ONE-ARMED BALLPLAYER TO BE FEATURED IN TV SHOW

TAMMS, Ill. -- Tony Smith's regular youth baseball season in Tamms is over for the summer, but his television season is just beginning.

Tony, 8, the one-armed son of Jim and Paula Smith of Olive Branch, will be featured on "Inside Edition" on WPSD-TV at 4 p.m. today.

Smith has been busy both on and off the baseball diamond the past month.

During a recent weekend, he was a guest of the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Memorial Stadium where he played catch and met with Cardinal manager Tony La Russa, baseball broadcaster Jack Buck and a number of the Cardinal players.

It was a great weekend, said Smith. The only damper was the Cardinals lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"Inside Edition," which airs throughout the United States and Europe, was on hand at Busch Stadium to film the day when Tony's dream came true, said Enid Lewin, a spokeswoman for the television program,

"Inside Edition" also talked with young Smith in his home setting.

Smith was a pitcher and first basemen in the Tamms Khoury League's Atom Division this summer.

He'll find out Monday whether his 6-4 team will receive a berth in the Khoury playoffs.

Smith's appearance on national television today will be his second since he was the subject of a feature story in the Southeast Missourian last month. The Missourian article was placed on the Associated Press' national wire and was featured in "USA Today" and a number of Illinois newspapers.

He appeared as "Home Town Hero" on a recent Fox's "Sports on Sunday" where he had an opportunity to talk with major league one-armed hurler Jim Abbott.

Smith also has only one arm to pitch and catch with and is playing his fourth year of youth league baseball, three of them in a T-ball league.

He was born without a hand and part of an arm but has learned to catch the ball and get rid of it in a hurry, said his mother, who attends all his games.

"He's a real competitor," said his father. "We tell him he is handicapped, not disabled."

Tony, the younger of two children, will start the third grade next fall at Egyptian School. His sister, Amber, who will be 11 this month, will be in the fifth grade.