LAS VEGAS • With his ERA lodged around 6.00 and his climb through the minors stalled as a starter, Lee Smith had a manager at Class AA approach him with an offer that would radically alter his career. Randy Hundley suggested Smith become a reliever.
On Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, Smith and Harold Baines were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special committee, and Cooperstown will never be the same. The specialists have arrived. They’re bringing friends.
During his time on the writers’ ballot, Smith received more than 50 percent of the vote once, and he was often used as an example of a reliever caught between generations – not always the multi-inning relievers of past classes (Goose Gossage, Rollie Fingers) and not the one-inning monsters of the modern group (Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera).