Hall of Fame reliever Smith sleeping giant of baseball

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This article was published 21/07/2019 (2302 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Former Cubs closer Lee Smith was asked during a Hall of Fame press briefing Saturday what he would say to a manager if asked to be an “opener” for an inning or two.

“It wouldn’t work,” Smith replied. “Because I was sleeping.”

A little later at a separate briefing, Harold Baines was asked what Smith was like as a teammate with the Orioles.

“When he wasn’t sleeping?” Baines said with a grin.

Smith was one of the greatest closers in baseball history, recording 478 saves over 18 seasons and, like Baines, getting into the Hall through the Veterans Committee vote. He’ll join Yankees great Mariano Rivera, the all-time saves leader, on stage today in a historic day for closers.

But one thing some fans don’t know about “Big Lee” is he also was considered perhaps the greatest napper in baseball history, an unofficial designation Smith was only too happy to discuss on the eve of his induction.

“Man, there was nothing like waking up with a three-run lead, dude,” he said.

Smith, who dominated the late innings for years with his size and power arm, insisted he could nap anywhere, including the clubhouse floor at County Stadium in Milwaukee.

“I could actually sleep right in the middle of the floor, and guys would step over me,” he said. “It was like, ‘Man, how do you do it?’ I was like, ‘Throw a towel over my face and I’m out, man.’

“The trainer’s job was to make sure I was up in the sixth inning. I was always able to relax, and I think that helped out (my career) a lot.”

So why don’t more players take naps during games?

“Let me tell you what ‘Smitty’ started,” he said.

“They’ve got a room in (the Cubs clubhouse), it’s like the ‘quiet room.’ They’ve got beds and they’re, like, monitoring these guys’ sleep. I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. You’ve got to put my name on that door.’ It’s amazing how many organizations have got that now, a room where you’re able to relax.

“Back in the day, the clubhouses weren’t big enough to have a place, especially for a man my size (6-6 and listed between 220 and 265 pounds), to get comfortable. But now it’s a given. … We’ve got a trainer that monitors a guy’s sleep and how many hours of sleep they get a week. I don’t have to go to that meeting because I had that under control.”

Smith grew up in the small town of Castor, La., and played for eight teams in his career.

The first eight seasons were with the Cubs, and he was one of the main reasons they snapped a 39-year post-season drought in 1984.

“The thing with the Chicago Cubs,” he said, “if I give up that home run in the eighth or ninth inning and the game is over by about 4 (p.m.), I’d see it at home about six times before 10.”

The Cubs traded Smith to the Red Sox in 1987 in a lopsided deal that brought back mediocre pitchers Calvin Schiraldi and Al Nipper.

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He then wound up in St. Louis, where he had his best year in 1991 with a league-leading 47 saves.

Smith said Cardinals fans were “spoiled from winning, and that’s a good thing to be around,” and he recalled starting pitcher Joe Magrane getting a standing ovation after coughing up a lead on some fluke hits.

“I’m like, I just came from Chicago and Boston,” he said. “They’d have been keying your car outside.”

Smith was rejected on the writers’ ballot during his 15 years of eligibility — his highest percentage of votes was 50.6 per cent in 2012, his 10th year — and he wondered why it took so long for him to get to Cooperstown. But he now feels like “all the hard work paid off.”

— Chicago Tribune