Claire Smith part 2: “Reporters in the Basement of Yankee Stadium were Shaking.”

Claire Smith part 2 edited transcript

Todd James (59:07):

When you think about nearly 40 years chronicling the game, do you have a favorite baseball story?

Claire Smith (59:17):

Oh, okay. So, I'm going to show my age here. 1986. So, I'm four years into the career, but I'm still a fan girl from 1966. And in 1986, the Dodgers announced that for the first time since 1966, Sandy Koufax is going to put on the uniform. He's going to come to spring training as an instructor.

Claire Smith (59:56):

So, reporters from far and wide decide to make the trek to Dodgertown, that magnificent spring training site in-

Todd James (60:11):

Vero Beach.

Claire Smith (60:12):

And with the idea that we're going to go and talk to Sandy Koufax, who basically, is the Greta Garbo of baseball. He is elusive, he is so shy. I don't know if shy is the word. He once told me that he just doesn't think that anybody really wants to hear from him anymore. Which is amazing because everyone wants to hear from him.

Todd James (60:41):

He only had one of the greatest pitching careers ever.

Claire Smith (60:44):

Exactly.

Todd James (60:44):

The lefty for the Dodgers in the '60s.

Claire Smith (60:47):

Exactly. And he made his own mark on the game, on the field, and outside the field. It was legendary that he declined to pitch on Yom Kippur.

Todd James (61:01):

During the World Series. Yeah.

Claire Smith (61:02):

Right. During the World Series. And not because he was that observant, but he knew what it would mean to Jewish people around the world, that he made this decision.

Claire Smith (61:18):

So, he is such a moral and ethical person, and everybody wanted to hear from him because it had been 20 years. So, a bunch of Yankee writers and I, get in a car and we drive to Vero Beach from Fort Lauderdale, and we get to this beautiful, beautiful site, and he's on the mound. He's pitching batting practice. And we get to stand behind right at the cage and watch him pitch batting practice.

Todd James (61:58):

And this is like 20 years after he retired.

Claire Smith (62:00):

After he retired. And the Dodgers are telling us that when he first started, they had to take him aside and tell him that it was batting practice, and he was supposed to let the hitters hit the ball.

Claire Smith (62:17):

Now, but you could see the curve ball, you could see the brilliance of it. He broke Dusty Baker's bat. He looked like he could step on a mound for any major league team and pitch.

Claire Smith (62:33):

And what occurred after was that he was told that a group of Yankees beat writers had come in to speak with him. There were probably four of us, and would he take time to speak to us? And he did. But it was funny because we connected and it almost became a one on one interview. And it was so amazing. Number two or one A (after Jackie) on my list, the bucket list in baseball.

Claire Smith (63:19):

As you know, it's very important to try to meet your heroes and more important that they don't disappoint you, that they don't turn out to be jerks or the worst-case scenario, racist or sexist or whatever. But he was such a gentleman and he took the time, and I will never forget that. It was just amazing. It was-

Todd James (63:49):

Why do you think you connected with Koufax?

Claire Smith (63:52):

I don't know. But the connection lasts till this day. And every time I see him at Dodger Stadium, it's a big hug. When they unveiled his statue this past season, I went to LA to be there for that, because I couldn't imagine not being there for that.

Claire Smith (64:19):

And again, he was just surprised and big hug and big thank you for coming from the East Coast to be there. And I joked with him and I said, "This is where I have to be today. It's his day." And he went out of his way, kind of to say the same thing.

Claire Smith (64:49):

In 2017, when I was given the writer's award, because it's on a Saturday and Hall of Famers don't make their first public appearance till Sunday. So, he didn't have to be on that stage, but he was. And he told me that it was important to him to be there, not only for me, but also, for Rachel.

Claire Smith (65:18):

So, to have Rachel Robinson and Sandy there, it just meant the world to me. And then there was Joe who was recovering from his various surgeries, and he was on crutches and everything.

Todd James (65:30):

Joe Morgan. Yeah.

Claire Smith (65:31):

Yeah, yeah.

Todd James (65:33):

When you think about Koufax, you're right, he's so reticent as a public figure. You have gotten to know him over the years. Is there something you understand about him now, that you didn't before you developed this relationship?

Claire Smith (65:46):

The common thread throughout all of this is Jackie, and I didn't know that he was taken under Jackie and Rachel's wing. He was one of those bonus babies back in the day. If you were a bonus baby, the team that signed you had to keep you on the roster or lose you back into the draft.

Todd James (66:16):

Yeah. And he was a terribly wild. He had no control. He was actually a basketball player at the University of Cincinnati and then signed. And as a young man, he had this amazing fast ball and curve, but he just couldn't control it.

Claire Smith (66:29):

Exactly. And he wasn't the pitcher on his high school team. Wilpon was the pitcher. And Sandy, I believe was the first basement. So, yeah, Sandy, I don't think he really started to pitch until he signed that contract, because like you said, he was a basketball player.

Claire Smith (66:53):

So, anyway, he explained that in that first year where they hardly used him, but he was on the roster. And there is always going to be resentment from players who think that that 25th spot should go to an actual major leaguer. And they didn't always look kindly on bonus babies.

Claire Smith (67:20):

But Sandy said that Jackie and Rachel went out of their way to make him feel welcome, to make sure he had the proper food to eat, that he had company, that he knew how to dress as a major leaguer. And so, he loved them and always had, always will, love them.

Claire Smith (67:47):

And for Rachel to be there and to see that connection between Sandy and Rachel, and to actually get to sit next to Rachel during the ceremony. I've known Rachel and her family for a long time. They're very, very special people.

Todd James (68:08):

That's a wonderful story. I never knew about the connection between Jackie Robinson and his wife and Sandy Koufax.

Claire Smith (68:17):

Right. And the thing is that it's kind of strange because I'm reticent in talking about things that Sandy and I talk about because I know how private he is. So, kind of wrestling with this myself.

Claire Smith (68:38):

Even if you pose and take a picture with Sandy, he asks you, begs you not to put it on social media. And if you do, his wife, Jane, will get in touch with you and ask you to take it down.

Todd James (68:54):

Wow. It's interesting. I used to cover a lot of college basketball, and at several final fours that I covered, I would see Sandy there. He would always sit in the front row behind a basket. And I was once having breakfast and he was at a table next to me.

Todd James (69:09):

And I was reticent to say anything to him. So, I just left him alone. I knew of his reputation and his want for privacy. And I had no reason to speak to him other than fanboy curiosity, I guess. So, I just left him alone. I respected that. But he had this regal presence. You would just see, there's Sandy Koufax.

Claire Smith (69:34):

There was a royal nature about him, and I think that maybe I never met him, but I had a sense that that same aura was around Roberto Clemente. And Roberto's aura was probably a wall built to protect him from everything I read and hear.

Claire Smith (70:06):

But yeah, Sandy was royalty without the ... Sandy was just different. And I think that the fact that he comes and goes from baseball, (there are long periods of time you don't see him and then he's back), the respect you see that the other Hall of Famers give him. And there are a lot of egos on the stage at a Hall of Fame gathering.

Todd James (70:44):

Oh, I bet.

Claire Smith (70:45):

As well there should be. As well as there should be. And the fact that there was a wine club within the Hall of Fame Club, and you had to be really, really, really on top of your game to be in that club. And Joe was in that club, Sandy, Tom Seaver obviously had the vineyard out in California. And it was a very exclusive club.

Claire Smith (71:16):

And they had no qualms about rejecting other members from the Hall of Fame. Guys would come with their chosen bottle of wine, and if it didn't meet the standard, they were not allowed in the room.

Claire Smith (71:32):

The other thing about Sandy is he has a wicked sense of humor. He's just a very funny guy. And just a gentleman. And he-

Todd James (71:45):

Well, I think about the golden opportunity of just developing a rapport and a working relationship with a gentleman like that who is such a big name in the game. So, you're growing up a Dodgers fan as a child because of your mom. And here you are with one of the all-time great Dodger legends and baseball legends and through your job, you developed that type of relationship. That's very special.

Claire Smith (72:11):

And I think I gravitate towards the pictures. I asked Orel Hershiser once, why he and Glavine and David Cone and so on and so forth, ended up being the spokespeople for the union during the labor wars. And he said, "Because we have so much time on our hands." But because they're smart. They’re the quarterbacks of the game. Juan Marichal, Fergie Jenkins, they have so many stories to tell. And the pictures …

Claire Smith (72:47):

Phil Niekro, I could sit and listen to Phil for hours and hours because he is without a doubt, one of the funniest people in the world. And when he would sit with his brother, Joe, it was just a riot because they do have a lot of stories to tell because they had so much time on their hands to make them up.

Todd James (73:09):

Okay. Do you have a Niekro Brothers story for us?

Claire Smith (73:11):

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Niekro Brothers when they were on the Yankees together, they couldn't go to a town without finding a place that was having a polka dance because they came from the Polish environs of southeastern Ohio and they loved to polka. So, they would do polka dances all the time.

Claire Smith (73:41):

Their parents hated when they had to pitch against each other, but neither one ever forgot the record. They did match up against each other. And Joe he held the record 5-4. He won five of the nine decisions. And he did so because he beat Phil 1-0 in a game in which Joe hit the only home run of his career.

Todd James (74:15):

Really?

Claire Smith (74:15):

Yes.

Todd James (74:16):

Off his brother?

Claire Smith (74:18):

Off his brother. And he wrote a rather risqué poem owed to this moment that he would recite every chance he had.

Todd James (74:31):

Can we hear it?

Claire Smith (74:32):

I don't have it memorized. I just remember that he would drop it on Phil whenever he could.

Todd James (74:40):

I can only imagine what kind of words are in there.

Claire Smith (74:42):

Yeah. Well, if you knew Joe, you knew that it was going to probably be a little x-rated. I'll try to get a copy of that. I know their sister is still alive. Maybe she knows what it was.

Claire Smith (74:57):

But Joe was a stitch. And that friendship, they were each other's best friends. They spent the winters fishing together. They loved to fish, they loved to dance, they loved to tell whoppers. But most of all, they loved pitching and performing and winning because it was something that kept their parents going.

Claire Smith (75:24):

And their dad was the person who taught them how to throw the knuckle ball because he was a semi-pro pitcher down in that area of Ohio. And then he hurt his arm, and the only pitch he could throw and win with was the knuckle ball.

Todd James (75:44):

Really?

Claire Smith (75:45):

So, from-

Todd James (75:46):

So, dad taught it to the Niekro boys. I didn't know that.

Claire Smith (75:49):

He did. And Phil and Joe grew up in this tiny little town that also, was home to John Havlicek, and John was Phil's best friend. And Joe's-

Todd James (76:04):

I think it's called ... it's a valley, something valley in southeastern Ohio. There's several athletes who came out of there. Yeah.

Claire Smith (76:12):

Yes. It's a hotbed of great athletes. But John Havlicek came to Phil's induction at the Hall of Fame, and Phil told me he likes this so much better than his Hall of Fame because he said that Hall of Fame lets everybody in, but this is just the players.

Todd James (76:32):

This is more the club.

Claire Smith (76:33):

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, he said John had a ball just running around that weekend. And also, attending that weekend were members of the Silver Bullets, the women's professional baseball team.

Todd James (76:48):

That's right. Yeah.

Claire Smith (76:48):

And Phil was the manager, Joe was a pitching coach. And it lasted a few years, but they gathered again to come up to I'm Cooperstown to honor Phil.

Todd James (76:59):

Well, the Niekro brothers were certainly indicative of the characters you could come across in baseball, which are so unique.

Todd James (77:06):

I also, think of just so many amazing moments that you witnessed as a reporter and you covered all but two of the World Series from like 1982 to 2020. Do you have a favorite, like a moment that you witnessed as a reporter?

Todd James (77:21):

Oftentimes it's on deadlines, so you're just trying to survive. But I mean, you think about it, the Gibson homer, the ‘89 earthquake, the Red Sox and Cubs break their jinx, 9/11 World Series in New York. You saw all this through the lens of journalism. What sticks out to you when you first think about those days?

Claire Smith (77:39):

Well, I remember the 9/11 World Series, the Yankees lost to the Arizona eventually, but it opened in New York City. And the eagle flying in onto the field as part of the ceremony, George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch, that was a very impassioned moment for New Yorkers.

Claire Smith (78:15):

But I remember the reporters in the basement of Yankee Stadium, some were just shaking because they thought with the president there and this large crowd, wouldn't that be an irresistible target to perhaps other terrorists still active in the country? So-

Todd James (78:41):

Yeah. This was like only not a couple weeks or so after 9/11.

Claire Smith (78:46):

Exactly, exactly.

Todd James (78:47):

A few weeks, yeah.

Claire Smith (78:47):

[Crosstalk 01:18:48] Was close to tears because he thought it was irresponsible of the president to be there. So, you had all these different takes on it, but people forget that reporters have families and so on and so forth.

Claire Smith (79:08):

Some reporters I admire greatly, couldn't bring themselves to stay for the resumption of the 1989 World Series after the earthquake because their families were so frightened by it. And most everybody just wanted that series to be over. And I think that the A’s put it to bed in the first and only game played after the World Series.

Claire Smith (79:38):

So, yeah, survived that, saw baseball played in Cuba when President Obama tried to open up relations a little more and he was at our game. And I was able to help Eduardo Perez frame the questions for the president that he wanted to ask.

Todd James (80:01):

Tony's son, right? Eduardo, yeah.

Claire Smith (80:02):

Tony's son, yes. And Tony being a Cuban exile and Eduardo having lots of relatives still there, he had seen the poverty because he'd spent the better part of the week with his relatives who just wanted to come visit him.

Claire Smith (80:24):

And he would say, "Sit in the restaurant, eat, eat." And all they wanted was anything but chicken because that's all they had back in their farm area. And they were sick of chicken, so they ate a lot of steak.

Claire Smith (80:42):

And he had asked us to bring all those millions of little bottles you collect of shampoo and lotion and everything, and then just thorough in the corner of your house, you collect them from the hotels. And people filled up their suitcases with those so they could bring to Tony's relatives.

Claire Smith (81:01):

He was anxious about taking part in the interview with the president. What should he ask? And I said, "Why don't you tell them about your family and tell them that they want to know how this is going to impact their lives? Will this opening of relations make their lives better?" Because they make the Cubans average, I think $17 a month in income and things like that.

Claire Smith (81:36):

And they got along so well, Eduardo and President Obama, that what had been planned as a half an innings interview, sitting down next to the dugout turned in, I think to one or maybe even two innings of conversation. And they got on along so well that Eduardo actually asked to take a selfie with the president. And has this wonderful once in a lifetime selfie with President Obama. And I think-

Todd James (82:15):

That's great.

Claire Smith (82:15):

Yeah. They could have gone on much longer except the Secret Service members were kind of tapping the president on the shoulder, reminding him that Air Force One was waiting to take him on to-

Todd James (82:29):

The plane is idling. I think we need to go.

Claire Smith (82:31):

Yes, yes.

Claire Smith (82:32):

Flying into Cuba and seeing Air Force One way down the tarmac was pretty amazing because the airport is what you might imagine pretty empty. That was an amazing trip, going-

Todd James (82:48):

Yeah. Baseball also took you to London, right? Didn't you cover the Red Sox and Yankees over in London?

Claire Smith (82:53):

Yes, they played something. I don't know if it was baseball, but they played something because the home runs were flying out of the stadium that had no air-

Todd James (83:04):

Wait a minute, wait a minute. The ball was juiced for London.

Claire Smith (83:06):

Oh, no, no, no. It wasn't that. It was the stadium was a track venue for the Olympics. And so, it was designed to have as little air resistance as possible.

Todd James (83:21):

Oh, wow. Was this Wembley Stadium, was it in Wembley?

Claire Smith (83:26):

Wembley, I believe that-

Todd James (83:29):

The big Olympic stadium.

Claire Smith (83:31):

Well, no. Well, Tony, this is my memory going, but it was an Olympic stadium and it was a track venue. And the home runs were just flying. I think the score at the end of the first inning was 6-6, and they didn't really stop.

Claire Smith (83:50):

And the funny thing was after, I believe the Yankees hit first, the Red Sox ... no, the Red Sox hit first, then the Yankees tied them, and the Brits started to get up and leave. And we were like, "No, no, no, no. There are eight more of these innings." It was the first time that I think baseball was played in a country that had no working knowledge of the game.

Todd James (84:18):

Well, I know in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, I covered those Olympics. And I went to the baseball game, Tommy Lasorda was coaching the USA team. And after a couple innings I realized that I don't think people here even know what the hell's going on.

Todd James (84:34):

So, I just went out and walked around the stadium and interviewed all the Australians and basically, tried to write about baseball through the eyes of Australians. And yeah, it was really it interesting because they thought it was sort of like cricket and they were having fun with it, but hey, they were serving beer and there's hotdogs and it's baseball.

Claire Smith (84:53):

Exactly, exactly. And that was the same deal in London. We did a panel at the British Library next to our hotel and the audience, one question was, "Well, do you think that Americans will like cricket now?" And it's like, "No, it's not the same. And no, Americans are really kind of stubborn about being told they should like other sports, like soccer and things like that."

Claire Smith (85:28):

But it was fun. The Yankees and Red Sox put on quite a show. I don't think the Red Sox recovered from that trip because they went into a free fall after that. And the Yankees took off, if I recall correctly.

Claire Smith (85:46):

But I remember walking past a couple of Bobbys police officers and they were talking about the home runs, and I think they were talking about Judge. "And did you see that ball that that boy hit? It went so far." It was so funny.

Todd James (86:08):

You mentioned a couple individuals I wanted to ask you quickly about before we wrap this up. And one is Don Baylor, and you co-authored his bio, Nothing But the Truth: A Baseball Life. Don is not a name that non-baseball people probably recall a lot, but he was such a presence in the game. Great player, great manager. Why was Don Baylor special to you to cover?

Claire Smith (86:33):

Well, like Dallas Green before him, he was larger than life. He was a presence. Dallas had a booming voice, but Donny was quiet. But it was like that old commercial, everybody leans in to listen to what he had to say.

Claire Smith (86:59):

He was a natural leader. Even if the team had a captain, Donny was the real captain of the team. And where he went, teams won.

Claire Smith (87:12):

The one failing grace, I'm sure, was that he couldn't work that magic in New York. He couldn't overcome the circus. So, George let him go to the Red Sox, traded him for Mike Easler, I believe. And he said that Donny's bat would be dead by the roadside by the All-Star game.

Claire Smith (87:39):

And Donny went on to have a great year for the Red Sox. And the Red Sox ended up going to the World Series against Mets in '86. And Donny had a large part to do with that.

Claire Smith (87:53):

And then he ended up with the Twins. The Red Sox fell apart after their disastrous World Series, and they broke the team up and he was traded to the Twins and ended up going to the World Series that year and actually winning a ring with the Twins playing with Kirby Puckett and for Tom Kelly and everything, had a home run in the World Series.

Claire Smith (88:18):

And then the next year ended up on the Oakland A's and again, in the World Series.

Claire Smith (88:26):

So, Donny had this reputation that managers wanted that presence in their clubhouse.

Todd James (88:52):

But Don Baylor, he was so special to cover.

Claire Smith (89:11):

Yes. Don — I mentioned Dallas Green before because I wanted to compare the two in another very important way. Neither one ever went off the record. What they said was what they meant to say at the time.

Claire Smith (89:28):

If they had to go back and fix it, they would, but they would never deny saying it, would never put it on a reporter saying it was taken out of context, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Claire Smith (89:42):

But Donny had a way of speaking and if it was a controversy, pulling it onto his shoulders. He was known to kick over food table if we saw a young player being grilled about maybe losing a game, making an error, costing the team a victory by his play or lack of hitting and so on and so forth.

Claire Smith (90:18):

Don would see this and felt it was on himself as a veteran, to pull that attention away and get such a youngster off the hook. So, he'd do it by kicking over the food table or faking a temper tantrum.

Claire Smith (90:36):

Perhaps two funny Don Baylor stories. Dusty Baker and Don Baylor were like brothers. They were brothers. And they were both notorious brawlers in their earlier days. By the time ... let's see, Dusty was on the A's, and Donny was on the Yankees. Neither one was in the game at Yankee Stadium. They were getting on towards the end of their careers.

Claire Smith (91:14):

So, there started to be a little head hunting in the game and feelings were being hurt and tempers were rising. And here, are two guys that weren't even in uniform all of a sudden are in the dugout. And one is top stepping it, glaring at the other dugout, and the other one's got a bat in his hand doing the same thing, And they're not even in lineup.

Claire Smith (91:45):

But as someone who knew them both very well, I'm upstairs watching this little play between the two of them. And I'm laughing like, "Yeah, okay, let's see this. This is going to be one for the ages."

Todd James (92:02):

So, what happened?

Claire Smith (92:04):

Nothing happened, no brawl. But after the game, I had to go and see what was up. And it's like, “Oh, Donny wasn't going anywhere.” Dusty knew. They were just drawing back and forth between me and laughing. But that would've been a dance because they wouldn't have ever tried to hurt each other. But they had to play their roles and they played them perfectly.

Claire Smith (92:32):

But Dusty was — oh man, he loved to fight. And Donny, he actually fought so much that Earl Weaver was concerned about it and all concern that he might get hurt because he didn't like to be hit back then. And he-

Todd James (92:55):

Well, Donny was hit all the time. I mean, he was kind of leaned over that plate and he was taking it.

Claire Smith (92:59):

Right. And he didn't take too kindly to it. And he said that he actually read in an airline magazine an article about Steve Garvey and Steve used to get hit.

Claire Smith (93:12):

And he worked out this program in that he would keep track of his batting average on the pictures immediately after he was hit by a pitch or in that game. And he called it controlled aggression. And how you get even by using your bat instead of charging the male. And Donny took that to heart and he would pick his moments.

Claire Smith (93:44):

Now, one of the scariest things that any one on the Yankees beat had ever witnessed was after a game in which the Red Sox were pitching up around his head, and I don't know that they hit him, but a pitch might have gone behind his head.

Claire Smith (94:07):

And after the game, Donny drew a crowd of reporters. It was a Red Sox and Yankees, so it was always going to be some tension. And he told the reporters that they should let the Red Sox pitchers know that whatever happened to the Red Sox infielders on plays at second base involving him was on them because they were throwing at him.

Claire Smith (94:37):

I remember Phil Pepe turning away and saying that that was the scariest thing he ever saw or heard. And Donny was speaking at a whisper again, at the meeting. He wasn't shouting and wasn't ranting or anything.

Claire Smith (94:56):

So, the next day, the Red Sox bullpen guys called Dave Righetti over, (the ambassador or the negotiator, I guess) and asked him to tell Don that it wasn't intentional, they weren't throwing at him, and they really needed him to understand.

Todd James (95:22):

Let's calm this down here, boys.

Claire Smith (95:23):

Exactly, exactly. And the one thing he said, Donny used to get hit all the time, and I think until Craig Biggio came along, he held the Major League record for being hit by pitches. And he told me that you never show pain, you never rub, you never let a pitcher know that he actually hurt you.

Claire Smith (95:48):

And he said the only time he ever showed pain was when Nolan Ryan hit him near his wrist. And that's the only time.

Claire Smith (95:57):

So, again, towards the end of his career, he's batting and now, he's on the A's playing the Yankees. And in his first at bat, he gets hit and he's running down the first base, and he's rubbing and rubbing and rubbing. He stayed in as DH.

Claire Smith (96:25):

But after the game, I went and asked him if he was hurt, and he said, "No, nub." And I said, "It was numb?" And he said, "No, nub." "What?" And he goes, "It hit the nub of the bat. I had to ..."

Todd James (96:45):

Oh, he was faking it. You should have known something was up if he was showing pain.

Claire Smith (96:52):

Exactly. So, yeah, he was one of my best friends. And after he left the Yankees, he called me over, gave me his phone number. And there was always a protocol, we had a great working relationship. But the day he was traded or the last day of the '85 season, he kind of sensed he wouldn't start the '86 season at the Yankees.

Claire Smith (97:33):

He wanted me to be able to get in touch with him, took me out in the hallway, introduced me to Becky, his wife. And I heard about Becky, she'd heard about me. It was the first time we met. And they ended up becoming the godparents of my son.

Todd James (97:51):

Oh, that's great.

Claire Smith (97:52):

Yeah, they were great. And he'd never been to Cooperstown, and he promised that he would come in 2017. But he started failing. And he called me one day and he said that he wouldn't be able to come there. So, he had asked Willie Randolph to go in his place.

Todd James (98:21):

Oh, wow.

Claire Smith (98:21):

And I'm like, "Donny, it's not a wedding or anything." And [crosstalk 01:38:27].

Todd James (98:27):

A stand in.

Claire Smith (98:28):

And he goes, "No, I had to do that."

Todd James (98:31):

That's pretty special though, right? He thought of that.

Claire Smith (98:33):

Yes, exactly. And little did I know that he was calling from the hospital and he had the multiple myeloma, had that horrific break in his leg when Vladimir Guerrero threw the ceremonial first pitch, and Don's leg twisted and broke his right leg. And he never told me, but he had fallen after that.

Claire Smith (99:08):

And the doctor had told him, "You can't break anything else. You can't, because it's a disease that eats at the bone marrow." And he broke his other leg, Becky told me later. And he went in the hospital and he never came out.

Claire Smith (99:23):

So, I told him that I would ask the Hall of Fame if we could do my ceremony from Austin, Texas, and I'd come down and we'd have a big party. And if we couldn't do that, I would come immediately after the ceremony to see him.

Claire Smith (99:49):

About a week after the ceremony, Becky called and said that I should come down. And I went down to see him, and he was very close to passing on and got to spend the day with Becky and with Don and to hold his hand.

Claire Smith (100:16):

And I gave him a picture that Jean Fruth, the great photographer had taken of ... I held up a painting my dad did of Donny to show that he was with us at Cooperstown. And someone snapped that picture, and I gave him that framed picture and told him that he was there with us. And-

Todd James (100:46):

Oh, that's so nice. I'm glad that you were able to see him. Had some closure there.

Claire Smith (100:52):

Yes. Three days later he was gone. And he was my big brother. He became my big brother and Josh's Uncle Don. And today, to this day, if you talk to Griffey Sr., and Willie, and Dusty and anybody, they all talk about Groove. And the writers, if you talk to Tracy Ringolsby and the late Gerry Fraley and Bob Elliott, he was the go-to guy.

Claire Smith (101:40):

He was the captain of the go-to guys when Joe wasn't around, he would take that. He knew about the union, he worked with Don Fehr, he knew about the brotherhood, he knew about the struggles of becoming a manager, of becoming a coach, becoming someone that baseball would pay attention to after the playing days. Because he had so much to offer. And he never stopped caring. He never stopped caring.

Claire Smith (102:14):

Moss Klein of the Newark Star-Ledger maybe put it best, he said, “We, as writers often ask players how they're doing. And some of us make a point of asking how their families are doing, how their wives and children are doing.” But Don Baylor was the only player that he ever met, who always asked how your family was doing.

Claire Smith (102:48):

And yeah, that's who he was. And it was such a privilege to help him write the autobiography. It was an experience. I used to tease him it took years off my life, but I wouldn't give them back at some point but-

Todd James (103:10):

It was certainly worth it, right?

Claire Smith (103:12):

Yes, exactly.

Todd James (103:13):

Well, you know what, Don Baylor and you mentioned Dusty Baker, guys like that, they epitomize what it means to have an impact on other people.

Claire Smith (103:23):

Yes.

Todd James (103:23):

The same way that you got into baseball because of your love for Jackie Robinson and his impact on the game, and several of the people that you talked about in this podcast. They all impacted others in their own ways.

Todd James (103:35):

And I think I'm so glad that we spoke about Don because again, I feel like he's an athlete and a former manager who doesn't really get a lot of attention nowadays. And I think it's important to recall what a guy like that did.

Todd James (103:49):

And by the same token, I think it's so important to talk about what the impact you had, because you certainly did as a journalist and all those years of being a pioneer and doing great work. And even now, you're helping the future of sports journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Todd James (104:09):

As we mentioned, in October of 2021, Temple established a Claire Smith Center for Sports Media. You had already set up a scholarship in your mother's name to help students. You're really making a difference for the future of sports journalism. And I think that's having an impact on others. And that says a lot about who you are, Claire.

Claire Smith (104:30):

Todd, that's very kind of you. Like I said, we just get up and go to work and the rest, I guess, takes care of itself. And as long as I can ... I always tell Josh, look in the mirror and ask my parents if we had a good day, if we did it right, if I did it right and didn't embarrass them or make them cringe, then it's a good day.

Claire Smith (105:03):

And those days added up and all of a sudden it was years and then decades and silly me, like I said, never had an original idea after deciding to write about baseball, so.

Todd James (105:19):

Well, this has certainly been a good day for myself and our listeners, and you've been so kind with your time. We really do appreciate you spending this time with us. And it has been an honor to shine a light on your career. And I'm so thankful that we had a chance to do this, Claire.

-end-

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