{"id":569758,"date":"2026-02-13T07:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569758\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T07:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:57:21","slug":"elroy-face-mlb-bullpen-pioneer-dead-at-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569758\/","title":{"rendered":"Elroy Face, MLB bullpen pioneer, dead at 97"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Elroy Face, one of the late-inning reliever pioneers in baseball, died Thursday, the Pirates announced. He was 97.<\/p>\n<p>Face, nicknamed \u201cThe Baron of the Bullpen,\u201d emerged as a forerunner for what would later be considered a closer during his 16-year career, which was primarily with the Pirates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we mourn the passing of Pirates Hall of Famer Elroy Face, a beloved member of the Pirates family,\u201d Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/elroy-face-dies-at-97\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cI was fortunate to get to know Elroy personally, and I will always be proud that we had the chance to honor him with his induction into the Pirates Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>Headshot portrait of American baseball player Elroy Face, of the Pirates in Pittsburgh, Pa. 1960. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElroy was a pioneer of the modern relief pitcher \u2014 the \u2018Baron of the Bullpen\u2019 \u2014 and he played a critical role in our 1960 World Series championship, leading the league in appearances and recording three saves against the Yankees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur thoughts are with his three children \u2014 Michelle, Valerie and Elroy Jr. \u2014 and his sister Jacqueline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After some struggles as a starter at the beginning of his career, Face was moved to the bullpen full-time during the 1956 season, seeing immediate success.<\/p>\n<p>Face, a native of Stephentown, spent 15 seasons in Pittsburgh, racking up 188 saves, the most in franchise history.<\/p>\n<p>The righty held a 3.46 ERA during his Pirates tenure and was named an All-Star during three straight seasons (1959-61).<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Pirates Elroy Face in action vs New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series. Sports Illustrated via Getty Ima<\/p>\n<p>Face was also a key member of Pittsburgh\u2019s 1960 World Series Championship squad that bested the Yankees in seven games, notching saves in Games 1, 4 and 5.<\/p>\n<p>His most remarkable year came in 1959, when the reliever had an 18-1 record with a 2.70 ERA in 57 appearances, finishing seventh in National League MVP voting.<\/p>\n<p>Face was inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame in 2023 alongside Bob Friend, Kent Tekulve and Dick Groat.<\/p>\n<p>Elroy Face acknowledges the crowd after being inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame Class of 2023 before Pittsburgh\u2019s loss to the Cubs at PNC Park on Aug. 26, 2023. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Upon that class being announced, Tekulve credited Face for his impact on the future of relief pitchers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt one time, relief pitchers were guys who weren\u2019t good enough to start,\u201d Tekulve\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/pirates-2023-hall-of-fame-class-announced\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">said at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Elroy Face helped relief pitchers become important members of their team \u2014 not just an extra piece.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elroy Face, one of the late-inning reliever pioneers in baseball, died Thursday, the Pirates announced. He was 97.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,6975,4,6976,3352,64,185],"class_list":["post-569758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-deaths","tag-mlb","tag-obits","tag-pitchers","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116062260108867074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}