'Burgh's Best to Wear It, No. 57: John Smiley still holds distinction as a Pirates pitcher

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 57: John Smiley

Nearly three decades later, his name remains synonymous with an accomplishment that hasn’t been duplicated since by a Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher.

John Smiley, 20-game winner.

Not since the 6-foot-4 left-hander went 20-8 in 1991 have the Pirates had a pitcher crack that major-league milestone, with Gerrit Cole coming the closest with a 19-win season in 2015.

Pittsburgh sports fans remember Smiley for that feat, as well as for the No. 57 on the back of his jersey. Smiley edged Steelers left guard Sam Davis, a member of their all-time team who played on four Super Bowl championship teams, as the best to wear that number in Tribune-Review voting.

A 12th-round draft pick by the Pirates out of Perkiomen School in Graterford in 1983, Smiley never played above Class A before making the majors. He had a career record of 126-103 in 12 seasons, including 60-42 in six seasons with the Pirates. He had three seasons with 12 or more victories, going 13-11 with a 3.25 ERA in 1988 and 12-8 with a 2.81 ERA in ’89.

The ’90 season, however, was something of a disaster for Smiley. He slammed a taxi door on his pitching hand after a game in Atlanta, suffering a broken finger that kept him out from mid-May until July. Smiley finished 9-10 with a 4.64 ERA but went 8-5 in the final two months as the Pirates clinched the NL East title.

Smiley followed Doug Drabek’s 22-win and Cy Young season in ‘90 with a gem of his own. Smiley won 20 games in 32 starts, compiling a 3.08 ERA with 129 strikeouts in 207 2/3 innings to earn All-Star honors and finish third in Cy Young voting.

With Drabek, Zane Smith, Randy Tomlin and Bob Walk, Smiley was the man in the middle of one of baseball’s best starting rotations. He started 8-1, lost four consecutive games in June and was 12-7 after a 5-3 loss July 29 at Atlanta. Over the final two months, Smiley shined in going 8-1, with the Pirates splitting his four no-decisions.

Smiley was one of four 20-game winners in MLB that season, joining Atlanta’s Tom Glavine (20-11), Minnesota’s Scott Erickson (20-8) and Detroit’s Bill Gullickson (20-9).

But he lost a pair of starts in the NL championship series against the Braves. In Game 3, he was pulled in the second inning of a 10-3 loss after allowing back-to-back RBI doubles followed by a two-run home run by catcher Greg Olson. In Game 7, Smiley lasted only two outs into the first inning, surrendering a sacrifice fly by Ron Gant and a two-run homer to rookie Brian Hunter in a 4-0 loss.

Then-general manager Ted Simmons stunned the baseball world by trading him to Minnesota for prospects Denny Neagle and Midre Cummings after the season in a salary dump. Even Smiley said he was “surprised and shocked by it,” saying he had no idea a deal was in the works and had “no desire to leave Pittsburgh.”

“We didn’t just give Smiley away,” Simmons said.

True, the Pirates got a future 20-game winner in return.

Problem is, Neagle didn’t accomplish that feat until he played for Atlanta in 1997.

And no Pirates pitcher has matched Smiley’s 20-win season.