Ozzie Smith
- San Diego Padres (1978-1981)
- St. Louis Cardinals (1982-1996)
Osborne Earl " Ozzie " Smith ( born December 26, 1954 in Mobile, Alabama ) is a former American professional baseball player in Major League Baseball for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals was active from 1978 to 1996.
Life
Smith was born as the second of six children of Clovis and Marvella Smith in Mobile, Alabama. He had four other brothers and a sister with whom he grew up in Watts, a neighborhood of Los Angeles after he went six years old with his family there. His mother worked in a nursing home while his father worked as a driver for Safeway. Smith played in his childhood different sports, where he later focused on baseball. He was a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. During his school years at Locke High School, he only played basketball and baseball. With the future NBA player Marques Johnson he played in the basketball team and with the later MLB player Eddie Murray in the baseball team. From 1974, he studied with a partial scholarship at California Polytechnic State University and had the status as a walk -on, so a student who applies for admission to the university sports. As the shortstop in the middle of the season 74 broke his leg, Smith jumped for it. In 1977, he graduated, he had set the record with the most At bats ( 754 ) and Stolen Bases (110).
Career
1976, the year before last, Smith was drafted in the MLB Draft in 1976 in the seventh round by the Detroit Tigers. However, we could not agree on a signature bonus, while the Tigers only offered 8,500 dollars, Smith wanted $ 10,000. So Smith went to the university again and was taken in the following year when MLB Draft 1977, already in the fourth round, as 86 players from the San Diego Padres under contract. This time with a signature bonus of $ 5,000.