It wasn’t until 1985 that baseball’s Hall of Fame inducted it’s first relief pitcher. I’ll bet most baseball fans no longer know his name. It was knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm.
Even if you’ve heard of him, here’s a couple things you probably don’t know:
He made only fifty-two starts in his big league career in more than a thousand games but he still pitched a no hitter. He also hit a home run in his first big league at bat but never hit another.
He left baseball with a record two hundred and twenty-eight saves. That would be exactly four hundred and fourty-eight less than the current record holder Mariano Rivera. Yes baseball has changed a lot over the years.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the lack of relief pitchers in the Hall and how difficult it has been for some of the top relievers in history to prove their worth to voters, including this year’s addition.
Just the ninth reliever
For context here’s the breakdown in the Hall by position:
Starting Pitchers: 78
Catchers: 20
First basemen: 28
Second basemen: 20
Third basemen: 19
Shortstops: 26
Left fielders: 23
Center fielders: 24
Right fielders: 29
Relief Pitchers: 8
Designated hitters: 3
After Wilhelm it took another seven years before they put in another. Oakland A’s three time world series champion, the famously mustachioed Rollie Fingers. Fingers finished up with three hundred and forty-one saves.
Then it took another twelve years before they voted in another reliever (2004). Dennis Eckersley left the game with the saves record now at three hundred and ninety. ‘Eck’ had started three hundred and sixty one games before beginning his second career as a closer at age thirty-two.
From there things opened up a bit. Bruce Sutter was next in 2006, Rich ‘Goose’ Gossage two years after. And then they forgot about relievers for another decade.
Big Lee Smith had been a contemporary of the previous three inductees. He was a fearsome sight on the mound and racked up a record four hundred and seventy-eight saves but the voters passed him over fifteen times. It took the Today’s Game Era comittee to put him in (2019).
Short wait for last two
Trevor Hoffman destroyed the saves record pushing it to six hundred and one, his enshrinement was never in doubt and he was in on a third try. Then perhaps the best closer that ever lived. Voters seemed to think so.
Mariano Rivera set the standard that will be tough to beat at six hundred and fifty-two saves. He helped the Yankees win five world series. And in snatching all four hundred and twenty five votes, he became and remains the only unanimous choice ever.
Now it’s Billy Wagner’s turn and they made the man wait until his final year on the ballot. Who’s next is hard to say. Kenley Jansen is now fourth on the all time list with Craig Kimbrel right behind him.
Saves aren’t everything though, Francisco Rodriguez and John Franco finished their careers in the top five and never got a sniff.
