Paul Leslie Smith (March 19, 1931 – August 18, 2019) was an American professional baseball player, a first baseman and outfielder who appeared in 223

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

in Major League Baseball over three seasons (; –) for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

. Smith batted and threw left-handed, and stood tall while weighing . With his hometown only away from Pittsburgh, Smith signed with the Pirates in 1950. His finest season in MLB was his rookie campaign with the 1953 Pirates, in which he appeared in 118 games, batting .283 with 110

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

, four

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

and 44 runs batted in. After three seasons out of the Majors, he returned to Pittsburgh for

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

, playing in 81 games as a reserve outfielder. Sold to the Cubs on May 6, 1958, Smith played his last MLB game a month later and played the rest of his career at the Triple-A level, retiring after the 1963 season. During his Major League career, he notched 152 hits in 562 at bats, including 16 doubles, seven

triples TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...

and seven home runs.Major League statistics
from Baseball Reference

References

1931 births 2019 deaths Baseball players from New Castle, Pennsylvania Charleston Senators players Chicago Cubs players Havana Sugar Kings players Major League Baseball first basemen Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players New Orleans Pelicans (baseball) players Pittsburgh Pirates players Seattle Rainiers players Tacoma Giants players Tallahassee Pirates players Waco Pirates players American expatriate baseball players in Cuba {{US-baseball-first-baseman-stub