Athletes - Zane Smith

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	Athletes - Zane Smith

Zane Smith (December 28, 1960 - ) was an American Major League baseball player from September 10, 1984, to July 5, 1996. He is primarily known as a pitcher.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, he attended Indiana State University.

Career

Smith, a left handed pitcher, was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 3rd round of the 1982 amateur draft and made his Major League debut on September 10, 1984 for Atlanta. His first successful season was 1987 with the Braves, where he led the team with 15 wins, nearly twice as many as any other Braves pitcher on a team with only 69 wins. He was among the league leaders in Wins(tied 5th), Innings(5th), Games Started(tied 1st), Complete Games(4th) and Shutouts(tied 3rd).

Smith was traded from Atlanta to the Montreal Expos on July 2, 1989 for Sergio Valdez, Nate Minchey and minor leaguer Kevin Dean. Just over a year later, on August 8, 1990 Smith was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Scott Ruskin, Willie Greene and Moises Alou. The trade allowed the Pirates to hold off the New York Mets down the stretch to win the National League eastern division penant. Smith contributed to this by winning 6 games, 3 of them complete games, 2 of those shutouts, while losing only 2, and compiling a 1.30 ERA. It was during this season that Smith had his best performance, a 1 hit complete game shutout of the Mets in the first game of a double header sweep that gave the pirates a 2.5 game lead over the Mets.

Smith played with the Pirates through the 1994 season before signing as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox on April 18, 1995. Smith did not have much success during the 1995 season for Boston, and the next offseason signed back with the Pirates for a significantly reduced salary from the $3.125 Million he earned in 1994. Smith pitched his final career game for the Pirates on July 5th, 1996, and was released by the Pirates the following day.

Accomplishments

Top 10 Appearances

ERA: 1990(2nd) 1994(10th)
Wins: 1987(5th) 1991(5th)
WHIP: 1990(8th) 1991(8th)
Walks/9IP: 1990(6th) 1991(1st) 1994(7th)
Innings: 1987(5th)
Starts: 1987(1st) 1991(5th) 1994(7th)
Complete Games: 1987(4th) 1991(5th) 1994(10th)
Shutouts: 1987(3rd) 1990(9th) 1991(3rd) 1992(8th) 1994(5th) 1996(9th)

Teams

Atlanta Braves (1984-89)
Montreal Expos (1989-90)
Pittsburgh Pirates (1990-94, 1996)
Boston Red Sox (1995)

Trivia

May 1, 1986 Smith struck out 12 Mets to end New York's club record tying 11 game win streak.
July 13, 1986 Al Newman hits his only career home run off of Smith, Newman was traded to the American League where he would bat 1,893 more times without a home run, an AL record.
July 9, 1987 Smith gives up a home run to Mike Schmidt
, it was Schmidt's 513th, and placed him 10th all-time, ahead of Eddie Matthews and Ernie Banks
.
April 17, 1988 Smith gets Atlanta's first victory of the season, ending a 10 game season opening losing streak that set a NL record.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Zane Smith ]

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