It is the ninth inning and the Brooklyn Dodgers are leading the New York Giants 3-0. Manager Charlie Dressen takes out starter Don Newcombe in favor of relief pitcher Clem Labine. Of course, the reality is that if Newcombe were shutting out the Giants, he would not be taken out of the game.
Eddie Stanky leads off with a walk. Alvin Dark singles him to second and Don Mueller singles to load the bases. Willie Mays hits a fly ball that center fielder Duke Snider catches 450 feet away from home plate.
Stanky scores and the other runners each move up a base.
Labine walks Monte Irvin to load the bases again, this time with one out. So far, Labine has retired one of the five batters he has faced.
Henry Thompson hits a line drive single to right field. Dark scores but Mueller, not wanting to test Carl Furillo’s arm, holds at third. The bases are still loaded and the score is 3-2 with only one out.
Giants’ manager Leo Durocher replaces Davey Williams with left-handed pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes.
Labine goes to the full windup, delivers and Rhodes hits a hard ground ball to the right side of the infield. Second baseman Jim Gilliam backhands the ball, whirls and fires a bullet to shortstop PeeWee Reese. The relay to first nips Rhodes.
The Dodgers win the game. The Dodgers win the game. The Dodgers win the game.
Clem Labine faced seven hitters. He retired two of them. Clem Labine was credited with a save.
There are many other examples such as a pitcher that needs work entering in the seventh inning with a big lead and allowing six or seven runs and getting a save, but the point has been made.
Those in power must change the save rule in order to save the save (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).
The save became an official statistic in 1969. Since then, the game has changed so radically, great closers such as Mariano Rivera can become Hall of Famers with less than 1,300 career innings.
The first pitcher to record at least 10 saves in a season was Mordecai Brown, who had 13 saves for the 1911 Chicago Cubs. Brown made 26 relief appearances, started 27 games, was 21-11 and pitched 270 innings. There were no relief specialists in those days.
In 1926, Firpo Marberry of the Washington Senators became the first pitcher to save at least 20 games. He made 59 relief appearances, started five games and finished the season at 12-7.
It wasn’t until 1966 that a relief pitcher recorded as many as 30 saves. In 1966, Jack Aker of the Kansas City A’s made 66 relief appearances, saved 32 games, finished 57 games and finished the season at 8-4.
To receive a save, a pitcher:
1. Must be the last pitcher used in a game won by his team.
2. Cannot be the the game’s winning pitcher.
3. Must pitch at least 1/3 of an inning.
4. Must satisfy at least one of the following conditions:
a. Enter the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning.
b. Enter the game, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run either on base, at bat or on deck.
c. Pitch at least three innings.
One can easily conclude that the rule is often a poor measurement of a closers effectiveness.