About Face

Two years before snatching future Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente from the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1954 Rule V draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates again tap into the Dodgers’ farm system 71 years ago today to draft a starting pitcher named Elroy Face.

All Face has done in two seasons as a starter in the Dodgers’ system is go 37-20 with a 2.80 earned-run average. He is coming off a 14-11 season in 1952 with the Dodgers’ Class AA team in Fort Worth.

Perhaps, Brooklyn believes every other team in baseball will overlook the 5-foot-8, 155-pound Face and pass on selecting him.

One team sees him, though, and that team is Pittsburgh, which eventually moves Face out to the bullpen in 1955 and into the role as one of the best relief pitchers in the majors over his next 14 seasons with the Pirates.

Along the way, Face develops a forkball that confounds batters with the unpredictability of its late movement as it approaches the batter.

“I don’t,” Face says when asked if he knows how his forkball will break, “but neither does the batter.”

In five seasons from 1958-62, Face leads the National League in games finished four times and in saves three times.

In the one season he does not lead the league in games finished – 1959 – Face posts an astounding 18-1 record out of the bullpen in the first of three straight All-Star team selections.

Face remains a mainstay in the Pirates’ bullpen until late in the 1968 season, when Pittsburgh sells him to Detroit. He finishes his career in the majors in 1969 with 44 appearances in relief for the expansion Montreal Expos.