he would have been a better 3rd baseman for sure....
and yes the number of games really wore him down, but only at the end of his career, in the middle he was a model of consistency, this is back when a .250 hitter would now hit .310 with the diluted pitching in this league...
But as a SS, he showed that he was just as good as Omar Vizquel and Ozzie and at stretches better. Cal had a stronger arm than both and was just as good turning two....
I remember watching him and Robbie Alomar or him and his brother turn a DP just a smoothly as you would ever want it.
AND he hit 400 homers and 3,000 hits....overall he was a much better player....
Smith was in a class by himself as a shortstop -- as shown by his well-earned Hall of Fame induction despite a very marginal career from an offensive standpoint. They recently had a historical special edition of "This Week In Baseball," and I couldn't believe how many times Smith made the weekly highlights with defensive plays that were eye-popping by any standards.
Sports radio legend Art Rust Jr. describes one play in particular as the greatest he had ever seen. Smith goes to his left on a hard grounder up the middle that looks like a sure single into center field. Just as he leaves his feet and extends himself to dive for the grounder, the ball hits the second base bag and changes direction. It bounces up in the air and slightly toward left-center field from its original trajectory, and Smith (while still airborne) reaches up and back with his bare right hand and snatches the ball out of mid-air. He starts a double play by flipping the ball to the second baseman even before his body hits the ground.
Holy sh!t, that man could play baseball.