When Baltimore Oriole Seth Smith saw his name penciled in atop the lineup card on Wednesday afternoon, he probably thought that evening’s game would be reminiscent of so many others in his career. After all, Smith, an 11-year veteran, has played in 1149 major-league baseball games.
Surely this one wouldn’t be remarkable in any particular way, right?
Maybe he’d shag a few fly balls in right field. Perhaps he’d hit a home run – he hadn’t done that very often, to be sure, but with 115 to his name, while he might look back and remember one here or there, it wasn’t too likely that a dinger in some random April game would make much of a lasting impression.
More likely, he’d get on base a few times, as he’d done so often before, as the owner of a .344 career OBP, maybe add a notch or two to his 480+ career runs scored, and his team would win. If he was lucky, maybe that kid playing third base would do something (else) he’d never seen before, or his teammates would put on one of their patented fireworks shows with four or five homers.
All of those things probably seemed much more likely when Smith took the field at 7:05 on Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays than what actually transpired.
Smith had a night that he very likely will never forget, and it wasn’t because he hit a grand slam, or got into a brawl, or suffered some kind of gruesome injury. All rare, but again, ALL LESS RARE than what took place.
So what did happen? Let’s recap…
Seth’s Very Strange Day
Game Situation: Bottom of the second inning. Orioles lead 1-0. Ryan Flaherty is on first base, having just singled in Hyun-soo Kim to give the Birds the lead. Seth Smith at the plate, with a count of 2-2.
Smith goes down and gets an Alex Cobb offering by his knees, and lines it to centerfield. Rays CF Kevin Kiermaier, always a threat to steal hits on balls hit like this, races toward the sinking liner.
Would this be the memorable moment for Smith? Would he be robbed by a highlight-reel catch?
Nope. Kiermaier pulled up short, allowing the ball to drop.
Just a single, right? Nothing to see here.
Flaherty, however, decided to try to take third base, and that my friends, is where things got wacky.
Ya know what? Let’s just watch the whole thing, with the calls of Joe Angel & Gary Thorne:
Yes, that second guy scoring above was…Seth Smith.
Smith, with a ton of hustle and a comedy of Rays errors (including a ball bouncing off Flaherty’s helmet into the outfield), earned himself the rare “Little League Home Run.”
How rare? Well, the last time the Orioles did it…
Seth Smith Little League Home Run! According to @sabr Database, 1st LLHR for Orioles since Boog Powell on 8/11/1966 https://t.co/zA7Wl2AT1l
— James Smyth (@JamesSmyth621) April 27, 2017
1966! Boog Powell! Wowsers!
And now, just for kicks and giggles, let’s watch the whole scene again, this time set to Yakety Sax!
https://twitter.com/NaturallyKatz/status/857391002591653888
There’s no doubt that Smith will always remember the time that, as a 34-year-old (1982 babies stand up!), he was transported back to the sandlots of his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi.
His weird day wasn’t over yet though!
Time to Walk….It Off
Roughly three-and-a-half hours later, this baseball game was still going.
Game situation: Bottom of the 11th inning. Game tied 4-4 after the Orioles have just fought back to tie it up after falling behind 4-3 in the top of the 11th. Flaherty has just walked ahead of Smith to load the bases for the second time in the inning. Tampa has just replaced closer Alex Colome with Danny Farquhar.
Farquhar falls behind Smith 3-0.
Little League HR and a walk-off HBP (or anything) would be quite the day…
— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) April 27, 2017
On the next pitch…Farquhar still couldn’t fine the zone, and the ball game ended.
????????Walk-off walk in Birdland???????? pic.twitter.com/da0CZV9Ewb
— Avi Miller ???? (@AviMiIIer) April 27, 2017
WALK-OFF WALK! #IBackTheBirds pic.twitter.com/j3RNvZ938Y
— Orioles on MASN (@masnOrioles) April 27, 2017
A Little League home run AND a walk-off walk.
Smith must have felt like he was 12 years old again.
And trust me, when you’re 34-years-old, you’ll cherish days like that forever. Here’s to Seth’s wacky day.
