Rufus Smith (baseball)

Rufus Smith
Rufus Smith
	Pitcher
	Born: January 24, 1905
	Died: August 21, 1984 (aged 79); Aiken, South Carolina
	Batted: Right Threw: Left
MLB debut
	October 2, 1927, for the Detroit Tigers
Last MLB appearance
	October 2, 1927, for the Detroit Tigers
MLB statistics
Games pitched	1
Earned run average	3.38
Strikeouts	2
Teams
	Detroit Tigers (1927);

Rufus Frazier "Shirt" Smith (January 24, 1905 – August 21, 1984) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He played in one game for the Detroit Tigers on October 2, 1927.

Smith played college baseball at Guilford College where he formed a battery with catcher Rick Ferrell. While pitching at Guilford, he caught the attention of a New England millionaire who signed Smith to one of his semi-pro teams in Massachusetts. At the end of the summer, he enrolled at Brown University. While pitching for a team in East Douglas, Massachusetts in 1927, he caught the attention of a Tigers scout, signed a contract and received a signing bonus of $5,000 (equivalent to $87,700 in 2023).^[1]

References

^ "Detroit Signs a Guilford Boy". The Greensboro Record. June 14, 1927. p. 9. Retrieved January 25, 2024.

External links

Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference

This biographical article relating to an American baseball pitcher born in the 1900s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] "Detroit Signs a Guilford Boy". The Greensboro Record. June 14, 1927. p. 9. Retrieved January 25, 2024.

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