Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Thanks to Val for keeping the candle burning. We now finish off Marberry, baseball's first "closer", with a card or a photograph, depending on who you ask:

Player #104A: Frederick "Firpo" Marberry Part 2. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1923-1932. 148 wins and 99 saves in 14 MLB seasons. First prominent reliever; used as a closer. Important piece of the Washington team that won back-to-back AL pennants in 1924-1925. 1924 World Series champion. His most productive season was 1929 with Washington as he posted a 19-12 record with a 3.06 ERA in 250.1 innings pitched. He ended his career with Washington in 1936.

. . . Marberry was almost exclusively a fastball pitcher. He was nicknamed "Firpo" due to his resemblance to Luis Firpo, a heavyweight boxer from Argentina who had knocked Jack Dempsey out of the ring in a championship fight in September of 1923, though Dempsey recovered and won the fight. Schacht recalled how Marberry was always anxious to get into a game. "Sometimes Bucky would go to the pitcher's mound just to talk to the pitcher, unsure about whether to take him out. But he'd no sooner get to the mound, and there would be Marberry, out of the bullpen coming in."

Throwing nothing but fastballs with a high leg kick and a rock-and-fire style, Marberry never tried to finesse batters, but he did try to intimidate them. Warming up, he would stomp around the mound while kicking up dirt. Muddy Ruel played along. He caught every pitch in the center of his mitt to maximize the sound of the glove pop and staggered back as he caught each pitch.

"We had a great relief pitcher in Fred Marberry," Bucky said after the season. "I doubt there has ever been a better one. He had a great fastball and the heart of a lion. He relieved Johnson in nine games and saved seven. He relieved other pitchers 36 times and finished 31 games."

The word "saves" was not used then, but author Bill James believes Bucky's use of Marberry in 1924 was unprecedented. 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." (Sam Rice by Jack Smiles.)

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