INDIANA DAILY STUDENT | THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2014 | IDSNEWS.COM
IDS TIM FARIS | IDS
IU student Alex Anderson and her partner, graduate Ashli Lovell, share a kiss on the steps of the Monroe County Justice Building where many couples were wed after Indiana’s gay marriage ban was ruled unconstitutional. See the full story on page 10.
Walking off BY EVAN HOOPFER ehoopfer@indiana.edu
Casey Smith was lying in his bed, trying to ignore the excruciating pain. He just wanted to go to sleep.
SAMANTHA STARR | IDS
One night, Casey Smith was experiencing so much pain he wasn’t able to get out of bed to turn off the light in his room. Months later, Smith sits on the same bed he was unable to get out of.
He had a pinched nerve in his right leg. His ankles, feet and toes were swollen beyond belief, he said. He tried and tried, but sleep wouldn’t come. After taking batting practice earlier that day, as he had hundreds of times before in his career, he was sore. Being sore was normal for Smith. But he had been diagnosed with reactive arthritis a few years before, and the condition can cause severe pain everywhere from the eye to the toe. Smith had always fought through the pain in his career, but heading into his senior season, the pain was too much. Smith, who had helped IU reach its first ever College World Series the year before, hitting .309 as an outfielder, couldn’t even get up to turn off the light because of the pain in his body. He tried throwing a pillow at the light switch. No luck. He threw another one. Still nothing. His roommate and teammate Trace Knoblauch didn’t learn about the incident until the next day. Knoblauch told Smith he should have called him, and he would have come in and turned the light off for him. “He just kinda had a defeated look about him,” Knoblauch said. “Like he was too embarrassed. He didn’t wanna resort to that, you know?” Smith isn’t the type to ask for help. His mother, Jaime Smith, said she has always admired her son’s toughness. There was the time he got cleated in the face. With blood pouring down, he stayed in the game. There was the time in little league he was pitching and a line drive hit him in the head. Still, he kept playing.
“My kid, he is tough as all get out,” Jaime said. “I think he’s tougher than he even knows with his pain tolerance.” Unfortunately for Smith, who had dealt with injuries his whole life because of the reactive arthritis, paralyzing pain was becoming more and more common. Something was seriously wrong. The condition he had spent his whole life trying to manage was getting worse. “When I get those episodes,” Smith said, trailing off. “They suck, man. I can’t even crawl.” *** The 2013 season was a dream year not only for Smith, but also for IU. To go along with his .309 batting average, Smith finished with five home runs and 34 RBI, his best collegiate baseball season. The Hoosiers, who had never been ranked in the school’s history, became one of the country’s best teams. They advanced to the CWS, the first time a Big Ten team had reached Omaha, Neb., since the 1984 Michigan team. The next year, Casey came into his senior season ranked one of the top-100 senior prospects by Baseball America. But as 2014 approached, the pain he had dealt with his whole life became unbearable. On mornings where he had trouble walking, Knobloch would offer him a piggy-back ride to his car. “After seeing what he went through, I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone,” Knobloch said. Smith didn’t play as much as he had in 2013, but the times he did play in 2014, he was in pain. Sometimes he was on crutches in the dugout. He only played in 21 games, and hit just .179. SEE SMITH, PAGE 10
Column: With Tracy Smith’s departure, IU lost more than just a coach BY EVAN HOOPFER ehoopfer@indiana.edu
As a journalist, you’re supposed to be impartial. Unbiased. Objective. As much as my mom despises this, I don’t root for the team I’m covering to win or lose. I’m just there to report the facts. But journalists like certain individuals more than others. We are, after all, human. I know I’m not supposed to, but I like Coach Tracy Smith. And I know I’m not alone.
June 24 was a day IU baseball fans won’t forget. Smith left IU and took the head-coaching job at Arizona State University. The prestige of an Arizona State program that has won 30 games or more in each of the past 52 seasons and won five national titles was too much to pass up for Smith. At IU, he built a team that had no baseball tradition into a legitimate national title contender. At Arizona State, he’ll try to awake a sleeping giant. What surprised me most about
Tuesday was how genuinely happy people were for Smith. If you search IU’s hashtag on Twitter “#iubase” you won’t see the vitriol commonly associated with other IU sports. Sure, there were some “woe is me” fans who were upset about Smith leaving, but an overwhelming and astonishing majority of IU baseball fans were happy for Smith and his family. People were happy for Smith because he was open about his life with the fans and the media, which made him relatable. He posted selfies
of his beard on Twitter. He gave his critiques on the many, many Netflix shows he watched. He was the baseball coach of IU, but he was also the guy next door you stop and make small talk with. The Hoosiers are losing a lot with Smith’s departure. They lose the coach who brought them the most successful era in IU baseball. They lose their leader. Their head of the program. The man who helped make baseball relevant in Bloomington. But the Hoosiers lose something else with Smith’s departure.
Earlier this season I was lucky enough to spend two hours at Smith’s house for an extended interview for a profile story. The one thing I’ll remember most — other than him wearing a “Call of Duty” T-shirt — is him saying he ultimately doesn’t want to be remembered as the coach of a baseball program. First and foremost, he wants to be remembered as a “good dude.” And that’s exactly what IU lost Tuesday. A good dude.