . nally pins World Series on Astros
Team president’s involvement with Houston franchise dates to 1960
HOUSTON — Tal Smith arrived at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, prominently displaying his glittering World Series pin. As Houston Astros president, Smith has every right to proudly wear the pin on his lapel.
But a 1980 World Series button?
The Astros weren’t even in the Series that October. They were home watching the Philadelphia Phillies wear down the Kansas City Royals in six games.
To Smith that 1980 pin is a reminder of what might have been and all the years of disappointment and frustration that he’s endured to help bring a World Series to Houston.
He says it’s never been more appropriate to wear it.
“ Even though we had the pins ready, that never quite came about in 1980,” Smith says sadly. “ I saved the pin and vowed someday I’d get to wear it. This is the time because being here makes up for that heartache.”
When you think of Major League Baseball in Houston you have to put Tal Smith’s face on it. He goes back to 1960 when the expansion Colt .45s, later renamed the Astros, were being born.
Smith, who came to Houston from the Cincinnati Reds in 1960 with his then- mentor, general manager Gabe Paul, worked tirelessly
with Judge Roy Hofheinz
to build what was then called
the Eighth Wonder of the World.
When grass wouldn’t grow in
the Astrodome it was Smith
who found a company that
could make a synthetic surface
that was purchased and, you
guessed it, named Astroturf.
Smith, 72, was saying Tuesday
how dif . cult it was for Hofheinz
to sell the idea of a domed stadium to the puristswho were National League owners.
Smith is on his fourth tour with the Astros now, and this is the most special.
He left a couple of times on his own and was . red as general manager after the 1980 season by John McMullen.
Smith, who worked brie K y for the Yankees in the 1970s, returned to the Astros in 1975 as general manager and began assembling a championship team. The Astros . nished 43½ games out in ’ 75. To win the title in ’ 80 was one of his greatest achievements.
It took 44 years for this franchise to . nally get to the World Series, making it more meaningful for Smith. He’d been running Tal Smith Enterprises, a consulting . rm 26 of the 30 teams use for salary arbitration cases, when owner Drayton McLane insisted Smith’s vast knowledge of the franchise and baseball, and his past ties, needed to be in Houston’s front of . ce. Since 1994 he’s been president of baseball operations.
But the 1980 Astros were special. It was the . rst team since the franchise began play in 1962 at rickety Colt Stadium, to land in the postseason after winning the NL West in a one- game playoff vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Smith, as general manager, assembled the team with players such as Joe Niekro, who won 20 games, and future Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan and Joe Morgan. Bruce Bochy and Art Howe, who became major league skippers, were also Astros that year..
To me, the best-of- . ve NL Championship Series was the best ever played. It went . ve games, the last fourwere decided in extra innings and two by one run.
The Astros, in front 5- 2 after seven innings with Ryan pitching, were six outs from the World Series when the Phillies scored . ve times in the eighth. Houston tied it in the bottom of the inning, but Philadelphia won in the 10th 8- 7.
When the Astros were planning their new stadium — the park now called Minute Maid Park opened in 2000 — Smith was asked by McLane and others how it could be unique.
Nothing could be as distinctive as the Astrodome, but Smith rattled off things like the monuments at Yankee Stadium, which used to be in play; the Green Monster at Fenway Park; the vines at Wrigley Field; the embankment in the out . eld at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.
So “ Tal’s Hill” was born.
“ The designers decided on the embankment in center . eld,” he says. “ In the early pencil drawings somebody labeled it ‘ Tal’s Hill.’ It survived.”
Smith accuses designers of “ pinning it on me so that those who don’t like it will have somebody to blame.”
Tal’s Hill has become part of Minute Maid Park lore. Fans love it, and don’t be surprised if, before this Series ends it’s involved in the outcome of a game.
In defense of Tal’s Hill, Smith says “ I don’t think it detracts anymore than caroms off scoreboards or out . eld fences.”
But they don’t have a person to identify with.