George Cornelius Smith (July 7, 1937 – June 15, 1987) was a second baseman in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

who played from 1963 through 1966 for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

(1963–1965) and

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eig ...

(1966). Listed at , 170 lb., Smith batted and threw

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

. A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, he attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. In a four-season career, Smith was a .205 hitter (130-for-634) with nine

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 is ...

and 57

RBI RBI most often refers to: *Reserve Bank of India *Run batted in RBI may also refer to: Organisations *Radio Berlin International *Raiffeisen Bank International *Reed Business Information *Restaurant Brands International *Ruđer Bošković In ...

in 217 games, including 64 runs, 27 doubles, six triples and nine stolen bases. Smith played 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 ...

for the

Indianapolis Clowns The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s, the Clowns were the last of the Negro league teams to disband, continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. Th ...

(1952) and the

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Fo ...

(1956–1957). In between, he had a brief trial with the unaffiliated St. Petersburg Saints of the Class D

Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A follow ...

in 1955. Then, in 1958, he signed with the Tigers' organization as a free agent. Smith was the Red Sox' semi-regular second baseman in , starting 101 games at the position, but he batted only .213. He also played winter ball with the

Navegantes del Magallanes The Navegantes del Magallanes ( Magellan Navigators), commonly known as Magallanes, are a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Based in Valencia, Magallanes has won 13 LVBP championships and two (2) Caribbean Series. It w ...

club of the Venezuelan League in the 1966–67 season.George Cornelius Smith – VPBL batting statistics
''Pura Pelota''. Retrieved on July 12, 2016. In , Smith was hobbled by injuries and was replaced as Boston's second baseman by

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

Mike Andrews. He was sent to the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

' Triple-A Phoenix club and finished his career in the minors in 1968. Smith died in 1987 in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida from cancer, at the age of 49.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, George 1937 births 1987 deaths African-American baseball players Baseball players from St. Petersburg, Florida Boston Red Sox players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Chicago American Giants players Deaths from cancer in Florida Denver Bears players Detroit Tigers players Duluth-Superior Dukes players Durham Bulls players Indianapolis Clowns players Knoxville Smokies players Major League Baseball second basemen Michigan State Spartans baseball players Michigan State University alumni Navegantes del Magallanes players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Oklahoma City 89ers players Phoenix Giants players St. Petersburg Saints players Syracuse Chiefs players 20th-century African-American sportspeople