a coach in the European Baseball Academy for Major League Baseball International in Tirrenia, Italy. For the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Smith returned as a coach for South Africa; the team was again eliminated during pool play, losing both of their games. Smith has three children from a previous marriage, Nikita, Lee Jr. and Dimitri. From his current marriage, he has additional twins, Alana and Nicholas. Hall of Fame candidacy Background In 1995, sportswriter Jim Murray selected Lee Smith as the active player most likely to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, describing him as "the best one-inning pitcher the game ever saw", and "the best at smuggling a game into the clubhouse in history." Following Smith's retirement, there was speculation on his chances of becoming a member of the Hall of Fame, while more generally "debate continues to rage over how to properly value reliever contributions." At the time that Smith retired, only Hoyt Wilhelm and Rollie Fingers had been inducted to the Hall of Fame primarily for their relief pitching, in 1985 and 1992, respectively. During the time Smith appeared on Hall of Fame balloting (2003–2017), the Hall added relievers Dennis Eckersley (2004), Bruce Sutter (2006), and Goose Gossage (2008). Eckersley, Fingers, and Sutter each captured a Cy Young Award, with Eckersley and Fingers also winning MVP awards, while Smith fared no better than second in Cy Young Award voting and eighth in MVP voting (both coming in 1991). Smith pitched in a transitional era, when closers began to be expected to pitch only a single inning. Although Smith and Gossage each pitched in slightly over 1,000 games, Gossage ended his career with over 500 more innings pitched ( to ). Sutter was the first MLB pitcher elected to the Hall with fewer than 1,700 innings pitched; Smith, who pitched less than 100 innings each season after 1984 and did not exceed 75 innings in any season after 1990, ended his career with fewer than 1,300. In 2005, statistician Alan Schwarz described Smith as a long shot for election despite the career record, and used Retrosheet data to compare the saves of several top relievers including Smith, Eckersley, Fingers, Gossage and Sutter. While Smith's save percentage (82%), outs per save (3.72) and average of inherited runners per game (.50) compared well with Eckersley's marks (84%, 3.33, .49), his figures in the last two categories sharply