Smith’s exclusion from Hall puzzling

Baseball numbers when deciding Hall of Fame worthiness are sort of like the teenager with a purple and green Mohawk and a piercing dangling from his tongue.

It's impossible not to take a good, hard, long look.

But in a voting process that is as biased as one's favorite color and now muddled with how to grade all the juiced biceps of the steroids era, no position remains as subjective as closers when casting ballots.

It never has been as simple as, say, whether Sam Malone ranks among the greatest characters in television history. That's too easy.

With closers, it never has been.

Mariano Rivera has passed 500 saves, and it's not entirely foolish to suggest the Yankees star will pitch long enough to catch and exceed whatever 600-plus saves total Trevor Hoffman eventually carries into retirement.

Think of John Grisham book sales in the 1990s. Dominance. Longevity. Rivera and Hoffman own the traits now associated with ensuring their faces will adorn one of those Cooperstown plaques.

So what in the world has happened with Lee Smith?

Each time a great closer passes another milestone as Rivera did against the Mets on Sunday evening, you can't help but envision Smith, of which there is no better case study for how relief pitchers have been judged.

Which is to say inconsistently.

Smith pitched 18 seasons and retired in 1997 with 478 saves, then the most in history. He was among the top five in Cy Young Award voting three times and owned the major league career saves record for a 13-year span. He also has been on the Hall of Fame ballot since 2003 and annually receives between 35 percent and 45 percent of the necessary votes for inclusion.

The guy is Peter O'Toole nominated for an Academy Award, up to this point a sure bet not to hear his name called.

"I think one thing that hurts Smith is that he is not associated with any one club," said Tim Sullivan, a sports columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune and Hall of Fame voter from 1991 to 2005. "He played for eight teams. To some extent, he is a victim of not being identified with one club like Rivera with the Yankees and Hoffman when with the Padres. I think that helps you gain a base of support from people in those towns and works to your advantage."

Hard to believe: Smith spent his first eight seasons with the Cubs but pitched in St. Louis only for four. It seemed twice that long. It also seemed Farrah Fawcett was on "Charlie's Angels" for a decade instead of one season. Go figure.

But not being recognized as wearing one uniform for most of his career shouldn't exclude a player with otherwise deserving numbers. Jeff Reardon is another closer not in the Hall of Fame. The subjective joke continues.

Sullivan doesn't believe it's a matter of voters being more selective years ago compared to now. He makes the point that there were no inductees until 1936 and, well, it took some time to get the Babe Ruths and Cy Youngs and Grover Alexanders and George Sislers in over the first several years.

There was a backlog of deserving players to consider then.

There isn't today, which makes Smith's exclusion even more baffling.

But what we have seen this decade is a trend that says voters are more apt to embrace the specialist's role, that there is a shift away from downgrading the importance of a pitcher asked to work one inning as opposed to a time when relievers such as Goose Gossage went two and sometimes three to finish a game.

Three of the five closers in the Hall of Fame have entered over the last six years. You'd figure Smith needs to get in over the next several if it's going to happen, what with Hoffman and Rivera swiftly approaching.

Maybe some hold Smith's 3.03 career ERA or the fact he surrendered 89 home runs against him when voting. Whatever.

Dennis Eckersley is in the Hall of Fame and had an extraordinary ERA of 0.61 in 1990 but is most remembered for a home run pitch he threw to Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series.

Rivera is a certain first-ballot inductee, but even he had postseason blunders against the Indians in 1997, the Diamondbacks in 2001 and Red Sox in 2004. The point: Perfection won't be found on any closer's resume.

"The role of the closer has changed so much over time," Sullivan said. "But I think as time goes on, voters are looking a little deeper and giving guys a second look."

It took Bruce Sutter 13 years to make it. It took Gossage nine.

And each time a closer makes headlines as Rivera did Sunday, Smith comes to mind.

Why isn't he in?

That's the thing. There isn't a good enough answer.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.