 In 1995 , Pulitzer Prize @-@ winning sportswriter Jim Murray selected Lee Smith as the active player most likely to be elected to the 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 . " Since his retirement two years later , much speculation has centered on Smith 's specific chances of becoming a member of the Hall of Fame as well as the criteria for relief pitchers and closers in general . Only Hoyt Wilhelm , Rollie Fingers , Dennis Eckersley , Goose Gossage , and Bruce Sutter have been inducted into the Hall of Fame @-@ based primarily on their relief pitching , and only Sutter has been inducted with fewer innings or starting appearances than Smith . In addition , Fingers and Eckersley – the only two to be elected in fewer than eight tries – won MVP awards , and Sutter captured a Cy Young Award , but Smith was rarely a serious contender for either trophy . He pitched in a transitional era , when closers began to be expected to pitch only a single inning ; although Smith and Goose Gossage each pitched in slightly over 1 @,@ 000 games , Gossage ended his career with over 500 more innings . Sutter was the first pitcher ever elected to the Hall with fewer than 1 @,@ 700 innings pitched ; Smith , who pitched fewer innings every year from 1982 through 1989 and never pitched more than 75 innings 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 <unk> 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 , <unk> ) , his figures in the last two categories sharply trailed those of the others ; Fingers , Gossage and Sutter all averaged between 4 @.@ 72 and 4 @.@ 82 outs per save , with Sutter inheriting <unk> runners per game and the other two <unk> , suggesting their saves were harder to achieve . Smith started his career earning multiple @-@ inning saves , but the strategy in baseball for closers changed , and he was later used as a one @-@ inning pitcher . He had a higher career save percentage than Fingers , Gossage and Sutter . Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera both exceeded Smith 's former record of 478 saves , and the two are now widely considered the best one @-@ inning closers ever . 
