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Astros fans will love Cam Smith's heartfelt reaction to making Opening Day roster

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Climbing Tal's Hill

Mar 6, 2025; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; Houston Astros infielder Cam Smith (90) celebrates scoring a run with teammate Chas McCormick, right, in the first inning against the New York Mets at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

By now, the bit is pretty well-worn. A team decides to give a prospect an opportunity in the big leagues, they set up a camera in an office, and they post a clip of the manager breaking the news. It is great, but we have seen it a lot in recent years. For the Houston Astros adding Cam Smith to their Opening Day roster, they had something a little different in mind.

At this point, it was pretty much a given that the Astros were going to carry Smith on their roster. He was in camp in spring training's final days, most of the beat writers openly claimed that such a move was likely, and no one with the team was doing much to quell the speculation. After just 32 games in the minor leagues and a handful of spring training games, Cam Smith is a big leaguer.

Of course, there was the matter of breaking the news to Smith and Astros manager Joe Espada decide that such an event required a little bit of sneakiness and some help from the family.

Cam Smith's reaction to making Astros' Opening Day roster was everything great about baseball

That is a moment that Smith is going to be able to cherish with his family forever and it definitely gets you right in the feels. It is a little messed up that Espada made Smith ugly cry in front of everyone, but this moment was truly special and deserved a little bit of flare.

Smith did compose himself a bit better when speaking to reporters after he got the word, but he was still extremely emotional. He talked about knowing that it was a possibility, but that it was still crazy that it actually happened while talking about how special it was that his mom, who often raised him by herself and struggled to take him to practice and games, was the one that helped break the news.

These are the moments that make baseball special. Surviving the gauntlet that is minor league baseball is no joke even for first round draft picks like Smith. Yet, he somehow found an unlikely path to make the Astros Opening Day roster playing a position he has never played before this spring and the season after he was drafted. With that decision comes the weight of expectations to live up to his "aircraft carrier" label now that he is in the big leagues as well as some risk that he is being called up too soon.

None of that matters today, though. Today is about hope and the joy that a young guy who has dreamed of making it to the majors realizing that dream. We can at least wait until tomorrow to get mad about sports again.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.