Carl Smith has seen baseball from an up-close-and-personal vantage point few can match.

Now he’s passing along that wisdom to area up-and-comers.

Coach Smith’s Slyderz U-14 squad finished as co-champions of the Inner-City Classic held two weeks ago at ballparks all over the 804.

The Slyderz went 2-0-1 in the annual event sponsored by Metro Junior Baseball League (MJBL) and were ahead in the finals before the weather forced a premature ending.

The locals were declared co-champs with a team from Trenton, N.J.

Coach Smith’s passion for the sport began in 1985 when he became a Richmond Braves batboy at The Diamond.

For the next few years, while a student at John Marshall High, he became a regular at the facility on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. He later played baseball at Virginia State University.

“I was a batboy, an usher ... worked on grounds crew, clean-up crew ... you name it, I did it,” he fondly recalled.

He got to know many of the Braves as well as the opposing players, as visitor’s clubhouse attendant.

Among the Braves he remembers most are Dave Justice, who went on to big league fame with Atlanta, and infielder Carlos Rios.

“I used to pitch with Carlos all the time ... and shagged fly balls during batting practice,” he said.

In addition to coaching the Slyderz, Coach Smith serves as an instructor/coach at RBA-West where he has a travel team, Virginia Seminoles. He is assisted by Tim Bullock.

His full-time job is the family business, Shrimps, on West Brookland Park Boulevard.

Hailing from all over the area, the Slyderz included Meckhi Bullock and Tav’ion Tunstall (Varina), Toney Smith (coach’s son) and Eric Johnson (St. Christopher’s), Bryson Freeman (Mechanicsville), Ashton Kemp (Atlee), Jordyn Williams (Dinwiddie), Caden Stancil (Thomas Dale), Nafeese Lewis (Fluvanna), Jonathan Love (Highland Springs) and Devon Henry Jr. (Glen Allen).

Thanks to dedicated MJBL Director William Forrester and many others, the annual Inner-City Classic was a success despite inclement weather that resulted in creative rescheduling.

More than 400 youngsters up to age 19 competed in the event, with many having time for a discounted Kings Dominion field trip.

Looking ahead, Forrester said the 2024 event may be back in Richmond, but Greensboro, N.C., and Orlando, Fla., are other options.

For the first time there was a girls’fast-pitch softball division. The U-18 Tri-City Reign out of Hopewell won top honors.

The Home Run Derby was held at Hermit- age High, which had to make Justin Journette feel at home.

Journette starred at Hemitage before spend- ing this past season as the slugging, freshman third baseman for Norfolk State.

Journette, who had eight homers this past spring for NSU, blasted three balls out of the park in 10 swings to win the Derby while representing the U-19 Black Sox.