BOARDMAN Scrappers GM has a front-office education

The 31-year-old will oversee the organization's business operations.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- Dave Smith's road to minor league baseball took some twists and turns, and it was filled with doubts and sacrifices.
As a student at Virginia Tech, Smith watched as his friends, studying to become engineers, set out for $50,000-a-year jobs.
"And I come out of school with, really, nothing," Smith, first-year general manager of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, said Monday during the Curbstone Coaches' luncheon at Lockwood House.
Smith was a business major, still seeking his niche in the world. He painted decks, mowed lawns and delivered pizza.
And he waited for that big business break.
"I knew I had to figure out what I wanted to do," Smith said.
Opportunity
Smith had friends who worked in minor league baseball, and those connections helped him land a job with the Richmond (Va.) Braves.
"What you find out in a hurry, there's a lot of long hours and hard work that goes into this business," said Smith, 31, a Hershey, Pa., native. "But once you get involved and start working in it, it gets in your blood and you can't really get it out."
The job in Richmond was the introduction Smith sought. He worked for a summer in its ticket sales department, learning the trade and building off the experience.
Of the 40-plus r & eacute;sum & eacute;s he sent, he received one response -- from the Erie (Pa.) SeaWolves.
"The general manager up there at that time, in the fall of '96, was Andy Milovich," Smith said of the man he replaced in the Scrappers' front office.
Smith interviewed for Erie's director of group sales, for which he was hired. He spent three seasons there, also working as an assistant general manager under Milovich.
Love of the game
"You don't get involved in this industry for the money," Smith said. "You get involved in it because you love sports, you love being involved with a professional sports organization, and you have an opportunity to work in a baseball stadium every day."
When Milovich was relocated to Mahoning Valley to oversee the Scrappers' berth in 1999, Smith followed a year later and spent the next four seasons preparing for a promotion.
That came this past offseason when Milovich was moved to Charleston, W.Va., to oversee the Class-A AlleyCats' transition into a new stadium.
Smith is beginning his fifth season at Mahoning Valley, the Cleveland Indians' short-season affiliate.
"This year's going to be a little special -- my first year as general manager," admitted Smith, who will oversee the organization's business operations.
The Scrappers' 76-game season begins June 18 at Eastwood Field in Niles.
Much of the team roster will be stocked through the amateur draft in early June. Mike Sarbaugh, the Akron Aeros' hitting coach last season, will be the Scrappers' manager.
richesson@vindy.com