Lee Smith makes the Hall of Fame after reluctantly playing baseball
By Robert Grayson
If there’s one guy a batter standing at home plate didn’t want to see glaring back at him from the mound, it was Lee Smith. At 6-foot-6, and weighing 250 pounds, Smith was an imposing figure and looked even bigger standing on the hill. Of course, the intimidating right-hander, who is part of the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2019, didn’t get by on looks alone. He backed up his commanding presence with a searing fastball and a nasty slider that frustrated major league batters throughout the 1980s and ’90s. “Actually that stare, the look on my face while I was on the mound, started when I came up with the Cubs (1980),” Smitty recalled. “We played a lot of day games then, and the glare from the afternoon sun, whe… Continue Reading (16 minute read)