Curt Smith
Columnist, Radio Commentator, Author, Baseball Historian — field_542d8190101fc
Curt Smith is a newspaper columnist, award-winning radio commentator, Upstate New York political analyst, and acclaimed author. His seventeenth and newest book is The Presidents and the Pastime: The History of Baseball and the White House. Smith also wrote more speeches than anyone else for George H. W. Bush during and after his 1989-93 Presidency. The New York Times terms Curt’s work “the high point of Bush familial eloquence.” Adds Chicago Cubs radio Voice Pat Hughes: “He is [also] simply one of the best baseball historians ever.”
From 2003-12, Smith hosted the popular National Public Radio Rochester, NY affiliate Perspectives on outlet WXXI. Associated Press and the New York Broadcasting Association voted his commentary “the best in New York State.” Among programs he hosted on local or Statewide radio/TV were Perfectly Clear, Talking Point, The Curt Smith Show, and Voices of The Game, at one time or another interviewing David Birney, Lynne Cheney, Bob Costas, Garth Fagan, Mark Gearan, Larry Lucchino, David Maraniss, Jon Meacham, George Mitchell, Robert Merrill, Al Roker, Louis Rukeyser, and George Will.
Increasingly turning to writing books, Smith’s include 2018’s The Presidents and the Pastime; The History of Baseball and the White House; George H. W. Bush: Character at the Core; Mercy! A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial Told Through Red Sox Radio and TV: A Talk in the Park: Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story; The Voice: Mel Allen’s Untold Story; Voices of Summer; What Baseball Means to Me; Storied Stadiums; Our House; Windows on the White House; Of Mikes and Men; The Red Sox Fan’s Little Book of Wisdom; The Storytellers; Long Time Gone; and America’s Dizzy Dean in addition to Voices of The Game.
Smith has been named among the State University of New York’s “Outstanding Alumni” and to the select Judson Welliver Society of former White House speechwriters. He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick committee, choosing a yearly broadcast inductee, and the National Radio Hall of Fame committee. Smith joined the University of Rochester faculty in 1999. He lives with his wife Sarah and their two children in Upstate New York.