Lee Smith Marquee Hall of Fame 2019

He was six feet six and threw hard, and for eight years in Chicago he was the whole of the Cubs' late innings. Across eighteen seasons and eight clubs he saved 478 games, struck out 1,251 and pitched in 1,022, the twelfth-highest game total anyone has reached. He led his league in saves in 1983, 1991, 1992 and 1994.

That total passed Jeff Reardon's record during the 1993 season and stood until Trevor Hoffman went by it in 2006. Ten of his seasons brought thirty saves or more, and the best was 1991, when he saved 47 for St. Louis. He won 71 games and lost 92, which is the arithmetic of the job.

Fifteen years on the writers' ballot never got him close; his best showing was 290 votes out of 573. In 2019 the Today's Game Era Committee elected him with all sixteen votes cast. Relief pitchers had almost no history in that voting, and there was no settled answer to what a career of saves was worth.