{"id":573774,"date":"2026-02-15T11:07:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573774\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T11:07:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:07:45","slug":"pirates-team-hall-of-famer-world-series-champion-elroy-face-dies-at-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573774\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Team Hall of Famer, World Series Champion Elroy Face Dies at 97"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1120\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Face-1120x630.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Pirates, Elroy Face\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Former Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Elroy Face acknowledges the crowd during a ceremony for players that are part of the team&#8217;s Hall of Fame class before a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. (AP Photo\/Matt Freed)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Elroy Face, a 1960 World Series champion, died at the age of 97. He was eight days shy of his 98th birthday. <\/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 said Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting. \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>\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. Our thoughts are with his three children \u2014 Michelle, Valerie and Elroy Jr. \u2014 and his sister Jacqueline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Face, who pitched for the Pirates for 15 seasons from 1953-68, is the franchise\u2019s all-time leader in appearances (802). Face led the league in saves three times and led baseball with a .947 winning percentage in 1959 when he went 18-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 57 appearances. He was an All-Star each year from 1959-61. <\/p>\n<p>The following season, Face helped lead the Pirates to their third World Series title when he recorded 24 saves, 10 wins and had a 2.90 ERA across an MLB-leading 68 games. He made four appearances against the New York Yankees in the Fall Classic.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Pirates, Face made two appearances with the Detroit Tigers in 1968 and concluded his career with the Montreal Expos in 1969.<\/p>\n<p>Face holds the National League record for most games won in relief (96). The Pirates inducted him into the team\u2019s Hall of Fame in 2023. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned in this article: <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/tag\/elroy-face\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elroy Face<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-pirates\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"categories single-categories\">More about:<a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghbaseballnow.com\/pittsburgh-pirates\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pirates<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Elroy Face acknowledges the crowd during a ceremony for players that are part&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,74960,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":{"0":"post-573774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-elroy-face","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-pirates","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","14":"tag-pittsburghpirates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116074332658913012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573774","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=573774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}