Late Bloomers: Hilton Smith

Milton. That’s what they called him.

When the Hall of Fame announced the result of the Veterans Committee voting in 2001, there were a couple of surprises. The first was Bill Mazeroski’s election. A wonderful defensive second baseman who was also the first player to walk off a World Series with a home run, his case had been heard and passed over by the BBWAA for 15 years before he ran out of eligibility nine years before the Veterans Committee considered him. He never got more than 42% of the votes cast by the writers, and even that came in his final year on the ballot when most players get an artificial boost. Prior to that he’d topped out in the 33% range, basically because he couldn’t hit, famous Series homer notwithstanding.

Mazeroski’s election, thanks mostly to the strong advocacy of Joe L. Brown, former Pirates general manager and vocal member of the committee, shook up the Hall of Fame. In fact, his election was considered so out of place by the membership of the Hall that they immediately changed the structure of the committee. Instead of a small, 12-person voting body, all living members of the Hall of Fame were given a vote, along with all of the writers and broadcasters who’d received the BBWAA Career Excellence Award or Ford C. Frick Award. Predictably, for the next six years the committee didn’t elect anyone, forcing another change in 2007 to reopen that path to membership.

The other surprise in 2001 was the announcement that Milton Smith had been elected. This was a surprise because only two players named Milton or Milt Smith have played in the major leagues, and neither seemed terribly Hall-worthy. One of them went by Milt, an infielder in the 1950s who played 36 games for the Reds in 1955 and otherwise was a career minor leaguer. The other one, who went by Milton, had a 3-game career as a catcher for the St. Louis Stars and Indianapolis ABCs in the 1920s.

You read that correctly; Three games. That’s all he played.