A Family Business

On a summer night in Kansas City, Mo. in 1994, Dwight Smith Sr. got a phone call telling him that he had been traded from the California Angels to the Baltimore Orioles. Two days later on June 15, he appeared in his first game with Baltimore as a ninth-inning defensive replacement in left field.

At the time of his Orioles debut, Oriole Park at Camden Yards was celebrating its third season as the new home of one of baseball’s most historic franchises. That same year in October, Smith celebrated another birthday, that of his son and future Oriole, Dwight Smith Jr.

Born on October 26, 1992, in Peachtree City, Ga. just six months after Camden Yards opened, Dwight Jr. now patrols the same left field grass his father once did during his time in Baltimore.

Dwight Jr. doesn’t have many memories of his father as a ballplayer, but the ones he does have are special.

“I don’t remember much from when my dad played because I was so young,” he explained. “The only memory I have was when he was in the clubhouse in ’95 after he won the World Series with the [Atlanta] Braves.”

“I was about to pop a bottle of champagne in the clubhouse,” said Dwight Sr. “I wanted him to stay in [the clubhouse to celebrate with us], but his mom, Cheryl, said ‘Get him out of there!’”

Like most kids, Dwight Jr. began his baseball career playing tee-ball. Unlike most kids, his dad had played baseball at the highest level and later coached professionally, as a hitting coach with the Class-A Charleston RiverDogs, and as a coordinator with Tampa Bay. During this time, Dwight Jr. got to be around his father and the game of baseball, strengthening his love for both.

“When I was a coordinator with the Devil Rays, I was fortunate enough to have Josh Hamilton, Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, and all of them when they were puppies,” shared Dwight Sr. “Dwight Jr. was there in Charleston everyday with me in the summer, shagging fly balls with them. Anyway, Josh [Hamilton] wore size nineteen shoes, and I went back to the clubhouse and Dwight, Jr. had both his feet in one shoe. He goes ‘Dad, look at this!’ and I said ‘You see how good Josh is? It takes both your feet to fill one of his shoes!’”

As Dwight Jr. got older, he saw players his father had mentored like Josh Hamilton and Carl Crawford make it to “The Show” and decided he wanted to learn more from the man who had already coached so many others to success.

“He came down to Spring Training when he was 11 years old. He was enjoying it so much, and he looked me in the eyes and said ‘Dad, I want you to coach me,’” explained the elder Smith. “I guess he thought I was a miracle worker that just happened to be his dad. So that transition made him view me as a coach. I had to wear both hats with Dwight Jr., but the best one was being his dad.”

“When he coached me that year and he was the manager, it was really cool,” said the 26-year-old. “I didn’t know whether to call him ‘Coach’ or ‘Dad.’”

Dwight Jr. continued to take baseball more seriously, and he began to realize there might be a future for him in the game, just as there was for his father.

“Around 15 or 16 [years old], I started playing more games and traveling more,” Dwight Jr. said. “After I saw some of my buddies get drafted, I thought ‘Alright, I think I can do this. I have a chance.’”

“He responded to the coaching and he had fun,” explained Dwight Sr. “Dwight did so well in his amateur league that he exceeded my expectations. He always wanted to do it. I never had to push him to do it. Dwight always wanted to go to the park. I would be tired and say ‘I’m not going today’ and he would say ‘Yes you are, Dad. We have to work. That’s how you get there.’”

A first round pick in 2011, it took almost six years climbing up the ranks in Toronto’s minor league system, but he did eventually “get there” when he had his contract selected by the Blue Jays on May 18, 2017. Coincidentally, the Blue Jays happened to be on the road for that night’s game in his hometown of Atlanta to face the Braves. A late phone call awakened Dwight Sr. in the middle of the night, not unlike the call telling him he had been traded to Baltimore. Only this time, his son was on the line.

“Dad, guess what?” said Dwight Jr. “Something happened. I’m coming to Atlanta.”

“He wouldn’t tell me [at first]. He was keeping me on ice,” explained the former big leaguer. “Then he said, ‘We got called to the big leagues.’ He didn’t say ‘I.’ He said ‘we.’ And that just meant the world to me.”

The Peachtree City native’s Major League debut was as much a family reunion as it was a major milestone in his young career. He played his first big league game in front of family, friends, and coaches in his hometown, against the very team he grew up cheering for as a kid – something he described as a “surreal moment.”

“His mother, his sister Taylor, [and I] went down, and we surprised his younger sister, Shannyn,” recalled Dwight Sr. of the debut festivities. “She didn’t want to go because she had school the next day, and she didn’t know Dwight had been called up. He came up on the jumbotron and we told her ‘look up’ and she started crying.

“It was a great moment, the inaugural season of the new stadium in our hometown, and Dwight’s debut,” the father of three continued. “It couldn’t have happened any better. We have great memories with Toronto, and we’re going to have even better memories with Baltimore.”

The “better memories” have already begun, as the hard work begins to pay dividends for Dwight Jr., whose hot bat has made him a mainstay atop a young Orioles lineup. For the month of April, he launched five home runs, tied for the team-lead with Trey Mancini and Renato Núñez. He entered the 2019 campaign with just two career home runs to his name and had already tripled that total before the end of the month. He has also impressed with his stellar defense and diving catches that look routine in left field, including his favorite memory so far when he robbed White Sox outfielder Adam Engel of a home run.

Baltimore has proven to be a welcome change of scenery for Dwight Jr., who spent three days in limbo after being designated for assignment by Toronto before he was acquired by the Orioles in early March. All he has ever wanted was the chance to go out every day and play. His father knows that it’s “not about proving Toronto wrong, it’s about proving Baltimore right.” Through the early months of the season, that’s exactly what Dwight Jr. has done.

“It’s been everything I wanted,” the young outfielder shared. “When I came over here, I was blessed to have the opportunity to play. I just made the most of it, whatever it was. Just do whatever I can to be an everyday player, that’s the only thing I’ve wanted since day one.”

With his steady play and electric bat, Dwight Jr. has already become a fan-favorite in Charm City. However, his biggest fans still reside in Peachtree City.

“I watch every game! Are you kidding me?” exclaimed Dwight Sr., now a hitting instructor in Peachtree City offering personal lessons to kids, “teaching the game of life through the game of baseball.”

“I watch every game,” he continued. “And it’s harder for me watching than for him playing. He’s got a beautiful supporting cast down here in Atlanta. His mother, behind-the-scenes, is the one that makes the engines go. She has a tough job with her two Dwights but she does a great job of it. Dwight Jr. and Dwight Sr. wouldn’t be where they are today without my wife and his mom, Cheryl. And that’s important to me.”

The journey has come full circle for the Smith family, as Dwight Jr. spent his childhood following his dad around ballparks, and his dad now follows him. Still, he calls his dad before every game just to talk, father to son, ballplayer to ballplayer, Oriole to Oriole.

This story was originally published in the 2019 Second Edition of Orioles Magazine. Birdland Insider features original content from Orioles Magazine, including new articles and stories from our archives.