Baseball Hall of Fame

So yesterday Trevor Hoffman announced his retirement from Baseball. The long time reliever and MLB's all-time save leader is a lock for the hall of fame and rightly so. However, there is no way he should get in the hall of fame before Lee Smith. Smith retired as the all-time saves leader. He was a dominant reliever for over a decade and has very similar stats as Hoffman.

Smith Stats


Hoffman Stats



Smith has been eligible since 2003 and has never achieved the 75% of votes needed to enter the hall. He may end up being like Bert Blyleven who will get inducted this year after I believe 13 years of waiting. I hope Smith doesn't have to wait this long but he may. However, with the PED's controversy hanging over former locks for the HOF such as McGwire, Bonds, Clemens and Palmerio, he may have plenty of opportunities as the only sure lock of players in the next few years that I can think of off the top of my head is Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson and John Smoltz. Johnson will be a first ballot while the other two may not be. One last plug for entry is for Tim Raines. One of my favorite players growing up and a very underrated player. A player who if he didn't play in the Rickey Henderson era would probably be in. HOF writers, vote for Smith and Raines. They deserve it.