Ex-Red Sox Smith is still in there swinging for his sport

BEIJING - Reggie Smith is very proud about his role, as part of the 1967 Impossible Dream team, in helping build the strong foundation that Red Sox Nation sits on today. But the chances of him helping build a strong foundation for USA Baseball seem bleak.

The former Red Sox star is the hitting coach for the US Olympic baseball team, which begins preliminary action tomorrow against South Korea. As it stands, this year's competition will be baseball's swan song in the Games, as the International Olympic Committee has dropped the sport from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Smith is hopeful that with the sport's growing popularity worldwide, it will return in the 2016 Games.

"It's disappointing," said Smith, 63. "I don't know too much. It's all relative to the politics of it. I know that the game is being promoted more around the world. Major League Baseball has done an outstanding job of promoting the game around the world. And it would be sad to see it go away.

"In past years, before it became a medal sport, baseball was a demonstration sport. So it's been there. The interest, I think, has been significant enough to grow it into a medal sport.

"But we'll see what happens. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trying to be as confident as possible that it will be reinstated for 2016."

Considering the time Smith has invested in USA Baseball - nearly a decade - it's easy to understand his disappointment.

He first became US hitting coach in 1999, on the team that won silver in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada. He was hitting coach of the 2000 Olympic gold-medal-winning team, the 2006 World Baseball Classic squad, the 2006 gold-medal-winning Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament team, and the 2007 gold-medal-winning IBAF Baseball World Cup team.

Smith also owns and operates the Reggie Smith Baseball Centers in Los Angeles and the Lakeland Baseball Academy in Florida.

"Baseball is a significant sport that is being recognized around the world now and enough people watch it now," Smith said. "As they do more, more teams and countries will be interested in playing."

In Smith, USA Baseball has a coach with a résumé impressive enough to get him inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame.

In his Red Sox career from 1966-73, Smith batted better than .300 three times, won a Gold Glove in 1968, and led the American League in doubles twice. He hit two home runs in the 1967 World Series against the Cardinals and played in All-Star Games in 1969 and 1972 before being traded to St. Louis in October of 1973.

Smith was back in Boston last year for the 40th anniversary of the 1967 team and expressed respect for the Red Sox' recent championship success.

"I am happy for them," Smith said. "I'd like to think that we were the genesis of what Red Sox Nation is right now, to turn Boston from an also-ran team and organization to one that can perennially look to contending to not only win the pennant but the World Series.

"They've proven the last few times they've been there that they've been able to win it. I'm happy for that, especially for the ownership to continue what Tom Yawkey started during that time. That ownership has done things in a first-class way and they've given that city the team and the caliber of players that they need, too, to provide a championship."

The Americans are managed by Davey Johnson, who guided the 1986 Mets to a World Series victory over the Red Sox. The team includes 23 minor leaguers, none with ties to the Red Sox. Cuba, winner of three of the past four Olympic gold medals, is the favorite, and the tough field also includes South Korea and Japan.

Smith faces the challenge of coaching players he has spent very little time with. But with his experience in baseball, he doesn't need to observe them long - just a couple swings in batting practice.

"Just a few swings and I can tell how the hitters are going to be," Smith said. "Even with that, it comes down to when that guy stands in that batter's box, he's all by himself.

"It's up to us as coaches and instructors to give them as much intelligence as we possibly can to see what pitchers like to do in certain situations and their tendencies. But again, it's still incumbent upon that player once he steps in that batter's box to hit the pitch and to try to hit it hard somewhere."