"Smalley came from the Twins at the beginning of the season as part of the deal for Ron Davis. He hit 20 homers to set the Yankee record for a shortstop, and all but four of his homers came from the left side of the plate.
He had a problem off and on with his bad back, but still managed to play in 142 games for the Yankees. Roy played mostly shortstop and some third base but could be the first baseman this year.
Born in Los Angeles, Smalley attended Southern Cal. He was drafted No. 1 by Texas in the January 1974 draft and is entering the third year of a four-year contract
Roy is the nephew of former major league manager Gene Mauch. His father, Roy Jr., played shortstop with the Cubs and Phillies."
-Ken Nigro, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1983 Edition
"On April 10, 1982 a dream came true for Roy Frederick Smalley III. After playing six seasons playing for the Minnesota Twins mainly under his uncle, Manager Gene Mauch, Smalley became a member of the New York Yankees- the team he described as 'the quintessence of major league baseball.' With that in mind, the 30-year-old native of Los Angeles joined his teammates in New York.
For the first time in many years, the Yankees have found a shortstop who can hit home runs. The record of 15 homers in one season by a Yankee shortstop which was previously shared by Tom Tresh and Frank Crosetti, now belongs to Smalley. A switch-hitter, he hit 16 of his 20 homers in games he played at short. Additionally, Smalley hit two homers in one game three times last season, including September 5 when he hit one batting left-handed and one batting right-handed. Only three other Yankees in history have performed such a feat- Mickey Mantle, Roy White and Tom Tresh.
A versatile fielder whose father Roy Smalley Jr. was a National League infielder in the '50s, Smalley played both short and third for the Yankees last season. No matter which position Billy Martin asks him to play in 1983, Yankee fans can be sure that Roy Smalley will play it with the intensity and drive that motivates a perfectionist."
-The New York Yankees Official 1983 Yearbook
"Smalley joined the team before the Yankees' '82 season opener, being traded from Minnesota on April 10. He hit 16 of his 20 home runs as a shortstop, setting the Yankee single season shortstop home run record previously held by Frankie Crosetti (15 in 1936) and Tom Tresh (15 in 1962).
Roy hit a grand slam at Yankee Stadium on May 1 off Bill Caudill and hit eight home runs in a 10-day period in September. He hit two homers in a game three times, September 5, September 13 and September 15, including switch-hit homers on September 5 at Kansas City, joining Tresh, Mickey Mantle and Roy White as the only Yankees to hit switch homers. Smalley split his playing time with the Yankees between shortstop (89 games) and third base (53 games).
In 1978 he was named the Twins' most improved player and MVP, breaking Rod Carew's six-year monopoly on the Twins MVP title. Smalley won the Twins MVP honors again in 1979, setting the Twins shortstop single season records with 162 games, 24 home runs, 95 RBI and 80 walks, and his 24 homers were the most in organized professional baseball by a shortstop that year. In 1981 Roy was bothered by lower back pains in spring training, a condition diagnosed as congenital spondylolysis, which had not bothered him since his college days.
Roy has a career batting average of .308 (37-for-120) with 11 home runs in Seattle's Kingdome. In 1974 he was named to the Eastern League All-Star team.
Smalley starred in baseball at Los Angeles' Westchester High. He was a philosophy major at USC where he played on two national championship teams, earning All-American and two-time All-Pac 8 honors. Roy played with a U.S. collegiate all-star squad that played in Japan in 1972.
He's the son of Roy Smalley, Jr., who was an infielder with the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Braves and Philadelphia Phillies from 1948-55, and is the nephew of Gene Mauch, his former manager at Minnesota."
-1983 New York Yankees Information Guide
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