Pirates History: Remembering how Elroy Face revolutionized relief pitching

Long before radar guns lit up scoreboards and bullpens became rolling assemblies of 98-mph specialists, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a 5-foot-8 right-hander with a forkball and a funny nickname.

They called him “The Baron of the Bullpen.” And in many ways, he built the blueprint for what relief pitching would become.

When Elroy Face broke in with the Pirates in 1953, relief pitching was an afterthought. Starters were expected to finish what they began. Relievers were often failed starters, innings-eaters, placeholders. But Face changed that.

Under manager Danny Murtaugh, Face transitioned full-time to the bullpen in 1957. What followed redefined the value of modern relief pitching. In 1958, he led the National League with 40 games finished and saved 20 — a massive total in an era when the save didn’t even exist as an official stat.

Then came 1959. Face went 18–1 with a 2.70 ERA in 57 appearances across 93 1/3 innings. He finished seventh in NL MVP voting as a reliever, years before the position was taken seriously.

Face didn’t intimidate hitters with size, but he overwhelmed them with deception. Sent back to the minors in 1954 to develop another pitch, he adopted the forkball. Years later, when asked about the difference between his forkball and the modern split-finger, Face joked, “A few million dollars.”

All jokes aside, the pitch allowed Face to neutralize hitters in late innings long before matchup analytics told managers how to deploy relievers. He was the closer before that term even existed.

Ironically, Face's career ended in 1969 — the same year the save became an official statistic. He retired with 188 saves, still a Pirates franchise record, and 96 wins in relief, an NL record that underscored how frequently he was entrusted with pivotal moments.

Pirates World Series champion Elroy Face helped redefine the role of the modern relief pitcher

Of course, Face was a critical piece of Pittsburgh's bullpen in 1960, the year the Pirates marched toward one of the most iconic championships in baseball history. He saved Games 1, 4 and 5 of the World Series — becoming the first pitcher ever to record three saves in a Fall Classic. He appeared in Game 7 as well, part of the chaotic masterpiece that ended with Bill Mazeroski’s legendary walk-off homer at Forbes Field.

That championship team, as Face often said in his later years, was special. But that October was somewhat of a coming-out party for the modern bullpen, and his fingerprints were all over it.

Face finished his 15-year Pirates career with 802 appearances — another franchise record — and continued producing well into the 1960s, posting a 3.19 ERA with 100 saves from 1961–67. But more important than the numbers was the perception shift.

As fellow Pirates reliever Kent Tekulve once said, there was a time when bullpen arms were simply pitchers “who weren’t good enough to start.” But Face made them essential. He proved that a reliever could influence pennant races, finish games consistently, earn MVP votes, and define championships — and he did it all before the save even existed.

Every time a manager calls for a shutdown eighth-inning arm, every time a closer jogs in to protect a one-run lead, every time a reliever builds a Hall of Fame résumé from the bullpen — there’s a thread that traces back to Elroy Face. He didn’t throw 100 mph. He didn’t fit the prototype. But he reshaped the job description.

In today’s era of fire-breathing bullpens and matchup-driven strategy, it’s easy to forget how radical the concept once was. Before Mariano Rivera, before Trevor Hoffman, before Dennis Eckersley — there was the Baron of the Bullpen. And he was ours.