Ed Smith and his wife Martha moved to Sarasota in the
early 1950's. Ed was a realtor and very involved in business in what was
still then, a small Sarasota community. He had always had a love for baseball,
and like many his age, lost out on his playing career to World War I.
Moving here from Ohio in the '50s, he got involved with the Sarasota Sports
Committee, the organization that was formed to support spring training
in Sarasota, as well as youth sports in the Sarasota Area.
In late 1958, the Boston Red Sox informed Sarasota that they were moving
to Arizona for Spring Training for the 1959 season. Ed Smith, now a member
of the Sports Committee, had established a business relationship with
then Chicago White Sox Owner, John Arthur Allyn through many real estate
transactions. Most notably of them, the sale of the Sarasota Motor Inn,
now the historic building of the Sarasota County Courthouse at the intersection
of Ringling Blvd. and Washington Blvd. Through his relationship with Allyn,
Ed arranged for the Los Angeles Dodgers to play 5 home games in Sarasota
in the spring of 1959, and then convinced the White Sox to move permanently
to Sarasota's Payne Park in 1960.
Ed Smith soon became the President of the Sports Committee, which assumed
responsibility of all spring training stadium operations for White Sox
Spring Training Games. In exchange for these services, the Committee received
a stipend from the White Sox, from which the Committee awarded many grants
to deserving area youth sports organizations. Ed continued as president
of the Sports Committee until 1993.
His engaging personality and passion for Sarasota and the game of Baseball
made him one of the city's most beloved citizens. When the Stadium was
built in 1989, after a successful 1986 General Obligation Bond Issue in
which Ed Smith and the Committee tirelessly stumped the voters to support,
the City Commission unanimously voted to name the new stadium in his honor.
He passed away on March 9, 2006 at the age of 91.
Read
the announcement from the March 10th, 2006 game honoring Ed Smith.
