30 Facts About Lonnie Smith

Lonnie Smith was born on December 22,1955 and is an American former Major League Baseball left fielder.

Lonnie Smith made his debut for the Philadelphia Phillies on September 2,1978 and later played for the St Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Baltimore Orioles.

Lonnie Smith overcame bouts with drug abuse to become one of the top base-stealers in baseball during the 1980s, with the seventh-most steals.

Lonnie Smith played on five pennant-winning teams, three of which won the World Series.

Lonnie Smith's performance was strong enough for him to finish third in the Rookie of the Year balloting following the season.

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Lonnie Smith continued to play well in the strike-shortened 1981 season, hitting.

Lonnie Smith was traded to the St Louis Cardinals in November 1981, for Lary Sorensen, in a deal which eventually netted the Phillies Bo Diaz.

Lonnie Smith continued to hit well in 1982, and to have a good on-base percentage.

Lonnie Smith led the National League with 120 runs scored, which was the only time that he scored 100+ runs in a season during his major league career.

Lonnie Smith set career highs in 1982 with 592 at-bats, 182 hits, 35 doubles, and 257 total bases during the regular season.

Lonnie Smith ranked second in the National league with a career-high 68 stolen bases, but he was caught stealing a career-high 26 times.

Tired of the mocking, Lonnie Smith tackled the Phanatic, reportedly injuring the mascot's ankles.

Rather than seeking shelter, Lonnie Smith turned around, threw up his arms, and taunted them, daring them to hit him, which none did.

Lonnie Smith returned to the Cardinals after his time on the bench in 1983, and he remained with them through the end of the 1984 baseball season.

Lonnie Smith was traded to the Royals in exchange for outfielder John Morris on May 17,1985.

The Royals were able to fill their left field spot with Lonnie Smith; they had lacked an everyday player since the departure of Amos Otis two years earlier.

Lonnie Smith's past met his present following the regular season, when he hit.

When Lonnie Smith took the field in Game 1 of the 1985 World Series, he became the first player in MLB history to play in the World Series against a team that traded him away within the same season.

Lonnie Smith testified in the Pittsburgh drug trials of September 1985.

Lonnie Smith went on to have his best season in three years in 1986, but saw his playing time reduced during the 1987 season.

In July 1987, Lonnie Smith told the Kansas City Times that under his agreement with the commissioner of baseball, he was supposed to be tested six to eight times per-year but had not been tested so far during 1987.

Lonnie Smith had second thoughts about committing such a serious crime and he dropped the idea entirely.

Lonnie Smith continued to be a regular outfielder for the Braves during the next two seasons, batting.

Lonnie Smith committed a base-running blunder very late in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series versus the Minnesota Twins.

Lonnie Smith was on first base with no outs in the eighth inning of this scoreless game.

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Lonnie Smith later stated that he had lost sight of the baseball against the ceiling of the Metrodome, though replays from the TV coverage of the game showed that the Twins' second baseman Chuck Knoblauch and shortstop Greg Gagne had potentially deceived Lonnie Smith; Knoblauch pretended to throw to Gagne for a force, but didn't actually have the ball.

Lonnie Smith remained with the Braves through the end of the 1992 season, and he helped the Braves win the National League pennant , though they lost the World Series four games to two against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Lonnie Smith played in his final major league game on August 10,1994, in the Orioles' last game before that year's strike.

Lonnie Smith wryly stated that Smith should have had a post-retirement career teaching "defensive recovery and cost containment" since he had excelled at recovering from defensive difficulties in the outfield.

Lonnie Smith briefly re-entered national attention in 2006, when he told The State, a newspaper from Columbia, South Carolina, about his notion to murder Schuerholz 18 years earlier.