Осборн Эрл Смит: Бейсбол жұлдызының өмірі мен мансабы

American professional baseball player, shortstop (born 1954)

Osborne Earl Smith (born December 26, 1954) is an American former professional baseball player. Nicknamed "the Wizard of Oz", Smith played shortstop for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals in Major League Baseball, winning the National League Gold Glove Award for defensive play at shortstop for 13 consecutive seasons. A 15 time All Star, Smith accumulated 2,460 hits and 580 stolen bases during his career, and won the National League Silver Slugger Award as the best hitter at shortstop in 1987. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2002. He was also elected to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2014. Smith was born in Mobile, Alabama; his family moved to Watts, Los Angeles, when he was six years old. While participating in childhood athletic activities, Smith developed quick reflexes; he went on to play baseball at Locke High School in Los Angeles, then at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Drafted as an amateur player by the Padres, Smith made his major league debut in 1978. He quickly established himself as an outstanding fielder, and later became known for performing backflips on special occasions while taking his position at the beginning of a game. Smith won his first Gold Glove Award in 1980 and made his first All Star Game appearance in 1981. When Smith clashed with the Padres' owners, Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog flew to San Diego to persuade the shortstop that he would be an appreciated and core component of the St. Louis team. Herzog's overture worked; Smith waived his contract's "no trade" clause and was traded to the Cardinals for shortstop Garry Templeton in 1982. Upon joining the Cardinals, Smith helped the team win the 1982 World Series. Three years later, his game winning home run during Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series prompted broadcaster Jack Buck's "Go crazy, folks!" play by play call. Despite a rotator cuff injury during the 1985 season, Smith posted career highs in multiple offensive categories in 1987. Smith continued to earn Gold Gloves and All Star appearances annually until 1993. During the 1995 season, Smith had shoulder surgery and was out nearly three months. After tension with his new manager Tony La Russa developed in 1996, Smith retired at season's end, and his uniform number (No. 1) was subsequently retired by the Cardinals. Smith served as host of the television show This Week in Baseball from 1997 to 1998.

Smith was born in Mobile, Alabama, the second of Clovi and Marvella Smith's six children (five boys and one girl). His father worked as a sandblaster at Brookley Air Force Base. When Smith was six, his family moved to the Watts section of Los Angeles. Smith played a variety of sports in his youth, though considered baseball to be his favorite. He developed quick reflexes through various athletic and leisure activities, such as bouncing a ball off the concrete steps in front of his house, moving in closer to reduce reaction time with each throw. When not at the local YMCA or playing sports, Smith sometimes went with friends to the neighborhood lumberyard, springboarding off inner tubes and doing flips into sawdust piles (a precursor to his famous backflips). In 1965, at age 10, he endured the Watts Riots with his family, recalling, "We had to sleep on the floor because of all the sniping and looting going on." While Smith was attending junior high school, his parents divorced. Continuing to pursue his interest in baseball, he would ride the bus for nearly an hour to reach Dodger Stadium, cheering for the Los Angeles Dodgers at about 25 games a year. After high school, Smith attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1974 on a partial academic scholarship, and managed to walk on to the baseball team. He learned to switch hit from Cal Poly coach Berdy Harr. When Cal Poly's starting shortstop broke his leg midway through the 1974 season, Smith took over the starting role.

As Smith entered the 1996 season, he finalized a divorce from his wife Denise during the first half of the year. Meanwhile, manager Tony La Russa began his first season with the Cardinals in tandem with a new ownership group. After General Manager Walt Jocketty acquired shortstop Royce Clayton during the offseason, La Russa emphasized an open competition for the spot that would give the Cardinals the best chance to win. When spring training concluded, Smith had amassed a .288 batting average and zero errors in the field, and Clayton batted .190 with eight errors. La Russa said, I think it's fair to say he misunderstood how he compared to Royce in spring training When I and the coaches evaluated the play in spring training—the whole game—Royce started very slowly offensively and you could see him start to get better. By what he was able to do defensively and on the bases, Royce deserved to play the majority of the games. Smith missed the first month of the season with a hamstring injury, and continued to harbor ill feelings toward La Russa that had developed after spring training ended. In a closed door meeting in mid May, La Russa asked Smith if he would like to be traded. As Smith made his final tour of the National League, he was honored by many teams, and received a standing ovation at the 1996 All Star Game in Philadelphia. On September 2 Smith tied a career high by scoring four runs, one of which was a home run, and another on a close play at home plate in the bottom of the 10th inning against division leader Houston. The victory moved the Cardinals to within a half game of Houston in the National League Central Division, and the Cardinals went on to win the division by six games. The Cardinals held a special ceremony at Busch Stadium on September 28, 1996, before a game against the Cincinnati Reds, honoring Smith by retiring his uniform number. Noted for his ritual backflip before Opening Days, All Star Games, and postseason games, Smith chose this occasion to perform it for one of the last times. The Cardinals then swept the series by winning Game 3 in San Diego. The Cardinals faced the Atlanta Braves in the 1996 National League Championship Series. Smith started Game 1 and subsequently registered three putouts and one assist in the field, but went hitless in four at bats in the Cardinals' 4–2 loss. The Cardinals then won Games 2, 3, and 4, contests in which Smith did not appear. Upon receiving the start in Game 5, Smith nearly duplicated his Game 1 performance with four putouts, one assist, and no hits in four at bats as part of another Cardinals defeat. The Cardinals also failed to win Game 6 or Game 7 in Atlanta, ending their season. When the Cardinals were trailing by 10 runs during Game 7 on October 17, Smith flied out to right field while pinch hitting in the sixth inning, marking the end of his playing career. Smith finished his career with distinctions ranging from the accumulation of more than 27.5 million votes in All Star balloting, to holding the record for the most MLB at bats without hitting a grand slam.