All this talk about Luis Firpo has excited me into wanting to point out a further connection between the boxer and baseball: In August of 1923, a young pitcher named Frederick Marberry debuted for the Washington Senators, appearing in 11 games. The next season he played a key role, particularly out of the bullpen, in Washington's capture of the American League pennant and the 1924 World Series.
Marberry enters the history books (and trivia questions) as the sport's first prominent reliever. He has been retroactively credited as having been the first pitcher to record 20 saves in a season, the first to make 50 relief appearances in a season or 300 in a career, and the only pitcher to lead the major leagues in saves six times. In his book Bill James' Guide to Baseball Managers, James wrote: "Marberry was the first pitcher aggressively used to protect leads rather than being brought in when the starter was knocked out. Thus, Marberry is in my opinion the first true reliever."
A month or so after Marberry's 1923 debut in Washington, Luis Firpo electrified the American sports world by knocking Jack Dempsey completely out of the ring during their fight for the heavyweight boxing title. Dempsey hit his head on a writer's typing machine, and for a moment, it looked like Firpo would become world Heavyweight champion. But Dempsey was helped back into the ring, benefitted from a controversial "long count" and eventually knocked Firpo out.
Marberry's emergence at a time when Luis Firpo was a sensation in the sports world combined with the physical resemblance the two shared, gave rise to Marberry's nickname: Firpo. Firpo Marberry went on to appear in 551 games during 14 MLB seasons.
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Originally Posted by brianp-beme
The label on the graded card actually mentions 1920's, and this set may have been released somewhere around 1923 or so, due to the inclusion of boxer Luis Firpo.
Brian
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