lee smith is in my hall of famer collection

when i first put my list of players together that would make up my hall of famer collection, i had the idea of limiting myself to a certain number of entrants. that made no sense to an older version of myself, especially since some of the players i chose aren't in cooperstown. lee smith was one of the guys that i overlooked the first time around, but he's in the collection now with this card as his entry:

that's a 2023 topps archives signature series 1985 topps buyback autograph numbered 14/18

here's the back:

smith was the first pitcher to reach 400 saves for his career, and he was the all-time saves leader when he retired with 478. i think that when you retire atop an all-time leader board of one of, if not the most, significant statistics for your player category, you should be in the hall of fame. maybe there's a ray guy allegory to be made here, and, now that i think about it, i am sure that correlation was made in many debates about smith's worthiness of the hall.

i didn't get to see smith pitch in person during his prime, but i did see him a couple of times in his later years.  first time was on april 2, 1996 which was opening night at angel stadium. smith pitched the 9th inning for the halos, but they were down by nine so it didn't matter that smith gave up a hit and no runs, striking out one. he wasn't in line for the save.

i next saw him pitch in his final season, as an expo, against the dodgers on may 11, 1997. with the expos down a run, he pitched a flawless 8th inning, striking out eric karros to end the frame.

of course, my main recollection of smith is seeing him as a cub surrender a walk-off home run to steve garvey in the 1984 nlcs. even though garvey was still my guy, i had caught cubs fever and was going to be happy with a cubbie win. things just didn't work out that way, but that home run doesn't diminish smith's achievements, or his worthiness as a hall of famer.

you can see smith with the rest of my hall of famer collection here!