Hilton Smith

Hilton Lee Smith (February 27, 1907Template:Efn – November 18, 1983) was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. He pitched alongside Satchel Paige for the Kansas City Monarchs and the Bismarck Club between 1932 and 1948. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.

Early life

Born in Giddings, Texas, Smith began his career in black baseball's equivalent of the minor leagues with the Austin Black Senators in Austin, Texas. Smith made the dean's list as a student at Prairie View A&M College in 1928 and 1929. He was an outfielder in his first college season and a pitcher in his second year.<ref name=PVAMU>Template:Cite web</ref>

His big league debut was with the Monroe Monarchs of Monroe, Louisiana in 1932. In 1934, Smith wed Louise Humphrey. They had two children.<ref name=Porter>Template:Cite book</ref>

Semi-pro career

From 1935 to 1936, Smith pitched for the Bismarck semi-professional team organized by Neil Churchill. In 1935, his teammates included Satchel Paige, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, Quincy Trouppe, Barney Morris, and Chet Brewer. In August, the team won the national semipro championship in Wichita, Kansas. In 1936, Paige, Radcliffe, and Brewer departed and Smith became the ace of the Bismarck team. They returned to the national championship, where Smith won four games, but Bismarck failed to repeat as champions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Smith joined the semi-pro Fulda Giants of rural Fulda, MN in 1949 after being recruited by manager Dick Reusse following Smith's tenure with the Kansas City Monarchs. Due to having a "dead arm" following his major league career, Smith played more first base than he pitched for the Fulda Giants.<ref>Reusse, Patrick (2020, August 28). Someday, maybe we'll share shin guards. Brother Michael, gone now, never got to see that. The Minnesota Star Tribune. https://www.startribune.com/someday-maybe-we-ll-share-shin-guards-brother-michael-gone-now-never-got-to-see-that/572240662</ref>

Negro league career

In late 1936, Smith signed with the Kansas City Monarchs. From 1937 until his retirement in 1948, Smith was a star pitcher on the Monarchs. He possessed an outstanding curveball, but was overshadowed by his more flamboyant teammate Satchel Paige. Often Paige would pitch the first three innings of a game, leaving Smith to pitch the remaining six. Also, unlike Paige, Smith was a very good hitter. Smith led the Negro American League in wins three times (1937–38, 1941). He also led the NAL with strikoutes four times (1937–39, 1941). He was tied with Ray Brown as the second player in Negro league history to win the pitching Triple Crown, doing so in 1938 with 9 wins, 88 strikeouts, and a 1.92 ERA.

Post-playing career and death

After retiring from baseball, Smith worked as a schoolteacher and later as a steel plant foreman. He also scouted for the Chicago Cubs. Smith had a quiet, reserved temperament, but in his later years he stood up for Negro leaguers in their struggle to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in 1983 in Kansas City, Missouri. It was not until 2001 that he was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

See also

• List of Negro league baseball no-hitters

References

Citations

• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation

External links

• Template:Baseball Hall of Fame profile
• {{#if:||* }}Career statistics from {{#invoke:String|join|Template:Space·Template:Space|{{#if: 817188

| MLB | {{#if: Template:Wikidata | Template:Wikidata MLB Template:EditAtWikidata}} }}|{{#if: | ESPN | {{#if: Template:Wikidata | Template:Wikidata ESPN Template:EditAtWikidata}} }}|{{#if: s/smithhi99 | Baseball Reference | {{#if: Template:Wikidata | Template:Wikidata.shtml Baseball Reference Template:EditAtWikidata}} }}|{{#if: | Fangraphs | {{#if: Template:Wikidata | Template:Wikidata Fangraphs Template:EditAtWikidata}} }}|{{#if: | Baseball Reference (Minors) | {{#if: Template:Wikidata | Template:Wikidata Baseball Reference (Minors) Template:EditAtWikidata}} }}|{{#if: | Retrosheet | {{#if: Template:Wikidata | Template:Wikidata.htm Retrosheet Template:EditAtWikidata}} }}|{{#if: | Baseball Almanac | {{#if: Template:Wikidata | Template:Wikidata Baseball Almanac Template:EditAtWikidata}} }}}}{{#if: s/smithhi99 817188

         Template:Wikidata Template:Wikidata Template:Wikidata Template:Wikidata Template:Wikidata Template:Wikidata Template:Wikidata Template:Wikidata
  | 
  | Template:Main otherTemplate:Red
  }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters | check
  | unknown = Template:Main other
  | preview = Page using Template:Baseballstats with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"
  | ignoreblank = y | br | brm | espn | fangraphs | id | mlb | retro | nobullet | almanac
  }} and Baseball-Reference Black Baseball and Mexican League stats and Seamheads

• Template:SABR Baseball Biography Project
• Template:Find a Grave