6 Classic Baseball Cards of Surprising Relief Heroes
You won't believe -- and maybe won't care -- what these pitchers did!
Fifty-five years ago today — on April 7, 1969 — Dodgers right-hander Bill Singer recorded the first official save in baseball history. There’s an irony to that since Singer made a whopping 40 starts that season and just the one relief appearance.
But on that Opening Day at Crosley Field, Singer came on to relieve Don Drysdale in the seventh with the Dodgers up 3-2 on the Reds. Singer finished the game, and the score never budged.
And all of a sudden, right off the bat (so to speak), the new rule put in place over the offseason had its first beneficiary.
To celebrate that occasion, here are half a dozen baseball cards featuring unlikely relief heroes.
1969 Topps Bill Singer (#575)
I’ve already told you most of Singer’s story on this front. But it becomes even more striking when you realize he pitched in the majors from 1964 through 1977 and made 308 starts among his 322 big league appearances.
In addition to his 1969 save, he recorded just one more, as a member of the 1975 California Angels.
You gotta think making relief history was pretty far out of his mind when the photo for his sunny 1969 Topps card was snapped, although he had made “only” 36 starts in 1968.
1969 Topps Fred Gladding (#58)
Now, 1969 Topps Fred Gladding looks like a relief pitcher. I mean, he could be Charlie Kerfeld’s dad or brother or cousin or frat bud.
And Fred Gladding actually was a relief pitcher, making only one start among his 450 big league appearances. He also already had 35 saves entering the 1969 season, though no one would know that until stats folks did some retro-rule applying in subsequent years.
The surprising thing about Gladding is tied to the fact that he toiled for the Houston Astros, who had never finished .500 in a season heading into 1969. They managed to pull that off in the first year of divisional play — barely.
But even 81-81 teams aren’t usually the most fertile ground for save opportunities. And yet, Gladding led the National League with 29 saves.
Go figure.
1971 Topps Ken Sanders (#116)
Sanders had a lot in common with Gladding, including making just one start among 409 major league appearances. Differences included no discernible Kerfeld connection for Sanders and his journeyman status — eight teams in ten seasons.
In 1971, though, Sanders was with the Brewers, who were just two years removed from being born as the expansion Seattle Pilots. And in that summer of Topps’ black-bordered beauties, like the one that seems to be giving Sanders heartburn above, Milwaukee finished 69-92.
Even so, Sanders saved 31 games to lead both leagues.
And, yes, Gladding and Sanders remind me yet again that the Astros should be a National League team and that the Brewers should be an American League team.
1976 Topps Rawly Eastwick (#469)
Now, the idea of Rawly Eastwick as a leading fireman probably isn’t too surprising to fans with some 1970s seat time under their, uh, seats.
After all, Eastwick was the best relief pitcher on the Big Red Machine Reds teams in 1975 and 1976, even if Will McEnaney gave it a go in 1975. And Eastwick got plenty of national exposure those Octobers, even if the Phillies gave him a ride in 1976.
But Eastwick pretty much dropped out of nowhere as a rookie in 1975 to lead the National League in saves, then did it again in 1976.
In 1977, though, he wanted more money, the Reds didn’t want to pay, and they traded him to the Cardinals in June. In the offseason, he signed a free agent deal with the Yankees, who already had Sparky Lyle, Dick Tidrow, and Goose Gossage on the staff.
Eastwick didn’t last long in the Bronx, traded to those same Phillies in June for Bobby Brown and Jay Johnstone.
Eastwick never really got his feet under him after he left the Riverfront, though, and he was done in the majors, at age 30, by the end of 1981.
In two-plus years with the Reds, he recorded 57 saves.
In four-plus seasons with other teams, he managed just 11 more..
Steve Bedrosian and Mark Davis
I’m lumping these two guys together because they were both part of the mass hysteria around relievers in the 1980s that began with Rollie Fingers winning the American League Cy Young and MVP awards in 1981.
It continued when Willie Hernandez did the same in 1984.
The virus jumped league boundaries in 1987, when Bedrosian led the majors with 40 saves while toiling for a sub-.500 Phillies team. He also went 5-3 with a 2.83 ERA, wowing voters so much that they handed him the National League Cy Young award.
He edged out 18-game winner Rick Sutcliffe to nab that hardware, while six other starters also got votes. This was the 1987 Topps card (#736) that accompanied Bedrosian’s “historic” run:
Two years later, the 1989 Padres were fringe contenders in the National League West race, though a last-day win left them just three games behind the Giants.
Davis was great in his role as closer, saving 44 games to lead the majors and making 65 appearances to lead the N.L. He also posted a 4-3 record with a 1.85 ERA and struck out nearly a batter per inning while allowing just a hair over one runner per frame.
But it’s mind-boggling to realize that Davis trounced the Cy Young field, picking up 19 of 24 first-place votes and out-pointing 20-game winner Mike Scott by a 107-65 margin.
Orel Hershiser was probably the best pitcher in the Senior Circuit that summer, but a fourth-place Dodgers team doomed him to a .500 record.
Greg Maddux, on the other hand, was the ace of the division-winning Cubs and racked up 19 wins, but he finished third in CYA voting.
No, for the writers, it was Mark Davis in a walk. Here’s the triumphant smile from his 1989 Topps card (#59):
Bedrosian and Davis were fine closers, and they racked up plenty of saves for their teams. They were just woefully miscast as Cy Young winners.
Thankfully, reliever mania went into remission after 1989. It flared up again in 1992 when Dennis Eckersley pulled a Rollie Fingers, but we’ve been mostly healthy on this front since then — Eric Gagne notwithstanding — thanks to a steady diet of antibiotics, statistics, and writer retirements.
—
Alright, I know you’re screaming for relief from these silly ramblings by now, so I’ll let you off the hook and give myself the hook.
But how about one more semi-anonymous closer as a closer to this piece?
OK, OK, you convinced me…
Minnie Rojas debuted for the Angels at age 32 in 1966, then led the American League with 27 saves in 1967. He saved 6 more in 1968 before closing out his big league career on July 24 that summer.
Rojas held the Halos single-season record until Donnie Moore topped his mark in 1985.
Tragically, Rojas and his family were involved in a horrific car accident in 1970 — you can find accounts of that online if you really want to. But for today, we’ll close with the brighter mental image of righty plying his trade in the California sunshine.
Here’s hoping all your relief pitchers come through today, even if you don’t know who they are.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
Amen to your comment that the Astros belong in the NL and the Brewers in the AL
Ken Sanders has a distinct Ralph Ferley look from Three’s Company. Also, “Rawly Eastwick” is a HOF baseball name IMHO. Another great post, thanks!