Harry Smith

Harry Thomas Smith (October 31, 1874 – February 17, 1933), was an English professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1901 to 1910.

Born in Yorkshire, England, Smith played as a back-up catcher for Pittsburgh Pirates (1902–07 178 games) and Boston Doves (1907–11 154 games), after starting at Philadelphia Athletics for 11 games. Smith had planned to retire as a player and become a scout in 1909 but, when manager Frank Bowerman resigned in mid-July, the Doves named him as a player-manager for the remainder of the season. He was replaced as manager by Fred Lake for the 1910 season but, remained on as a catcher. He played in his final major league game in 1910 at the age of 35.

In a ten-year major league career, Smith played in 343 games, accumulating 214 hits in 1,004 at bats for a .213 career batting average along with 2 home runs, 89 runs batted in and an on-base percentage of .262. He had a .967 career fielding percentage as a catcher during his career. He was a strong defensive catcher with a 47.32 career caught stealing percentage that ranks 50th among all major league catchers.

After his playing career went on to manage in the Minor Leagues for several seasons.