Burn Baby Burn! Closer Inferno!

Has anyone else gotten tired of the yearly meltdown and corresponding reporting on the various ‘closers’ in MLB, and when they may lose the job to some other candidate to be a dumpster fire in the last inning of a game near you? 

Throw a Benitez on the fire

This season we’ve already seen four pitchers (Thornton – White Sox; Rodney – Angels; Nathan – Twins; Franklin – Cardinals) lose their closer gigs by fanning the flames, instead of putting them out. There are others that have lost and (kind of) regained their jobs (Storen – Nationals; Fuentes – A’s), and a couple (Lidge – Phillies; Aardsma – Mariners) that are injured. It’s been volatile, but the reality is it’s always volatile, with an average of 12 closers in any given year losing their jobs for one reason or another since 2004.

Fan’s who know the history of the game know having a "closer" is a very recent innovation for baseball, relatively speaking. The idea of having one special guy pitch the final inning of a close game in which his team has the lead has really only been around for about the last 30 years. It was probably Bruce Sutter that started it, not that it was his idea, or his ‘fault.’

"Goose" Gossage, like Sutter, had morphed from being a 2 or even 3-inning guy in the 1970’s to a one-inning pitcher by the early 1980’s. John Franco, Dan Quisenberry and Lee Smith followed, and then Dennis Eckersley set the new standard that only Mariano Rivera has since matched.

Lefty led in wins AND saves in 1930

Back in 1930, Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove led the American League in saves with 9. The fact that Grove was 28-5 that season, and threw 291 innings may have cut down on his save opportunities? Do you think the cranks in Philly back then were clamoring for his removal as closer? 

Not sure, but next year Lefty only had 5 saves. Maybe his excuse was that he started 30 games, and finished 5 others? The fact that he went 31-4 in 1931 with a 2.06 ERA in 288 innings may have been a lot better reason to leave the man alone?

In 1930, and really, for the better part of every season of Major League baseball from the early 1900's until about 1980, teams basically used 4 to 6 pitchers for about 75% of their innings in a given year, and often a higher percentage than that. The idea was that a manager wanted one of his best pitchers to finish off a game in which he had the lead, and the best pitchers were always starting 35-45 games a year at minimum, and pitching well over 200 innings, and often over 300 innings. There were many more complete games in any year than there were saves.

In 1971, the Baltimore Orioles had 4 starting pitchers that all won at least 20 games, pitch a combined 123 games, and throw 1080 innings. That figure was well over 70% of the innings for the team. The O’s also had 4 other very important pitchers on that team, that all pitched in relief, depending on the situation, and the whim of Earl Weaver, the Oriole manager. Combined, those four pitched in 125 games, but only threw 157 innings. It was really Weaver as much as anyone else that came up with the idea of ‘specialist’ relief pitcher. He refined the strategy of having a pitcher come in to get one important hitter out late in a game, but also in earlier innings, when the game was (and is) just as often won or lost.

Certainly Casey Stengel used pitchers in a similar way, but no one ever knew what Casey would do, or who he might bring in any situation, and he seldom used 3-4 pitchers in 1-3 inning stretches they way Weaver would. (Weaver was no one’s fool as a manager, and immediately saw his bullpen idea mimicked. He countered with ‘specialist’ pinch hitters and role players he could sub in at critical "game changing" times when the oppostition brought in their relief specialists.)

With Baltimore’s enormous success in the 1970’s, we saw a ramping up in the evolution of the closer.

Mike Marshall went 15-12 in 208 innings (all in relief) for the Dodgers in 1974. His ERA was 2.42, and he saved 21 games, and won a Cy Young award. Marshall evoked the memory of Jim Konstanty for the Phillies in 1950, who was not the Cy Young Award winner (there was only one Cy Young Award back then for all MLB), but he did win the National League MVP. Konstanty won 16 games and saved a MLB leading 22 games over 152 innings. He was fifth on the Phillies staff in innings pitched, and combined with the top four threw 71% of the innings for the Phils that season.

Sparky Lyle won the Cy Young award pitching in relief in 1977. He only had 26 saves, but won 13. He also pitched 137 innings that season, which is more than twice what almost any closer does now.

Thurm and Sparky win another

The following year, Sparky lost his job to a guy named Rich "Goose" Gossage, and Lyle gave us "The Bronx Zoo," one of the best baseball season journals ever written.

Lyle didn’t lose the Yankee "closer" job, it was just handed to Gossage because he’d been signed to a contract paying him $3,000,000 over 5-years. Lyle was ‘only’ making about $175,000 for the season, and even though he’d won the damn Cy Young award, couldn’t keep the job once George Steinbrenner decided Goose was his guy. As Lyle himself said, "If I had the choice between a guy like me throwing 83 MPH sliders, and a guy like Goose throwing 100 MPH gas, I'd take the gas too."

One of my favorite all time baseball lines was Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles to his friend Sparky, when it was apparent that Gossage was the new man in New York:

"Sparky, you just went from Cy Young to Sayonara."

Growing up I heard all the old relief pitcher names like Wilcy Moore and Firpo Marberry – the latter being one of the truly great baseball names of all time. Firpo? He was the man in the late teens and early 1920’s, and was a big part of the Washington Senators only World Series win in 1924, saving two games. I doubt Firpo knew what a baseball "save" was. There was no need for a stat that no one really wanted to have. Pitchers starting a game were expected to finish the game, and many MLB teams routinely had 70+ complete games in a season. Generally, if a guy like Firpo came along, he was called a "fireman" there to smother the dumpster fire and save the day.

Any true baseball historian can tell you that no one kept track of "saves" back then. They didn’t become an official MLB statistic until 1969, and when Rolaids started bestowing the Fireman of the Year Award on the pitcher in each league with the most saves in a season.  From that time forward, the save statistic slowly insinuated itself into the game of baseball. (Since that time too, stat geeks have gone over and over every MLB box score for well over 100 years, and added up everything and given us save totals, retroactively...multiple times, that's one more reason why they are geeks.)

There have been some great pitchers that have led their league in saves, and gone into the Hall of Fame, and none of them would have known a save from a salve, the latter of which they probably preferred getting for their sore and over-used arms?

Along with "Lefty" Grove, I give you "Dizzy" Dean, "Chief" Bender, Ed Walsh, "Iron" Joe McGinnty, Carl Hubbell, Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, Eddie Plank, Christy Mathewson, and some guy named Cy Young. Yeah, Cy, I wonder where he found the freakin time in between 511 wins? All right, it’s true that Young only tied for the American League lead, with 2 (count ‘em) saves, but it did lead the league in 1903. It wasn’t a fluke either, because in 1896 he led the National League…with 3.

The Yankees had a series of guys that were well-known ‘firemen’ starting in the 1930’s with Johnny "The Fireman" Murphy. "Milkman" Jim Turner was next, with the nickname given to him because he was coming into games so late, that the milkmen were beginning their daily routes. Then we had the indomitable Joe Page, who drove Casey Stengel crazy starting back in 1949 when Joe was great, and 1950, when he was awful. Stengel used to say he had his "Good Joe" (DiMaggio) and "Bad Joe." Page had party personality and a severe drinking problem, but then again, so did Stengel. Casey may have been brilliant in many ways, but he brought in one last drunkard named Ryne Duren in 1958, so maybe he wasn’t that smart. It really did help Duren’s reputation that he was wild as a pitcher, and a known drunk otherwise. He also wore glasses that had lenses that looked like they were taken from the bottom of Coke bottles, and would often fire a warm up pitch into the screen behind the plate at 100 MPH, just to get folks attention.

The Yankees had a number of other hard drinking players back then, when Casey was manager. Don Larsen was a huge lush. Of course there was the Mickey, Whitey and Billy trio, and Hank Bauer wasn’t afraid to take a drink, or punch you out just like Billy would. Later on, Clete Boyer could drink with the best, and still play a Gold Glove third base. Hey, I am digressing.

Some classic "closers" from the 1960’s were Elroy Face, Ron Perranoski, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Phil "The Vulture" Regan. Regan got the "Vulture" nickname because he won 14 games in 1966, while saving 21. Some writer said he was "like a vulture, picking up easy wins just laying out there for anyone to grab." He also pitched 116 innings that year, which is about twice what any current closer will log.

In 1959, the year before the Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series on Mazeroski’s homer, Roy Face went 18-1 for Pittsburgh, and saved 10 more games. Face was 5’8", and weighed about 150 pounds, and was one of the first effective forkballers (split-fingered fast ballers) used strictly in relief.

Somewhat similarly, Ron Perranoski went 16-3 with the Dodgers in 1963, and saved 21 games. The Dodgers swept the Yankees in the World Series that season, but Sandy Koufax was a bigger reason, even though Sandy only saved one game that year in 311 innings pitched.

Hoyt's Hall of Fame Knuckler

One of my favorite closers of all time was Hoyt Wilhelm, a great knuckleballer who pitched until he was 49 years old, and was generally unhittable after he was converted to being a relief pitcher for most of the last 13 years of his career. Wilhelm actually led the American League is ERA as a starting pitcher for the Orioles back in 1959, but never led either league in saves in his career. (I was a big Hoyt fan because my mom swore to me that Wilhelm lived in my hometown of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY at some point around in the mid-1950’s when he pitched for the NY Giants.) 

Wilhelm was a 29-year old rookie in 1952, and in his first at bat in MLB, he hit a home run. In 20 more years of playing baseball, he never hit another. When he retired after the 1972 season, at age 49, he had appeared in more games (1070) than any other pitcher in MLB history, and thus became the best baseball trivia question I ever came up with. Hoyt has since been passed by 4 other pitchers, with NY Met immortal Jesse Orosco leading with 1246. Hoyt had to settle for a plaque in the Hall of Fame.

You can with this, but this one's really phat

Another part of why I was a big Wilhelm fan was Hoyt’s knuckler? My dad threw a nasty knuckler that was also uncatchable, so it had to be awful to try and hit the ball. Does anyone remember the huge gloves catchers used back then to ‘block’ the knucklers that Wilhelm threw? I wish I'd found a better photo of the enormous flaps of leather that broadcasters and baseball pundits often called "elephant ears," that served as catcher's mits back then.

Brewer announcer, actor, comedian, and former last string catcher Bob Uecker used to say he never had a problem with the knuckle ball:

"I just wait for it to stop rolling then I pick it up."

So, really, what’s the fuss about all these closers anyway?

Bill James and his progeny have trashed so many baseball myths over the years that I have lost count. They have taken baseball statistics into the modern era, and given all of us a much better way to look at the numbers that are the lifeblood of the game.

For many years now, James has been stating over and over again that a team’s best relief pitcher should often be brought into the game earlier, and if need be, let him pitch 2 or 3 innings. Gee, maybe one of the old ways was better after all? I mean, why let some lesser pitcher blow the game in the 8^th inning, or earlier, when you have a stud in the bullpen?

When Joe Torre was managing the Yankees, he’d often use Mariano Rivera in the 8^th and 9^th innings, and then make sure to rest him for an extra day.

Baseball has become trapped into thinking that one pitcher has to be the guy in the 9^th inning, and it’s just stupid. Why would anyone want some random scrub pitching in the 7^th inning of a game in which you’re winning by 2, with the bases loaded, and no one out? Give me my best guy right then, and maybe I get out of the jam with the lead? Let him finish the game if need be. Give him an extra day off to rest.

Better still, lets see more of the top starters in both leagues like CC, Tiny Tim, Doc, or even Dopey, Sleepy, or Grumpy coming into games on days when they’re scheduled to throw anyway, and blowing some gas by Pujols, Miggy, or CarGo? Let them throw 10-20 of those bullpen pitches in a game once in a while, when it’s really important to get an out.

Let’s see Phillie fans boo Roy Halladay off the mound after a blown save!

Okay, extremely bad example, but you get the idea.

So, as we await the next closer bearing a five-gallon jerry can filled with high octane who is ready to pour it on those smoldering cigarettes in the dumpster near you, I leave with the immortal words of   The Trammps:

"The folks was flaming
out of control
it was so entertaining
when the boogie
started to explode
Burn Baby Burn!"

Next time --
How to get your boogie down.