His name is Harold Raymond “Hal” Smith, but baseball fans simply know him as the “Barling Darling.”
A multi-sport athlete, Smith, a native of Barling, Ark., played basketball at the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club and while attending Fort Smith High School, but it was clear that baseball was his true passion.
There was no organized high school baseball at the time, so Smith honed his skills while playing summer American Legion baseball in Fort Smith for three years. The 17-year-old catcher caught the eyes of a St. Louis Cardinals scout and signed a professional contract at the end of the 1948 Legion season.
Smith had already played one season of junior college basketball at Fort Smith Junior College (1947-48) and was described as “an excellent ball-handler who showed up well at guard and was fast with the footwork.”
He continued to play for the Lions during the fall semester of the 1948-49 season but left the junior college, which didn’t have a baseball team at the time, at the semester break. Smith began spring training with the Houston Buffs, which was the AA minor league affiliate of the Cardinals.
Smith’s march to the Major Leagues was briefly interrupted in January of 1951, when he joined the Air Force during the Korean Conflict. He received a hardship discharge in June of 1951.
He made his Major League debut on May 2, 1956 and went on to play six seasons for the Cardinals, earning All-Star accolades in 1957 and 1959. He retired from baseball after the 1961 season because of a heart ailment, but returned briefly in 1965, playing four games with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
During his seven-year pro career, Smith batted .258 with 23 home runs and 172 RBI in 570 games. He appeared in 548 games as a catcher and recorded 2,810 putouts and 247 assists, committed only 33 errors in 2,890 opportunities and compiled an impressive 0.989 fielding percentage.
After retiring as a player, Smith worked as a coach, minor league manager and scout for the Cardinals, and also coached for the Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers. Smith has been inducted into the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame, the Texas Scouts Association Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
