Smith family enjoys baseball success

Living a dream sometimes involves abrupt descents from cloud nine for Jamie Smith. She’s IU Coach Tracy Smith’s wife, and her eldest son Casey wears No. 20 and plays right field for the No. 13-ranked IU baseball team.

The relationship dynamic between father and son cannot always fly above the turbulence, and Jamie said she has to play referee “completely” because there is no disconnect available for these two family members.

“I get phone calls — and it’s happened several times — where he says ‘Please be my mom and not the coach’s wife,’” she said. “My husband and I tell each other everything, and so I usually know what Casey is complaining about before he calls me.”

Casey’s relationship with his father and his college choice were not inextricably linked. At Bloomington North High School, Casey Smith pitched, played shortstop and contributed to three consecutive sectional title-winning teams before graduating early. Casey did not decide to attend IU without a recruiting process. Casey said he was looking for things perhaps his father’s program couldn’t offer.

“My other school was West Point,” Casey said. “I verbally committed there. I was going there. I thought they offered something my dad couldn’t. Other schools recruited me, but I think they kind of backed off a little bit because I wanted to play for my dad. I’ve grown up watching him, and I finally got to put on the uniform. It was something so special I can’t even explain.”

The dynamic that came to fruition, Tracy stressed, was not an easy one. Casey does not have a luxury his teammates enjoy. He cannot pick up the phone, call his dad and complain about the coach.

Though there will be strains on the relationship, Tracy said he feels fortunate his son is good enough to play at this level and that he doesn’t miss watching his eldest play.

Tracy said his son brings more of a threat of power to the lineup. He is a switch-hitter, a quality that inherently tilts the matchup in favor of IU. Before he entered the game in the eighth inning in the second game of the doubleheader against Penn State, he started 10 consecutive games, the last five contests from the seventh spot in the batting order. He hit .313 with three extra-base hits and eight RBI.

But he has not enjoyed such success from the moment he walked through the program’s door.

As a freshman, Casey pitched for IU. In 18 appearances — three starts — he posted a 13.67 earned run average in 26 1/3 innings.

As a sophomore, he was a two-way player. At the plate, he hit .196 in 46 at-bats over 17 games, starting nine. On the bump, his ERA fell to 4.50 in 14 relief appearances spanning 20 innings. He earned his first — and only — career win against Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Feb. 25, 2011.

He redshirted the 2012 baseball season due to a foot injury.

“Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical,” Yogi Berra once said.
Junior outfielder Casey Smith’s participation in track and field last year — he threw the javelin — prepared him for a return to baseball.

He said Derek Drouin took him under his wing a little bit. Drouin, a Canadian and IU high jumper, won a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics.

“Track and field, especially what I was doing, is so mental,” Casey said. “The mental preparation for track and field kind of prepared me coming back to baseball. You can’t perform at the highest level in track and field unless you’re mentally at the highest level.

“I think that’s translated onto the baseball field.”

Tracy agreed, saying his son has been much more relaxed this year. To earn playing time, however, Casey has had to compete with sophomore outfielders Chris Sujka, Will Nolden and Tim O’Conner, all of whom gained significant experience in the corner outfield spots last season. Meanwhile, Casey posted a couple runner-up finishes and a season-best 168’11”.

He offered praise for his three outfield mates. He said he’s a bit of a different hitter because he can provide more power.

Tracy Smith said such a decision is susceptible to remarks about nepotism. The eighth-year coach is aware of such possibilities. Casey, though, said the players are great. Guys understand why Tracy is probably a little harder on his son than he is on anyone else.

Casey can decipher to his teammates what Tracy intends to say.

“The first two years were rough,” Casey said. “But now it’s great.”

During the top of the first inning against Louisville, Casey, ranging back and to his left, attempted to catch the ball hit by Cardinals’ third baseman Ty Young. He collided with the wall. He was tended to on the warning track for a couple moments, attempted to walk it off and ultimately remained in the game. Sujka replaced Smith, and Nolden moved from left field to right. After the game, Tracy said his son suffered a “pretty good hip pointer.”

Casey did not play against Iowa or at Xavier. After the game in Cincinnati, Tracy joked that Casey would return to the lineup against Illinois if his mother let him.

Casey started each game against the Illini and batted seventh. He said his diving attempt against Louisville was indicative of the team’s and his personal mindset.

“I’ve been hurt so many times, it’s almost a joke,” he said. “I would be a guy that would dive into a fence. I just play like that. I don’t think much about it. I just go as hard as I can.”

He added it’s the team’s attitude because they don’t want any opponent to score.

Sometimes it’s hard for Jamie to win, caught between the dichotomy of familial interaction. But her kin raised her in a way that has helped prepare her — somewhat — for such situations. She was raised by a college athletics director and a college basketball coach. Her brother played college basketball.

“I’m around athletics my whole life and know a lot about how to just let him vent and not really get involved,” she said. “But it hasn’t been easy.”

Ty Smith, their second son, is a freshman on the football team. Jamie Smith said it was a thrill for two of her boys to be a part of IU teams.

“From a selfish standpoint, I had to do a lot of their sporting events by myself because Tracy has been so involved,” she said. “He comes as often as he can. The fact that his (eldest) son is with him, I feel no guilt when I’m going to do things with the other two because I know for once that he has got Casey covered. That works really well.

“To have two of them here is just a dream because we’re so in love with IU. It’s truly my favorite university. I’ve been around a lot of them through the life I led growing up. We didn’t want to guide them this direction, but when they chose it, I completely see why.”

Casey selected an unenviable position, Tracy said.

“You’re never going to win,” he said. “If you’re playing, people think it’s because your dad is the coach. My philosophy has always been that he (Casey) has to be outperforming dudes at a significant enough level. If it’s close, I’m generally going to err on somebody else.

“I’m probably coach 24/7 with him and that’s a tough, tough thing to do.”