HOUSTON -- Angry businessmen told Houston Astros owner John McMullen in a half-page newspaper ad they will credit fired General Manager Tal Smith with the team's successes and him with with any failures.
Smith was to vacate his Astrodome office today.
'I've never been the recipient or the beneficiary of such an outpouring of genuine support and love and affection and I'm overwhelmed,' he said Thursday. 'It's been unlike anything I've ever experienced.'
Smith seemed uneasy in reacting to the protest.
'I just wish the fans' reaction had been because we had won, and there was a certain amount of it. But this has transcended that in volume and it's very difficult to acknowledge,' he said.
The ad placed by five automobile dealers in Thursday's Houston Chronicle said: 'We Want Tal Smith Back!'
Smith is credited with building the team into a World Series contender.
'It has become a very difficult thing to handle and to cope with,' he said as he boxed up papers and mementos of 18 years in the Astros' front office.
The ad asked fans to sign and mail a protest letter included in it to an address for delivery to McMullen.
The letter read: 'Dear Mr. McMullen, We the sports fans of Houston are greatly upset by the firing of Tal Smith. It was greatly uncalled for in our view.'
McMullen gave no reason for the firing.
The letter also commented on Smith's assessment that he was fired because McMullen's ego would not tolerate Smith receiving credit for the team's success. McMullen bought the team in July 1979.
The letter said: 'If the team continues to be successful we will remember Tal as the one who deserves most of the credit. If the team should stumble we will also know who is to blame. YOU.'
Bob Archer, president of one of the car dealerships, said: 'Tal Smith got a raw deal. I think this ad could have some effect. This is a Houston ball team and it ought to respond to the fans.'
Several of 21 limited partners who put $3.5 million with McMullen's $1 million-plus and a $10 million loan to buy the club have said they were studying the ouster of McMullen as managing partner.
McMullen controls 33 percent of the shares.
New York lawyer David LeFevre and Houston mortgage banker Edward Randall have been spokesmen for the limited partners, who include former astronaut James Lovell and race car driver A.J. Foyt.
Both have said several limited partners were studying courses of action to oust McMullen and reinstate Smith.
The discussed alternatives have included dissolving the partnership, which reportedly would require a 60 percent vote. Dissolution of the partnership reportedly would require National League approval.
Smith said Thursday he had talked with LeFevre since the firing but also had been busy attending to old business and helping the transition of New York Yankees' ex-President Al Rosen into his job.
