TORONTO – The Pan American Games athlete destined to get the most attention for his look is sure to be Tim Smith, whose epic beard is really something to behold.
After roughly nine months of mostly undisturbed growth, even Brian Wilson can look at the unruly black tussock that hangs down to the Canadian first baseman/outfielder’s chest with some envy.
That it’s been a hot topic of discussion with the national team as it prepares to defend gold is all good with the 29-year-old from Toronto, who describes the beard as "literally a part of me now," before adding, "I need it, I need it."
"Everyone got a laugh out of it, it started progressively getting a little bit more aggressive, and it played into my style of being a Canadian," says Smith. "I feel it’s kind of lumberjack-esque. I wear my socks up and stirrups, no undershirt, I just feel like it’s Joe Bunyan old school. A lot of people get a good smile out of it, so I think I’m going to keep it rolling."
Smith’s motivation for the plump plumage comes from the ceaseless trash talk of his former Quebec Capitales and Perth Heat roommate Shawn Sanford. Save for a couple of trims, some shaping work and a recent dose of "Just For Men to get a jet black going so it looks nice and shiny in the sunshine," his approach has been "just give ‘er, let it go, be a beast."
"(Sanford) is always trying to one-up me, I’m a bigger man than you type of thing, so I was like, ‘Alright, you want to play this game?’" he recalls. "I started growing the beard a little bit, and it started becoming a part of me once it got past that awkward stage. I surpassed him with his six or seven-month head start from me. Pretty pumped about that one."
Smith is even more pumped about suiting up for Canada again, having played an integral role on the 2011 squad that beat the United States 2-1 in the gold-medal final.
He played a critical role in that contest, following Chris Robinson’s two-out single in the sixth inning with another base hit and then cleverly scoring from first base on Jimmy VanOstrand’s poke to right field that was stretched into a double.
The opportunistic play flipped what was a 1-0 deficit, and was emblematic of the smart, tenacious and aggressive brand of baseball that Canadian group played, and that the current team will need to mimic for similar success.
"He’s a good baserunner and he always runs hard," says Tim Leiper, the Toronto Blue Jays first base coach who coached third for Canada in 2011 and waved Smith home. "Most of the time on a single guys won’t run hard but Smitty was running really hard, VanOstrand made a really good turn at first base, and (Brett Carroll, the right-fielder) didn’t know if he was going to go to second or turn back to first so I think he got caught in between. There was that moment of hesitation where he didn’t throw the ball and then tossed it in easy to second. With the way Smitty was running, once I saw his direction going to second base, it was an easy send."
Andrew Albers, who threw 6.2 strong innings, and Scott Richmond, who recorded the final seven outs to close things out, made sure Smith’s smart base-running held up.
"It goes back to playing hard, which is the Canadian way," says Smith. "I’ve always been taught to respect the game, play hard, so until coach holds me up, I’m going to keep giving ‘er. I couldn’t really get a read on the play behind me, but I think we all expected it to be a first to third. (Leiper) did an amazing job on that one."
The 2015 team won’t have the same offence as the 2011 club, so the players will need to capitalize on any small crack they can find.
"In international play, you’ve got to step on the gas, every little run matters," says Smith, who’s playing with the Capitales again this season. "You become a little bit more disciplined, you lock in on every single pitch because those little things really do add up. We never have the monsters on paper like USA or Cuba, so we’ve got to play baseball the way it’s supposed to be played."
That’s been one Canadian trait consistently on display during international play, with the various national teams all benefitting from a special camaraderie players believe allows them to become more than the sum of their parts.
"It’s a little bit different than the United States," says Smith. "We’re much more tightly knit and we are the underdogs in a lot of situations, so that extra tool is chemistry, and it makes a huge difference. And I think Canadians, just the way we are about life, we’re polite people and social and friendly. We do a lot of things with passion and we’re very patriotic, I love it.
"All those things mixed together just boost a great positive feeling around each other. It has something to do with that hockey mentality, too, just for the boys, you do anything for the boys. Taking pitches, getting hit by pitches, breaking up plays, sliding hard, taking catchers out, whatever, you’ve got to do, you do it for the boys."
And if it happens to be lightening up the mood with some spectacular facial growth, well that works, too.
"You can’t help but react," says veteran national team right-hander Shawn Hill. "It’s not just big, it’s also all sorts of gnarly. It is some sort of special."
Of that, there’s no doubt.