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Am I the only one here who doesn't think Lee "Three-Run Homer" Smith should be in the Hall of Fame? Maybe that's because I saw him play. When his fastball was working, he was unhittable. When it wasn't (and that was a maddeningly frequent occurrence), it was "so long Mr. Spalding."
As for his numbers, I don't think they're all that special. I've long held that the save is the most overrated stat in sports, let alone baseball. But even in that stat he only led his league four times over his career. He never won the Cy Young or MVP awards, something that even Willie Hernandez was able to accomplish. He's third on the all-time list for saves, but there's a pretty significant gap - 123 saves - between him and the guy in second place (Trevor Hoffman). Craig Kimbrel, who has only pitched nine seasons, is about that far behind Smith right now.
He wasn't an innovator, like Hoyt Wilhelm or Bruce Sutter. He wasn't a dominant reliever for an extended period, like Mariano Rivera. He wasn't the answer to a trivia question, like Dennis Eckersley. He was just an above-average player for a long time, but then so were a lot of other people from that era, like Dave Parker and Bill Madlock, who aren't in the HofF.
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