Clyde Hetrick "Lefty" Smoll (April 17, 1914 – August 31, 1985) was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) for the 1940 Philadelphia Phillies.

Biography

On April 26, 1940, Smoll made his major league debut, starting against the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...

, whose starting pitcher was

Freddie Fitzsimmons Frederick Landis Fitzsimmons (July 28, 1901 – November 18, 1979) was an American professional baseball right-handed pitcher, manager, and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to with the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodg ...

. Smoll allowed four runs, two earned, in six innings of work, saddling him with the loss. Smoll made 33 appearances in 1940, starting nine games and going 2–8 with a 5.37 ERA. In 109 innings, he allowed 145 hits and 36 walks while striking out 31 batters. He played his final big league game on September 12. Smoll also spent 10 seasons pitching in the minor leagues, going 79–94 in 337 games. He pitched in the minors until 1946. He managed in the minor leagues from 1948 to 1950, skippering the

Rome Colonels The Rome Colonels was the primary moniker of minor league baseball teams based in Rome, New York between 1898 and 1951. Rome teams played as members of the New York State League (1898–1901), Empire State League (1905) and Canadian–American Lea ...

the first two years and the

West Palm Beach Indians The West Palm Beach Indians were a minor league baseball team based in West Palm Beach, Florida. The team played its home games at Connie Mack Field. History Through its existence, the Indians were mostly an independent team playing in the Flori ...

in the last. Smoll died in the city of his birth,

Quakertown, Pennsylvania Quakertown is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2020, it had a population of 9,359. The borough is south of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem and nor ...

, on August 31, 1985. A son, Clyde Jr., bought the minor league

Elmira Pioneers The Elmira Pioneers are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Elmira, New York. They have been affiliated with many major league teams throughout their history. Currently, Elmira Pioneers play as members of the Perfect Game Collegiate Base ...

in 1986, and owned the team for a decade.

References

External links

1914 births 1985 deaths Sportspeople from Quakertown, Pennsylvania Baseball coaches from Pennsylvania Baseball players from Bucks County, Pennsylvania Minor league baseball managers Philadelphia Phillies players 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-pitcher-1910s-stub