Monessen’s Smith inducted into Police Softball League Hall of Fame
Submitted photo
Jim Smith founded the Thin Blue Line softball team. Smith, the Chief of Police in California, was selected to the Police Softball League Hall of Fame.
Submitted photo
Police Softball League Hall of Famer Jim Smith, a Monessen native, belts a pitch.
Throughout his life, Jim Smith has been thankful for many things, but the three that stand out the most have been his family, serving the community as a law enforcement officer and his softball career.
Smith’s family will always be his top priority, and he was recently hired as the Chief of Police in California after holding the same position for many years in his hometown of Monessen.
But on Oct. 7, he was recognized with an honor that he will always be grateful for as he was inducted as a Police Softball League Hall of Famer, and the fact that he was welcomed into the select fraternity still makes him smile more than a month later.
“Still, to this point, I am very humbled by it,” Smith said of the honor. “Of all the thousands of men who have played this game at this level, that I lasted as long as I did and made the Hall of Fame, maybe they put me in to get rid of me and to move along.”
Smith laughed as he concluded the previous quote as he has put in more than 25 years of playing in countless leagues and in tournaments all over the United States and into Canada.
His move onto the softball diamond correlated with his baseball playing days ending.
“I started playing softball when baseball started dying in the area around 1993 or 1994,” he said. “There were some leagues around here with a lot of teams. The Monessen league, Belle Vernon had a league, there was the Allenport Mill league and a Sunday league. I played as much as I possibly could.”
Smith played for several teams, including the Allegheny County Lawmen and the Steel City Enforcers, and he was with the latter for six years before leaving the team and taking a year off when he wanted more of a challenge.
But during the year off, Smith was missing, and yearning, that sense of belonging to a team and the adrenaline rush of competing.
“The team I had been playing for, I wasn’t happy,” he said. “They were happy to play at the gold level and I wanted to play on a team that would be playing for a major title every year.
“It was a difference in opinions, and it wasn’t fun,” he said. “If it isn’t fun, it is work, and I wasn’t getting paid to play softball, so I took a year off.”
At a Christmas party in 2012, Smith was speaking with his wife, Rob Dorcon and Joel Walsh. It was there that his wife told him that he could do one of two things: swallow his pride and ask for his position back with the Steel City Enforcers or start his own team and do his own thing.
“I told her to not threaten me with having a good time,” Smith said. “I have never been known to back down from a challenge, and that night was the birth of our Thin Blue Line softball team.”
After a winless first season, the team started to improve with Smith winning a pair of team MVP awards and made countless All-Tournament teams.
The team, with Smith as the manager, finished third in the Major Division in Texas in 2020.
This came a year after Smith and Walsh took over the Spring National Championship tournament in 2019 and moving it from Virginia Beach to Myrtle Beach.
From his softball debut in 1995 through today, Smith has remained in police softball in every way imaginable, and one he holds dear to his heart is as the team’s manager.
“I was fortunate in having some unbelievable team managers that I got to play for, guys like Joe Baney,” he said. “My most influential mentor would be John Mucy.
“I played locally for John for a lot of summers, and he may not have known it, but I was watching what he was doing and how he did it. He made it a family atmosphere and treated his players the right way.”
The Thin Blue Line team plays all over the United States and as far north as Wasaga Beach in Ontario, Canada.
Smith was nominated June 7 and found out he was being inducted at a tournament in Long Island, New York on July 23.
“The New York tournament is one of the bigger tournaments on the East Coast and someone who is on the Hall committee realized all of the East Coast nominees were going to be there,” Smith said. “As part of the New York tournament, they announced those of us who made it and none of us knew it was coming.
“It was quite a shock, and I didn’t have time to be emotional about it until our game was done and over.”
Smith still finds it hard to believe.
“It took a while for it to set in,” he said. “I am humbled, one, to get nominated and two, to get in.
“I am grateful about how many exceptional talents I have gotten to play with and always fortunate to play with a good team.”
The induction ceremony was held at the Police League World Series XVI during the opening games in Las Vegas.
“First and foremost, we recognize all of the law enforcement officers who lost their lives the previous year and our world series is so much more than just softball,” said Smith. “Softball is probably second or third in the list of priorities while we are out there. It is a brotherhood, where we get to see friends who have become family from all over the country.”
There is also a home run derby during opening ceremonies, awards given for community service, the Del Pickney award is given to an individual exemplifies what softball and the Police League is all about. Pickney is one of the founders of Police Softball.
Smith spoke about what all else the league and tournaments are about.
“More than just achievements on the field, it is like therapy for us,” he said. “There is no negativity towards us, and it is us against other guys who do what we do and understand one another, and it is very therapeutic for us.
“We talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and guys who have committed suicide. We talk about mental health. We have our own network, our own Facebook page. If anyone is ever feeling a certain type of way, there is someone to reach out to.”
Smith’s efforts over the years in the Police Softball League have been recognized and he is now forever immortalized after his induction.
“This honor is one more thing that I will forever be thankful for,” concluded Smith.