By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

SOME say it’s long overdue, but Fred “Papa” Smith said his recognition by the Bahamas Baseball Federation at the sixth Andre Rodgers Senior National Baseball Championships came at the right time.

His wife Catherine Smith concurred, adding that she’s pleased to see that her husband is “finally getting his flowers to smell while he is still alive.”

Over the weekend at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium, Smith was honored by the BBA during the nationals for his contribution to the sport of baseball.

“It’s a pleasure and it’s and honour and I’m elated,” he said. “There’s so many other people they could have chosen to name this tournament after. But they chose me.”

The 77-year-old Smith, however, recalled that while baseball had a profound impact on his life from the time he started at age 10, he became more intrigued  playing basketball at 13 at the Priory Grounds.

“I played with St Bernard with my first coach York Rolle, who was out here with me,” Smith said. “In my career, I had four coaches, Charles ‘York’ Rolle, Penny Bain, the late Deacon Leviticus ‘Uncle Lou’ Adderley and Ronald ‘Ding’ Wood.

“York and Lou Adderley coached me in little league, Penny Bain was junior league and Ronald was my senior league coach. I played with St Bernards, Sydney Shoe Shop and Vat 19 and HG Christie.”

When he started coaching, it was in basketball with the formation of the  Cougars,” Smith said. “Basketball was my first love. It came easier to me. “People talk about the no look pass. I think I invented that. It’s just that Magic Johnson and the others just copied it. If I had copyrights, I would have been a rich guy. I was doing it at the age of ten at the Priory.”

The money didn’t flow in from basketball, but at the age of 19, Smith signed a professional baseball contract with the Celeveland Indians where he ended up playing for about six years, accumulating a batting average of .266.

“In my first year, I batted over 300 and stole 13 bases,” he said. “I only played half of the season because I broke my finger sliding into second base and I had to get an operation in Cleveland.

“My second year, I batted around .297 and I led the league in stolen bases with 48. Then I went to Winter ball and I batted .340, second behind Al McQuay.”

His performances enabled Smith to be promoted to Double A with about a month left in the season. He made good of his opportunity to finish with a .338 average.

During his pro career, Smith made the All-Star as a left fielder and he eventually got promoted to Triple A. But after two years, hampered by a series of injuries, he just missed the opportunity to crack the major league.

“But I had a good career. I  traveled the world and was getting paid to travel,” Smith pointed out. “I always say I wanted to go to Hawaii. I went to Hawaii three times and it didn’t cause me a dime. In fact, they paid me to go to Hawaii. God has been good to me.”

On his return home, Smith said he was eager to get back into coaching and he’s been doing it ever since.

“”I have my baseball camp every year for about 4-5 weeks at the Southern Recreation Grounds,” said Smith, of this year’s camp that will be staged from June 30 to July from 9:30 am to noon Monday to Friday.

“I do it for free. It’s a community thing. I do it for the kids in the community. But we have some kids come in from Freedom Farm and JBLN. I welcome any and everybody.”

Although he’s been recognized for baseball, Smith said basketball was and still is his first love. But he noted that as a member of the Cougars, everytime they got ready to play in the championships, he had to leave to go to baseball spring training camp.

“So I miss some championships. I would miss one or two games and sometimes I would go late to spring training just so I could play basketball,” he remembered. 

Growing up in the era where he played with John Todd and Cynthia ‘Mother’ Pratt on the Priory Grounds, Smith said he’s seen a lot of talent coming from the Bahamas.

“All they want to do is run and dunk,” he said. “In baseball, there’s still a lot of fundamentals that need to be taught, but the youngsters are playing at a high level.”

When he played baseball, Smith said they were in the old Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium, but they had a large crowd of followers with just about every game being sold out.

Sadly, he said the fans are not as sup[portive as they were in the past. He said he enjoyed his time growing up, especially with the mentorship he got from the late Andre Roidgers, the first Bahamian to play in Major League Baseball.

“Hewas quiet and he wasn’t going to put himself on you,” Smith said. “You had to have known him for him to reach out to you. But he was well supportive of all in the game of baseball.”

After 64 years, Smith said he wants to be remembered for the role he played in helping as many players to develop as he could. He has done and continues to do it and was recognized for his efforts.

“Between coaching and my wife, it keeps me young,” Smith pointed out.

His wife, Catherine, said she’s very happy for the accolade her husband is receiving.

“I think he deserves it. It was a long time coming, but he finally got it,” she said. “Like he said, give me my flowers before my eyes close. So I’m happy that he’s getting his flowers to smell them while he is still alive.”

BBA president Clarence ‘CJ’ McKenzie said they could not have picked a more deserving person to honor this year than Smith, who provided excellent leadership and is a great figure in the baseball community.

And just as equally so in basketball.