James H. Smith (February 1874 – December 24, 1960) was an

Infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

in the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

. Smith played for the

Chicago Columbia Giants The Columbia Giants were a professional, black baseball team based in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century, prior to the Negro leagues. Founding In 1899, a group known as the Columbia Club, organized the Columbia Giants under the direction ...

at the age of 28, eventually moving on to the

Cuban X-Giants The Cuban X-Giants were a professional Negro league baseball team that played from 1896 to 1906. Originally most of the players were former Cuban Giants, or ex-Giants. Like the Cuban Giants, the original players were not Cuban (though the team woul ...

in 1904. He played there for two seasons, then moved on to the

Leland Giants The Leland Giants, originally the Chicago Union Giants, were a Negro league baseball team that competed independently during the first decade of the 20th century. The team was formed via a merge of the Chicago Unions and the Chicago Columbia Gia ...

for a few seasons. He then appears to have wrapped up his professional baseball career with the St. Paul Colored Gophers in 1909. Smith also wrote for the newspapers about many fellow players in 1910, not only giving opinions about their playing, and giving first and last names, but also helping to piece together where many of the players were coming and going during the season of 1910. By 1910, Smith had joined the 8th Regiment of the Illinois National Guard and was stationed at Peoria, Illinois."Diamond Dashes" Indianapolis Freeman, Indianapolis, IN, Saturday, August 27, 1910, Page 4, Columns 5 and 6
/ref> During his military career, Smith organized and Captained a team in the Ninth United States Cavalry and the Forty-Eighth United States Volunteers. He played in the Philippines, Cuba, Japan, the United States and Canada. Smith died in 1960 at the age of 86 in

Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

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1874 births 1960 deaths Algona Brownies players Chicago Giants players Chicago Unions players Columbia Giants players Cuban X-Giants players Leland Giants players St. Paul Colored Gophers players 20th-century African-American people Baseball infielders {{Negro-league-baseball-infielder-stub