Smith finally arrives with Chicago White Sox
September is always a special time of the season in major-league baseball.
Rosters can expand during the final month, and it's typically a good time for minor-league players to get their first taste of the big leagues.
Many of the minor-leaguers arrive with interesting back stories, and new Chicago White Sox catcher Kevan Smith is no different.
He actually has two.
First, Smith was just over an hour away from making his major-league debut on April 25, when the Sox were playing the Blue Jays in Toronto.
During the pregame stretch, Smith injured his back and landed on the disabled list.
"My back was a ticking time bomb." Smith said. "I had a partially bulging disc and the exercise I was doing was promoting it, which I didn't know. When it did blow out, it was the worst timing ever."
The back got better without surgery, and Smith was back on the field in a month - only back with Class AAA Charlotte instead of the White Sox.
The 28-year-old Smith played only one game in his return to the Knights when his knee gave out.
"The knee was fine, and I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary when it just popped really loud," Smith said. "I started sweating immediately, getting sick. It swelled like a grapefruit, so we had it cleaned out. It feels great now."
So does Smith, whom the Sox selected in the seventh round of the 2011 draft out of the University of Pittsburgh.
Smith was a .289 career hitter in the minor leagues heading into this season, but his catching skills always were the big question mark.
"I just want to prove that I can play up here," he said. "Catching has always been a thing I've had to work on. Hitting has been like a riding a bike. Catching, you have to stay up with it. Early work, receive, stay crisp on your blocking and your throwing.
"I just want them to know I can catch these pitchers up here; I can call a good game. I've hit all my career. What I really want to do is feel comfortable behind the plate, comfortable catching these guys, making sure they have confidence in me going into next year."
The second back story with Smith it that he didn't play baseball for his first three years at Pitt. Instead, he was a quarterback on the Panthers' football team from 2006-08 under former Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt.
"It's kind of funny, football was always just a thing I did in the fall to stay in shape for baseball," Smith said. "Baseball's always been No. 1 with me.
"But in my junior year of high school, I went to some football camps and I was throwing the ball to all these athletes, the scholarships started flowing in and all of the sudden baseball's on the back burner.
"I didn't play baseball for three years. Baseball was gone, out of my life. But then I started getting bigger, they wanted me to change positions in football so I wound up going back to baseball.
"I spent a lot of time in the minor leagues (six years), so it's a thrill to be here. It's settling in, and it feels more like I belong here. I think if you let it overwhelm you, it will. If you just trust your ability, trust your experience, trust the time you've put in to prepare yourself for this spot, everything just kind of falls into place."