Bill James recently Twittered (is that a real word?) that Reggie Smith was a real good player, but not quite a hall of fame player. Well my calculation disagrees with him. I always liked Reggie Smith even though his Red Sox beat my Twins to win the pennant in 1967 when I was 8 years old.
In 1976 Reggie came to the Dodgers, also not one of my favorite teams at the time and was the best player on the team that one the division title the next year. Reggie lead the league in led the league in on base percentage that year to go with the two times he led the league in doubles earlier in his career. . It was surprising that year as four Dodgers hit 30 or more homeruns. Besides Reggie, there was Steve Garvey, Ron Cey and Dusty Baker. I thought for once the Dodgers have plenty of power in the World Series. They did hit nine to the Yankees eight (with Reggie hitting 3). However, the other Reggie in the Series (Reggie Jackson) hit 5, including 3 in the last game and the Yankees won the Series.
Reggie didn’t have as good of a season in 1978 as the Dodgers won another pennant and lost in the World Series again. Then he started to fade. However, he stuck around long enough to help the Dodgers win the World Series in 1981. He then went to the Giants and had a decent last year with them before retiring at the age of 37.
Smith was a fine fielder, could run the bases well and was a good hitter who take a walk. It was enough to get him in my hall of fame.
