smith sealed the deal
sutcliffe lauds hall of fame closer as being his ‘safety net’ with cubs
If old-school workhorse pitcher Rick Sutcliffe was less than enthusiastic about what a closer could do for him — never mind the heresy of one in Cooperstown — that might have changed the first day he pitched for the Cubs after a midseason trade in 1984.
A walk, an error and a double leading off the bottom of the ninth turned a shutout bid into a 4-1 lead for the Cubs and a save situation.
“[Manager] Jim Frey came out and said, ‘I’m going to go to the bullpen,’ ’’ Sutcliffe said. “I told him, ‘Who the [expletive] you gonna bring in? Look down there. Who’s better than me?’
“And he said, ‘I’m going to bring in Smitty.’ And I look down and said, ‘Oh,
[expletive], I’ve heard of him.’ ’’
Lee Smith took over, and two outs later, Sutcliffe had the first of 16 wins in 20 starts for the Cubs on the way to an unlikely Cy Young Award.
“He comes in there throwing 100, and you could have caught me with a frickin’ shower shoe at that point,” Sutcliffe said.
Smith walked three and allowed two of Sutcliffe’s runners to score before finishing off the save. It was one of 478 during a career that will put him in the Hall of Fame on Sunday.
“One of my favorite all-time teammates,” Sutcliffe said. “I called him my safety net because when I came here, I never had a true closer.
“A quality start for me was shaking the catcher’s hand when it was over with. But it’s really nice to know that you have that safety net down there in a guy like Lee Arthur. It was like, ‘Maybe once in a while I can be honest with my manager now.’ ’’
Smith, one of eight closers elected into the Hall of Fame, joins Mariano Rivera this year. Trevor Hoffman was inducted last year, signaling a possible change in consensus thinking on relievers and the Hall.
“To be able to just air it out for six innings and have quality in the seventh, eighth and ninth — there were a lot of championships that came out of that,” Sutcliffe said.