Baseball Hall of Fame: Left Field
Best—Lonnie Smith, 35.0 fWAR, 67th among left fielders
Some MLB players have the misfortune of having their entire careers whittled down to a single mistake. Bill Buckner and the ball through his legs. Fred Merkle‘s failing to touch second base. Snodgrass’ muff. Lonnie Smith is one of these guys. He made a baserunning blunder in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 1991 World Series that may have ultimately allowed Jack Morris to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Smith’s failure to score on Terry Pendleton’s double in the gap kept the game scoreless. The Twins would go on to win in 10 innings, and Jack Morris would be considered the gutsiest pitcher who ever lived by tossing a complete game victory. Even with that victory, it took a veterans committee to vote Morris into the Hall of Fame. Without that success, he might still be waiting.
Smith was heavily criticized by announcer Tim McCarver in that clip, but he claimed he didn’t fall for the fake by Knoblauch. He said he lost the ball in the Metrodome ceiling. He pointed out that if he had fallen for the fake, he would have slid into second and not gone in standing up.
Baseball fans never let the facts get in the way of a good story, so Smith being faked out by Knoblauch will live long in baseball lore. In one of those baseball quirks, both Smith and Knoblauch each received a single vote for the Hall of Fame. They also finished within five wins of each other based on Fangraphs WAR (Knoblauch—39.8, Smith—35.0)
It’s a shame Smith is mostly remembered for one play because he had some outstanding years in the big leagues. He started his career by finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting in 1980. Two years later he was an All-Star and finished second in NL MVP voting to Dale Murphy. That season, he hit .307/.381/.434 and led the league with 120 runs while also stealing 68 bases.
The Pittsburgh Drug Trials put Smith in a negative spotlight and cost him part of the 1986 season with a suspension. Three years later, he had his best big league season when he hit .315/.415/.533 with 21 homers and 25 steals for the 1989 Atlanta Braves. Those 21 home runs were astonishing for a guy who never hit more than nine in any other season.
Others—Greg Luzinski (78th), Garret Anderson (123rd), Jacque Jones (256th), John Lowenstein (305th)
Jacque Jones got one Hall of Fame vote despite having just one above-average season in his career. In 2002, he hit .300/.341/.511 and launched 27 big flies. That season accounted for 40 percent of his career WAR. He was in the news at the end of last season when he was suspended by the Nationals from his job as their hitting coach while being investigated for revenge porn on an ex-girlfriend. It’s an ugly story that includes the words “the full tiddies,” which is probably the only time you’ll see that in print.