This evening the Today's Game Era Committee selected Harold Baines and Lee Smith to be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019. They will be formally inducted on July 21, 2019 in Cooperstown, New York.
Baines' selection was something of a surprise including to Baines himself. Baines' 22-year MLB career included three stints with the Chicago White Sox, four stints with the Baltimore Orioles plus stops with the Texas Rangers, Oakland A's and Cleveland Indians. He collected 2866 hits for a .289 lifetime batting average with 384 HR and 1628 RBI earning six AL All-Star Team selections. Baines appeared on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot between 2007 and 2011 never earning more than 6% of the vote. Sports Illustrated is going as far as to call his induction "an embarrassment." This seems unduly harsh, but nevertheless his induction is a surprise.
On the other hand, I have long championed Lee Smith's inclusion into Cooperstown. Smith compiled 478 saves over 18 big league seasons primarily with the Chicago Cubs, but also had stints with the Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, California Angels, Cincinnati Reds and Montreal Expos. From 1993 to 2006, no one saved more games in MLB history than Smith. The 7 time All-Star became the first pitcher to record 200 or more saves in two different decades. Not even Mariano Rivera (who will join him in Cooperstown this summer) can make that claim. Yet in his 15 years on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot, he only garnered more than 50% of the vote once. In January 2017, his 15th and final year on the ballot, I predicted the Veterans' Committee (or current version of it) would rectify his exclusion. I just didn't think it would come this soon. But now than never.
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