Larry Smith, Hall of Fame Coach and Influential Mentor to Two Major League GMs, Dies
May 7, 2025
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The baseball industry is a small world. Before they ran major league teams, Dayton Moore and Chuck LaMar were guided by the same man who coached Division I teams at Duke and Indiana, and scouted for the Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Texas Rangers.
Larry Smith never received wide acclaim for the influence he held in the game during his lifetime. Smith, who passed away on April 26 at age 84, was still remembered quite fondly by his two most famous pupils.
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“If I had to name the three or four men in my lifetime that had an influence on me, personally, and my career, I would literally not have had the opportunity to be in professional baseball the last 41 years without Coach Smith,” LaMar, the first general manager in the history of the Tampa Bay Rays, told Newsweek Sports.
A detailed view of Cincinnati Reds hats and gloves in the dugout before the game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on July 02, 2024 in the Bronx borough of New York City. A detailed view of Cincinnati Reds hats and gloves in the dugout before the game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on July 02, 2024 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Luke Hales/Getty Images
“Even though I didn’t play with an affiliated team, Larry Smith taking the time to care about my future as a baseball took the time to put me on a path to shape and mold me that would one day allow me to keep pursuing this game,” said Moore, who assembled the Kansas City Royals’ 2015 championship team and is currently a senior advisor of baseball operations in the Texas Rangers’ front office.
Smith turned down the opportunity to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals out of high school in 1959 and accepted a scholarship to Arizona State University, where he pitched for four seasons. He ultimately left his mark in baseball as a coach and a scout.
Moore said Smith scouted him at an amateur camp in Morton, Illinois. A senior in high school, Moore was committed to play at the University of Missouri at the time, but Smith advised him to consider the community college route.
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Smith, Moore said, knew the Tigers’ roster included players who projected to be ahead of him on the middle infield depth chart, and suggested he might not play until his sophomore season.
“At the time junior colleges were playing 100-plus games a year,” Moore said. “There were no restrictions.”
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Moore went on to play at Garden City (Kansas) Community College before signing his first pro contract in independent ball. After his playing career ended, Moore was hired by LaMar to his first job as an MLB area scout with the Atlanta Braves.
LaMar represented his own brother, Danny, in negotiations with Smith (among other Reds scouts) when Cincinnati drafted Danny LaMar in 1979. After Smith became the head coach at Indiana University in 1981, he hired Chuck LaMar to be a graduate assistant on his coaching staff.
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“He loved the game,” LaMar, now a professional scouting cross-checker for the San Diego Padres, said of Smith. “It’s truly one of the blessings of my life, to be at the right place at the right time, he just influenced me that much.”
Before taking over the Hoosiers’ baseball program, Smith was the head coach at Texas Wesleyan from 1971-77. In 2019 he was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
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Smith amassed a 74-74 record in three seasons at Indiana. In 1985, he left the Big 10 to become the head coach at Duke. He went 61-62 in three seasons as the Blue Devils’ head coach, twice reaching the ACC Tournament.
Smith’s job as a regional scout for the Reds was his first amateur scouting job in a journey that would span five decades with major league teams. Between scouting stints with the Pirates and Rangers, Smith also coached Pittsburgh’s affiliate in the Class-A New York-Penn League in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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Returning to the amateur ranks at Scottsdale Community College, Smith led the Fighting Artichokes to a regional championship in 1997 and finished third at the NJCAA Division I World Series. He also assisted the Division I programs at Arizona State, Northwestern, the University of California-Riverside, and Triton College (Chicago).
In 1998, Smith traveled to Austria as part of an MLB envoy program. He would later become the Head Coach of the Wiener Neustadt Diving Ducks, an amateur baseball team in Austria.
Smith is also a member of the Scottsdale College and Arizona Baseball Coaches Halls of Fame.
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