Let’s talk about Lee Smith.
Congratulations to the 2024 World Series Champions: The Los Angeles Dodgers. What a fun and exciting series to watch!
A further congratulations goes to all the crew who make baseball and any sport a reality for our viewers. The days are long, the turnarounds can be a grind, and I know from personal experience that crew support is not as verbalized as it should be. Thank you for your hard work.
To all of you who are New York Yankee fans out there … Well … as we say in Chicago, there’s always next year.
If we’re being honest, the Dodgers are not my team. I was rooting for them, but I’m a Chicago fan through and through. It’s something that I inherited from my grandmother. She moved from South Dakota to the big city because of the Chicago Cubs. To this day, there are certain players we don’t mention in front of Grandpa and my mother used to tell me stories about when dinner was usually burned when the Cubs lost. Grandma’s a woman after my own heart.
One of my favorite players, Lee Smith, was drafted in 1975. He was described as an intimidating figure on the pitcher’s mound, standing at six feet, six inches, with a ninety-five mile-per-hour fastball.
He holds the current Cubs’ team record for career saves with one hundred eighty. Smith was never inducted into the Hall of Fame, despite being one of the best closing pitchers in MLB history—a fact which has puzzled some baseball historians. However, despite Smith being one “of the best one-inning pitchers the game has ever seen,” my respect for this man was earned on his exit from the bullpen.
Smith is credited by starting the slow walk from the bullpen to the mound. This technique has been adopted by many closing pitchers, some taking it to more dramatic levels like Los Angeles Dodger Eric Gagne between 2002 and 2004.
In an interview where he was asked about why his pre-pitching routine lacked urgency, Smith replied by saying, “I had a lot of friends on the grounds crew at Wrigley Field. I found out they got time and a half if the game went past 4:30 pm, so I took my time getting to the mound. The slow walk to the mound became part of my routine.”
Smith took care of his crew.
As a union leader, I find that very inspiring. The day-to-day stressors of today’s political, economic, and industry-wide climate have had an impact on all of us, but it’s important to take a moment to make sure the teams we work with are also taken care of. It’s the little things we can do for our coworkers or our teams that help create a better and more productive work environment. What may have started as a slow walk to get a few extra dollars in the pockets of the turf management, helped families pay for food on the table, healthcare, mortgages, and more. These small acts of thoughtfulness, I know firsthand pay dividends in ways we will never expect.
Now, onto hockey season! Let’s talk about the Blackhawks.
In Solidarity,
President Jillian Arnold