Elroy Leon Face (born February 20, 1928), nicknamed "the Baron of the Bullpen",[a] is an American former professional baseballrelief pitcher. During a 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A pioneer of modern relief pitching, he was the archetype of what came to be known as the closer, and the National League's greatest reliever until the late 1960s, setting numerous league records during his career.
Face was the first major leaguer to save 20 games more than once, leading the league three times and finishing second three times; in 1959 he set the still-standing major league record for winning percentage with a minimum of 13 decisions (.947), and single-season wins in relief, with 18 wins against only one loss.[6] He held the NL record for career games pitched (846) from 1967 until 1986, and the league record for career saves (193) from 1962 until 1982; he still holds the NL record for career wins in relief (96), and he held the league mark for career innings pitched in relief (1,211+1⁄3) until 1983. On his retirement, Face ranked third in major league history in pitching appearances, behind only Hoyt Wilhelm and Cy Young, and second in saves behind Wilhelm. He holds the Pirates franchise records for career games (802) and saves (188).
Face was successful in the Class AWestern League with the Pueblo Dodgers (23-9 with a 2.78 ERA), and with Fort Worth in the Double ATexas League (14-11 with a 2.83 ERA),[8] and in 1952 Rickey, now with the Pittsburgh Pirates, drafted Face again at the 1952 Winter Meetings.[7]
Face made his major league debut in April 1953, and started in 13 games, relieved in 28, with a 6.58 ERA that year. At that point in his career he only had a fastball and curveball.[7] In 1954, he was sent to the Pirates minor league team, the New Orleans Pelicans of the Double A Southern Association, to learn an off-speed pitch. It was during this time that Face developed his forkball. Face was managed by Danny Murtaugh (who would later manage Face on a world champion Pirates team in 1960). Murtaugh turned Face solely into a relief pitcher that year.[7]
Face returned to the Pirates for the 1955 season, and was both a starter and reliever, appearing in 42 games, with a 5-7 record and 3.58 ERA.[7][8] In 1956, he set a modern Pirates record for games pitched (68), leading the league[8] and breaking the club mark of 59 set by Bill Werle in 1951.[9] Of those 68 games, only 3 were starts.[7] He was 12-13 in 135.1 innings, pitching in 9 straight games in September 1956 to tie a big league record.[8] In 1957 he saved 10 games for the first time, finishing fifth in the NL, and started his last game.[8] In 1958 the team finished in second place, the first time in his five years they had placed better than seventh.[10] Face led the NL with 20 saves,[7] and posted his best earned run average to date with a 2.89 mark, finishing 17th in NL MVP voting.[8][11]
Face achieved his success almost exclusively with the forkball, which he had learned from Yankees reliever Joe Page, though it has also been reported he learned the forkball by watching Page during Page's time with the Pelicans in 1954, when Page was trying to make a comeback after his days with the Yankees.[7][8][12][13]
In 1959 Face posted an 18–1 record,[6] including 17 victories in a row to begin the year, after ending 1958 with five in a row.[14] The 22 game win streak went from June 7, 1958 to September 10, 1959, before he lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 11, 1959.[8] This loss was Face's first in 99 appearances since 1958.[7] Face he did not surrender a run in the entire period from June 11 to July 12. He was named the Player of the Month for June after posting a 5–0 record with four saves and a 0.38 ERA. Face finished the year with an ERA of 2.70, and finished seventh in the MVP voting,[8][15] although he did not receive any votes for the Cy Young Award that year. (At the time, only first-place votes were cast for the award.) His 18 relief wins remain the major league record, topping Jim Konstanty's previous mark of 16 set in 1950.[16] Face's .947 winning percentage exceeded the previous record .938 (15–1), set by Johnny Allen in 1937.[17] In 1960 he had his second 20-save season,[11] placing second in the league with 24, which equaled the previous NL record as Lindy McDaniel set a new mark with 26.[18] With the Pirates winning their first pennant since 1927, he also led the league in games again, tying his own team record of 68; the mark would be broken when teammate Pete Mikkelsen appeared in 71 games in 1966.[19]
In 1960, Face led the NL in pitching appearances, pitched 114.2 innings, saved 24 games, and had a 2.90 ERA.[7] In the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees, Face became the first pitcher to save three games in a single Series (formally credited after saves became an official statistic in 1969).[20] Face pitched 10.1 innings in the series, and saved games 1, 4 and 5 for the Pirates.[7]
Face entered Game 1 with runners on first and second and none out in the eighth inning, leading 6–2; he retired the side, striking outMickey Mantle and Bill Skowron and getting Yogi Berra to fly out,[21] before giving up a 2-run Elston Howard home run in the ninth but getting a game-ending double play for a 6–4 win. He came into Game 4 with two men on and one out in the seventh inning, leading 3–2, and retired all eight men he faced. In Game 5, he was again brought in with two men on and one out in the seventh, this time leading 4–2, and retired eight of the last nine batters, allowing only a walk to Mantle.[21] In the final Game 7 he was brought in with two on and none out in the sixth inning, with a 4–1 lead which he surrendered via an RBI single by Mantle and a three-run home run by Berra. He settled down, however, retiring seven of the next eight batters before allowing another two-run rally with two out in the eighth for a 7–4 Yankee lead.[22] The Pirates came back to score five runs in the bottom of the inning after Face was pulled for a pinch-hitter, and won the game and the Series in the bottom of the ninth on Bill Mazeroski's home run.
Face was selected an All-Star each year from 1959 to 1961, including both all-star games in 1959, which were held in Pittsburgh, where he pitched in both games.[8][23] Face again led the NL with 17 saves in 1961. In 1962 he broke McDaniel's NL record with a career-high 28 saves (one short of Luis Arroyo's major league mark set the previous year), also posting a 1.88 ERA;[7]Ted Abernathy would set a new record in 1965 with 31 saves. Face now had three 20-save seasons at a time when no other pitcher had more than one. Also in 1962, Face passed Clem Labine to take over the NL record with 95 career saves, and then broke Johnny Murphy's major league mark of 107. In 1963 he earned 16 saves; he then suffered two difficult seasons, picking up only four saves in 1964 with an ERA over 5.00,[11] and earning no saves in 1965, where he went on the disabled list for the first time (with a knee injury).[8] In 1964, Hoyt Wilhelm took over the major league career save record. But Face returned to save 18 games in 1966 and 17 in 1967,[11] finishing second in the NL in both years. In 1967, he appeared in 61 games, going 7-5 with a 2.45 ERA.[8] In 1967, he passed Warren Spahn's mark of 750 to become the NL's all-time leader in games pitched; his record would stand until Kent Tekulve moved ahead of him in 1986.
After 43 appearances, 13 saves and a 2.60 ERA for the Pirates in 1968, Face's contract was sold to the Detroit Tigers on August 31, but he made only two scoreless appearances for Detroit.[8][11] At the time he left the Pirates, Face held the NL records for games pitched (802), games in relief (775), games finished (547), and relief wins (92); and was second to Hoyt Wilhelm in all those categories for major league records.[7]
He signed as a free agent with the Montreal Expos in 1969, earning five saves in 44 games before ending his major league career. In 1970, he pitched 8 games for Triple A Hawaii.[8] In a 16-season career, he posted a 104–95 record with a 3.48 ERA and 877 strikeouts in 1375 innings pitched and 848 games.[11] His NL record of 193 saves was not broken until 1982, when Bruce Sutter passed him; Dave Giusti broke his Pirates single-season mark with 30 in 1971.[24]Tug McGraw surpassed his league record for career innings in relief in 1983. Face's 802 games with the Pirates equaled Walter Johnson's total with the Washington Senators for the most by any pitcher with a single club;[8] the record was broken by Trevor Hoffman of the San Diego Padres in 2007.[25] Face saved 16 or more games seven times in an era when starting pitchers were more apt to remain in a game they were leading, and seven times had an ERA under 3.00 with at least 40 appearances.[11]
Later life and honors
During his baseball career, Face, in keeping with a family tradition extending back two generations, worked as a carpenter during the off-season.[26] Following his retirement, this became his full-time occupation, and beginning in 1979, Face served as the carpentry foreman at Mayview State Hospital until his retirement in 1990.[27] Since 1983 Face has resided in North Versailles, Pennsylvania.[28] In February 1999, Face, along with Hall of FamerSteve Carlton, was admitted to the pitcher's wing — namely, the Pitchers' Wall of Great Achievement — of the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame.[29]
He is a member of the Pirates Hall of Fame, is the team's all-time leader in pitching appearances (802), and holds the National League record for wins by a relief pitcher (96).[20] Under the official standards for saves adopted well after his career was at its height, Face would have a total of 188 saves, a Pirate record.[20] Face was the Sporting News Fireman of the Year in 1962.[30]
^From roughly mid-1959 on, Face was alternately referred to as "Bullpen Baron," "Baron of the Bullpen," and, on occasion (at least among Pittsburghers), simply "The Baron." He was so dubbed by Pittsburgh Post Gazette beat writer Jack Hernon,[1][2][3] although the nickname itself appears to have been coined in April 1950, regarding Cardinals reliever Ted Wilks, in a nationally syndicated story by AP's Joe Reichler.[4][5]
^O'Brien, Jim (1993). Maz and the '60 Bucs: When Pittsburgh And Its Pirates Went All The Way. Pittsburgh, PA: James P. O'Brien — Publishing. p. 300. ISBN0-9161-1412-0. ("I traveled to the apartment in North Versailles where Face has lived for the last 10 years on Friday, February 12.")
Hernon, Jack. "Oh, My! How Sweet This Is! Bucs Beat Yanks, 3-2, To Even World Series; Law, Face and Virdon Standouts". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. October 10, 1960. pp. 1, 24 and 28.
Terrell, Roy. "Seven Bold Bucs". Sports Illustrated. October 10, 1960.
O'Brien, Jim (1994). "ElRoy Face: Always a carpenter at heart". Remember Roberto: Clemente Recalled By Teammates, Family, Friends and Fans. Pittsburgh, PA: James P. O'Brien Publishing. pp. 156–157, 158-159, 160-161, 162-163, 164-165, 166. ISBN9780916114145.
Finoli, David (2016). "Roy Face". The 50 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Pirates History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing. pp. 113–118. ISBN9781442258709.
