Known as the “Baron of the Bullpen,” Elroy Face was a pioneer for modern-day closers in baseball who made the forkball famous and played a vital role for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960 World Series champions.
A three-time All-Star, Face owns Major League Baseball’s career record for most wins in relief, the National League record for most relief wins in a season and the franchise record for most pitching appearances in playing 15 of his 16 major league seasons with the Pirates.
“I feel the same way losing as winning,” Face once said, “except I’m happier winning.”
Face, who was inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame in 2023, died Thursday in North Versailles, eight days shy of his 98th birthday.
“It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we mourn the passing of Pirates Hall of Famer Elroy Face, a beloved member of the Pirates family,” Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement. “I was fortunate to get to know Elroy personally, and I will always be proud that we had the chance to honor him with his induction into the Pirates Hall of Fame. … Our thoughts are with his three children – Michelle, Valerie and Elroy Jr. – and his sister Jacqueline.”
Face was a starting pitcher for the Pirates in 1953, going 6-8 with a 6.58 ERA and 1.47 WHIP in 41 games (13 starts). The next year, the Pirates sent him to their Double-A affiliate in New Orleans to work on an off-speed pitch to complement his fastball and curveball. The New Orleans manager was Danny Murtaugh, who later became skipper of the Pirates.
Left-hander Joe Page, a Cherry Valley native, was trying to make a comeback with the Pirates and was throwing a forkball, which requires a wide split-fingered grip but where the fingers don’t touch the seams and plays like a cross between a knuckleball and a sinker.
“I saw what it did for him, so I started working on it and using it in last half of the season in ’54,” Face told TribLive in 2023. “In New Orleans, I developed it and started using it. It was another pitch to add to what I had. Instead of having two pitches, I had three. Then I came up with a slider later on, so I had four pitches.”
Face said that he didn’t know where the ball was going, but neither does the batter, adding a punchline to his punchouts.
“I don’t know what the speed was, but they didn’t record the speed of pitches back then,” he said. “Danny Murtaugh said I threw harder than you realized. Throwing the forkball and the fastball, there was a few mph difference.”
When Murtaugh became the Pirates manager after Bobby Bragan was fired in August 1957, he scratched Face from a scheduled start against Chicago and put him in the bullpen.
“He knew I could pitch often,” Face said. “Murtaugh took over, and I never started another ballgame. My wife came to pick me up at the ballpark when we came off the road. He came over and told her, ‘Make sure he gets his rest because he’s going to do a lot of pitching.’ I liked it. I enjoyed pitching. I enjoyed the challenges.”
Standing 5-foot-8, 155 pounds, Face was short in stature but stood tall in critical moments. He had 10 saves in 1957 and led the majors with 20 saves in 1958, when he finished 17th in NL MVP voting. He recorded 41 saves over the next three seasons, earning All-Star selections each year from 1959-61 and MVP votes in ’59 and ‘60.
“He’s simply the best we have,” Murtaugh said, “so we use him.”
Face went 18-1 in 1959 — still an MLB record for wins in relief, as well as winning percentage (.947) — then 10-8 with a 2.90 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 24 saves in 114 2/3 innings over a league-best 68 appearances in 1960. He earned three saves in the World Series victory over the New York Yankees.
“I enjoyed it,” Face told TribLive. “The fans appreciated what I was doing because I had all the fans behind me when I came in to pitch. They felt like I did — that it’s another win for us. I didn’t expect to lose. I expected to win all the time. I don’t know where the confidence came from, just because the manager called me to come in in that situation.”
After leading the majors with 57 games finished and a career-best 28 saves in 1962, Face was the subject of a 1963 Sports Illustrated feature, “The Fork Ball and Roy Face.”
“Relief pitchers generally are big, powerful fellows who stalk out of the bullpen and blow the opposition down with raw power, but Roy Face looks like the prize in the bottom of a Cracker Jack box,” Sports Illustrated wrote. “He is only 5 feet 8 inches tall, wears false teeth, and his expression is as mournful as a man who has just been drafted. But what Face lacks in size and beauty, he makes up for in determination. He throws so hard it sometimes seems that his right arm will jump out of its socket. He puts so much umph into his pitches that all 155 pounds of him quiver, says a teammate, ‘like a little ol’ wet mouse shaking itself dry.’”
Face finished his career with a 100-93 record, including an NL record 96 games won in relief. Saves didn’t become an official statistic until 1969, and the rules regarding saves were one of the slights that bothered Face.
“The only thing I have feelings against is that if they have a three-run lead, they get a save. We had to face the tying or winning run to get a save. Now, the winning run can be sitting on the bench and they get the save. It’s not a true save unless you face the tying or winning run,” Face told TribLive. “I had 191 saves and I was in 802 ballgames. There’s 600 games in there. There were games I finished with a two-run lead and I didn’t get a save. You’d have to go over the records.”
Face was inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame in August 2023, alongside late teammates Bob Friend and Dick Groat and fellow closer Kent Tekulve, a hero of the 1979 World Series champions. Face reveled in the honor, but still griped about the save rule.
“It’s just not right to compare the present-day record with the record I had. I don’t think that it’s right,” Face said. “I’d probably have a save every time I went out there the way it is today.”