Hilton Smith

Hilton Lee Smith pitched four times a week for the Kansas City Monarchs, finished the games that Satchel Paige started as a drawing card, and compiled a 66-35 record in documented league games with a 2.86 ERA across 13 seasons. Teammates called him "Satchel's Relief." Opponents called his curveball "El Diablo." Buck O'Neil said, "From 1940 to 1946 Hilton Smith might have been the best pitcher in the world." Lefty Bryant, a Monarchs teammate, put it plainly, "Hilton never got the credit he deserved. Hilton was the best pitcher we had, including Satchel." Smith knew. "Most people have never heard of me," he said. "They've only heard of Satchel Paige." The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 2001, 18 years after his death.

Giddings

Smith was born on February 27, 1907, in Giddings, Texas. His father John farmed and taught school. His mother Mattie raised six children on what the land and the classroom provided. Smith was the oldest, and when he grew up he shaved five years off his age and told interviewers he was born in 1912, a fabrication designed to extend his playing career. His son DeMorris later explained that Smith stayed home to help raise his siblings, left Giddings late, and needed to appear younger when he reached professional baseball.

Smith attended Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M) in 1928 and 1929, majored in agricultural science, and made the dean's list both years. He played outfield as a freshman and pitcher as a sophomore. After leaving college he pitched for the Austin Black Senators, the Monroe Monarchs, and the New Orleans Crescent Stars through the early 1930s, learning as he went. "I just made myself, didn't have a teacher," Smith said. "I kept picking up and looking and learning as I went up."

Bismarck

Smith joined the Bismarck Churchills, a semipro team in North Dakota, in 1935. The Churchills won the National Semipro Championship that year, and Smith played right field and batted cleanup in the championship game, going 2-for-4. Bismarck was also where Smith first met Paige. The two would spend the rest of their careers intertwined, fishing together, traveling together, and between them giving Monarchs opponents almost nothing to hit.

At the 1936 Wichita semipro tournament Smith won four games. J.L. Wilkinson, the owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, signed him for $175 a month. "When you got with the Monarchs, you were as high as you could go," Smith said.

Kansas City

Smith threw a no-hitter against the Chicago American Giants on May 16, 1937, winning 4-0 with one walk and only two balls hit past the infield. It was his first full season in Kansas City. He threw two types of curveballs, one sweeping and wide, the other tight and hard in a manner that resembled what later generations would call a slider. The sweeping curve earned the name "El Diablo" during a barnstorming trip to Mexico City in 1933. Smith also threw a fastball with movement, a sinker, and a changeup, and delivered from both sidearm and overhand angles. Connie Johnson, a fellow pitcher, said, "Bob Feller had a great curveball, but Hilton's was a little better."

Smith earned selections to the East-West All-Star Game in six consecutive years from 1937 through 1942, appearing in seven games (two were played in 1939). He started the 1942 game when Paige arrived late and pitched through six innings before Paige relieved him in the seventh. The arrangement was typical. Wilkinson advertised Paige to sell tickets. Paige pitched the first two or three innings. Smith came in and pitched the final five or six. "I was Satchel Paige's relief," Smith said. "He'd go two or three innings. If there was a big crowd and we had to win it, I'd go in there and save it."

The Monarchs won Negro American League pennants in 1939 and 1940. Smith reached his peak in 1941, going 13-6 with a 2.53 ERA in league play while winning dozens of additional exhibition and barnstorming games. "I actually hit my peak, too, in '41," Smith recalled. In the 1942 Negro League World Series against the Homestead Grays, Smith started Game 2 and pitched five innings before Paige walked to the mound and told him, "You've been relieving me all year. Let me relieve you." Paige entered the game and struck out Josh Gibson with the bases loaded to earn the save.

Smith injured his arm in 1943 and spent roughly two seasons playing first base and outfield while recovering. His arm came back in time for the 1946 Negro League World Series against the Newark Eagles, where he won Game 5 with a complete game, allowing 10 hits but striking out eight in a 5-1 victory. The Monarchs lost the series in seven games.

In 1947, at 40, Smith pitched six innings against the New York Yankees in a barnstorming game in Venezuela, allowing one hit and no runs. His record against major league teams in exhibition games was 6-1.

After Baseball

Roy Campanella approached Smith during the 1946 World Series and asked if he wanted to join the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. Smith declined. He believed he was too old at 39, feared assignment to the minors and a slow promotion, and preferred a team other than Brooklyn. "Had I been three or four years younger," Smith reflected, "I probably would have been the first Negro signed in Organized Baseball." Jackie Robinson broke the color line with the Dodgers the following April, wearing the uniform of a franchise Smith turned down.

Smith played for the Fulda Giants, a semipro team in Minnesota, in 1949 and managed a company team at Armco Steel in Kansas City in 1950. He worked as a foreman at Armco Steel until retiring in 1978. He scouted for the Chicago Cubs alongside Buck O'Neil through the early 1980s and coached semipro and amateur teams in Kansas City. Frank White, the future Royals second baseman, was among his students. "Hilton coached me when I was 18 or 19," White said. "He not only taught me the game, he got you to love the game."

Smith was active at St. Stephen Baptist Church in Kansas City, serving as trustee, usher, and board president. In his final years, sensing his time running short, he wrote letters to the Baseball Hall of Fame, enclosing newspaper clippings and pages of autobiography. The Hall did not respond during his lifetime. His wife Louise said, "Hilton loved baseball and gave his life to baseball. My husband just let his performance do the talking."

Smith died on November 18, 1983, at Menorah Medical Center in Kansas City, at 76. He was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery. The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 2001, 18 years after his death. His widow Louise, his sister, and both sons, Hilton Jr. and DeMorris, attended the ceremony. A baseball field in Giddings, Texas, bears his name, and the Giddings Library and Cultural Center houses a collection of his memorabilia. Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, offered what may be the best summary of Smith's career, "If you were going to hit anything, you better hit it off Satchel, because you weren't going to touch Hilton Smith."