He never played a game in Queens, but Bernie Smith was the Mets’ first left fielder — the Auburn Mets, that is.
During the first year of the Mets’ existence as a National League franchise in 1962, it had little success at the major league level. The team lost 120 games, a record at the time.
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But the Mets also were tasked with stocking an entire farm system that year, including their Class-D affiliate located in Auburn, New York. Four members of that team would go on to play in the majors. None waited longer than Smith, whose career was catalyzed by a December 1969 trade to the Seattle Pilots.
Smith, who died Saturday at age 88, would never play for the Pilots either. The team moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers before the 1970 season began. He would go on to play 127 games for the Brewers from 1970-71, batting .232 (26 for 112) with two home runs and nine RBIs in a brief major league career.
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A native of Ponchatoula, La., Smith lettered in three sports at Hammond (La.) High School: football, basketball and track. He received four scholarship offers and ultimately chose Southern University, where he focused on football and baseball.
Scout Wid Matthews, one of the Mets’ first front-office employees (he was hired in 1961, a year before the team began play), signed Smith to his first professional contract out of college. Smith had to work for it, hitchhiking his way from Louisiana to South Carolina, where the Mets were holding a tryout.
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In 1962, Smith hit a grand slam to help Auburn clinch the Governors Cup — one of few successes the Mets’ organization would claim in its first year of existence.
Despite his early success, Smith needed four seasons to reach the Triple-A level, and never received a promotion in seven seasons with the Mets organization.
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Smith eventually punched his ticket to the big leagues with the American League franchise in July 1970, more than eight years after his first professional game in Auburn.
Smith retired as a player after the 1972 season and remained in the Brewers organization. In 1973 he managed Class-A Danville (Ill.) of the Midwest League. The Warriors finished with the best record in their division at 66-57, and Smith was named the league’s Manager of the Year.
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During his brief time managing, Smith was only the fourth Black manager ever in an integrated baseball league.
“We caught an awful lot of flak from the Danville people,” Brewers executive Tony Siegle said in a 1990 interview, “but Bernie’s club won the championship.”
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Perhaps the pushback from locals convinced the Brewers not to tender Smith a contract for 1974. He returned home to Louisiana, opened a convenience store in his home town of Lutcher, and operated a youth baseball league. He also headed the Juvenile Services Bureau of the St. James Parish Sherriff’s office.
Smith’s obituary on Nola.com lists his date of birth as Sept. 4, 1937, which is consistent with other public records (including the 1950 U.S. Census).
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However, in multiple player surveys conducted during his career (such as this one from June 21, 1963), Smith listed his date of birth as Sept. 4, 1941. Both Baseball Reference and Retrosheet use this as his birthdate. Perhaps Smith didn’t want four years to make the difference between a successful tryout and an unsuccessful one.
Regardless of the reason, Smith’s earlier date of birth means he had to wait 32 years to make his major league debut, not 28.
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