CUP OF JOE: Starkey on Sports in 350 words or less

I had only a few conversations with Elroy Face, but he was always ready with a story. His passing Thursday at age 97 reminded me of that. And of a few other things:

• How quickly time flies and how so many of the baseball figures I have interviewed have passed on.

• How I have loved baseball stories since childhood. Something about that sport lends itself to funny and larger-than-life tales.

The last time I spoke with Face — “Baron of the Bullpen,” the man who saved Games 1, 4 and 5 of the 1960 World Series — was June of 2024 when Willie Mays died. Face was 96. I did not know if he’d answer.

He picked up. We exchanged pleasantries. I asked if he had a Willie Mays story.

Of course he did.

“We were leading by three in the ninth one time when Mays came up,” Face recalled. “Hank Foiles was my catcher and my roommate. Mays hits a home run. I called (Foiles) out and said, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘Roomie, he hadn’t had a hit. I told him what was coming.’ ”

Because he was Willie Mays?

“Yeah, probably,” Face said.

Another time, for a sign-stealing piece amid the Houston Astros scandal, Face spoke of sneaking a cigarette inside the Forbes Field scoreboard (where workers manually put up the digits) when Phillies manager Gene Mauch got him kicked out.

“He thought I was stealing signs,” Face said.

I’ve had so many similar interactions with old Pirates. Dick Groat, Steve Blass, Kent Tekulve, Vern Law, Dave Parker. The list goes on.

I remember talking to an ancient catcher named Mike Sandlock in 2014. He was then the oldest living Pirate. He died April 4, 2016, at age 100. As a kid, he’d seen Babe Ruth play.

Sandlock played for the Pirates in 1953. He laughed about the day he tried to get ejected because it was so brutally hot at Forbes Field. He snapped at renowned umpire Al Barlick, who almost fell for it.

“He had his hand up, ready to throw me out,” Sandlock recalled. “And then he says, ‘You ain’t going anywhere.’ When we got back down, he leans over and says, ‘We’re both going to sweat this thing out.’”

I love stories like that.