Baseball Profiles: Daryl Smith took chance meeting to majors with Royals

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Daryl Smith took chance meeting to majors with Royals

Daryl Smith had played professionally for a decade, but hadn't gotten his call. It took a chance meeting for him to the majors, The Kansas City Star wrote in September 1990.

After a season out due to injury, the Royals director of player personnel ran into him, the same director who'd helped originally sign Smith with the Rangers a decade earlier, The Star wrote.

"Baseball is in my heart," Smith told The Star after he took that chance to his only major league callup. "It's part of my life as well as my family. I treated it with the utmost respect because of the talent God gave me."

Smith's callup that September led to two outings, 6.2 innings of work. In a career that spanned 17 seasons, those marked his only two outings in the majors.

Smith's career began in 1980, taken by the Rangers in the sixth round of the January draft out of the Community College of Baltimore County, Essex Campus. Smith was also credited as Dar Smith.

Smith started with the Rangers at single-A Asheville and in the rookie Gulf Coast League. He went 6-4 in 26 outings, nine starts that first year, with a 4.73 ERA.

He returned to Asheville for all of 1991 and went 16-5, with a 2.76 ERA in 29 outings, 22 starts. That August, he picked up his 14th win on a five-hitter. Afterward, to The Greenwood Index-Journal, he looked back to a last at-bat loss the week before.

"It makes me feel real good to come back and pick up a win here in Greenwood after the tough lost the last week," Smith told The Index-Journal.

Smith made AA Tulsa for nine outings in 1982, but didn't make AAA until 1987, with the Phillies. In the meantime, he also saw time with the Padres and Indians systems.

He arrived with the Royals for 1990, after that chance encounter. He saw 21 outings at AA Memphis, 11 at AAA Omaha and those two with Kansas City.

That August, he pitched into the eighth inning, giving up six hits, but no runs as he impressed his manager, according to The Omaha World-Herald.

"That's as good a pitching as we've seen this season," Omaha Manager Sal Rende told The World-Herald. "The way he pitched tonight, he could have pitched anywhere."

Smith's first game with Kansas City came Sept. 18, his second and last Oct. 3. He gave up three earned in those 6.2 innings.

Smith returned to Omaha for 1991, then briefly saw AA Bowie with the Orioles in 1993. He saw AAA Columbus with the Yankees in 1995 then played two final seasons in Taiwan, with Jungo in 1995 and Sinon in 1996 to end his career.