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Former Chicago Cubs closer Lee Smith ready for his big day

Lee Smith may have been an accidental baseball player, but there was nothing accidental about his success as a closer.

Smith will be on stage Sunday in Cooperstown, New York, as one of six men inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The former Chicago Cubs closer and fan favorite said he has his speech written, and that he's proud to join the brotherhood of closers in the Hall of Fame. That includes sharing the stage with Mariano Rivera, the first unanimous selection of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

As far as that speech, Smith gave a tease of what it might contain to reporters last week on a national conference call.

"Probably my accidental getting into baseball, because I had a love of basketball," he said on the call. "But you know what, man, just right now, with relief pitchers. You know all the things we heard about relief pitchers, and now it's where the first guy that gets into the Hall of Fame unanimously is a relief pitcher, so I'm really looking forward to that. Seeing how that's coming will help the guys on down the line.

"But myself, man, I'm speechless. I'm so fired up about it."

Smith seems to have been walking on Cloud 9 since getting the news that he was elected last December by the Today's Game Era Committee along with former White Sox favorite Harold Baines.

With the BBWAA vote, Smith peaked at 50.6 percent in 2012. Seventy-five percent is needed for election by the BBWAA. Full disclosure: I voted, and enthusiastically so, for Smith, when he was on the BBWAA ballot.

Smith's 478 career saves rank third to all-time leader Rivera's 652 and Trevor Hoffman's 601. Of the 478 saves for Smith, 180 came with the Cubs.

His plaque will depict him with a Cubs baseball cap.

"Oh, it's definitely going to have to be a Cubbie, man," Smith said upon his election. "There's a lot of great teams that I played for because Smitty's been around, but the Cubs gave me my first chance at the big leagues. And, actually, the Cubs gave me a (2016) World Series ring, and that's unbelievable.

"I always have really great ties with people I knew through that Cub organization and other places, but I still have a great love for the Chicago Cubs."

Like most closers, Smith began as a starting pitcher before making the switch. He said he still remembers his last game as a starter, July 5, 1982 at Atlanta.

"Man, there ain't no way I'm going to forget that game," he said. "I hit a home run (off Hall of Famer Phil Niekro). Pitchers don't forget hits, I don't care how long ago they are. You know, the thing is, I always thought about it, because back in the day, you didn't want to be a reliever. You wanted to get back in the starting rotation, and to stay in that starting rotation, because usually, if you weren't good enough, it was like a plan.

"Hey, you're not good enough to start, they're going to put you in the bullpen, and if you're a reliever, you didn't get to pitch until the starter got his butt kicked."

During Smith's career, the role of the closer evolved. Nowadays, the closer pitches only the ninth inning, with rare exception. But when Smith was rounding into form as a closer, he and his peers often would pitch multiple innings.

When the Cubs won the National League East in 1984, Smith pitched 2-plus innings 24 times, including 4 appearances of 3 innings.

Either way, Smith agrees that getting those final three outs of a game takes a special mentality.

"Definitely," he said. "A lot of people can't do that. I had some guys that I thought were my setup men that had better stuff than me. Being out there, being that last man standing, it's just something about hitters. They don't want to be that 27th out.

"I talked to probably one of the best hitters in the game, (Cubs Hall of Famer) Billy Williams. He explained to me that was the worst feeling in baseball for him, in all the years that he played, was being out there while the other team was high-fiving, and you made that last out and had to weave through that team to get back to your dugout.

"(Closing is) a hard thing to do. You find so many guys that pitch the seventh and eighth inning and they'Il be nasty, and then when they get an opportunity to close, they fail. But I think it's just something about being that last man standing, it takes a special person."

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FILE - In this Dec. 8, 1987, file photo, Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Lee Smith works against the San Francisco Giants during a baseball game, in Chicago. Longtime closer Smith was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Bob Fila, File)
Patrick Kunzer/pkunzer@dailyherald.comFormer Cubs relief pitcher Lee Smith tosses a first pitch as fellow Hall of Fame Andre Dawson enjoys the moment at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Monday, April 8, 2019. Smith was recognized as the newest former Cub to make the Hall. MANDATORY CREDIT, MAGS OUT,(AP photo / Daily Herald, Patrick Kunzer )
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