 A baseball player as a youth in Connecticut and a lifelong fan, Smith became an investor in the Brooklyn Dodgers of Major League Baseball in 1944, and the following year he became a one-quarter owner of the franchise, an equal partner along with Dearie Mulvey (with her husband, James), Walter O'Malley and Branch Rickey.Under the quartet, the Dodgers won two National League pennants (; ), and made history by breaking the six-decade-old baseball color line with the 1947 debut of Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson.But O'Malley and Rickey clashed over control of the Dodgers and developed a deep animosity; over time, Smith became more sympathetic with O'Malley's position.