If the history of star relief pitchers was the history of rock and roll, this card might be something like a snapshot taken of two young duck-tailed hep cats at Sun Records in 1954. Each moment in question has rich historical roots, antecedents such as Hoyt Wilhelm and Firpo Marberry and Dick “The Monster” Radatz feeding into one story as Robert Johnson and Bill Monroe and Big Joe Turner feed into the other. But with Sun Records, 1954, and Major League Leading Firemen, 1975, the histories are poised to become something all their own, to catch fire.
In this analogy, Al Hrabosky would be Carl Perkins, the pioneer of a savage new style that would bring him a brief, hot fame that would fade, leaving him years later largely forgotten by the general populace. And Goose would be Elvis, the one-name star who in some ways absorbed the style of his daring contemporary on his way to prolonged success and widespread immortality. Just as Carl Perkins was first and therefore most striking to snarl the threat not to step on his blue suede shoes, Al Hrabosky was first to close out games with motorcycle gang facial hair and the bristling malevolence of a starving caveman bent on breaking the neck of and feeding on a saber-toothed tiger.
As a kid I was mesmerized and a little scared by the images on This Week in Baseball of Hrabosky stomping around behind the mound before pitches and shouting and gesticulating after pitches. But the key to his brief, hot fame--as with Carl Perkins--was that he was, at least briefly, really good. In fact, as good as Rich "Not Yet Goose" Gossage was in 1975, Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky was probably a little better. In 1976, when this card commemorating their success (albeit with a points system that was not explained and that few understood) came out, Hrabosky fell back to earth, but not as much as Gossage, who was moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation, where he floundered, posting a 9 and 17 record. At that point, if you had told a casual baseball fan that one of these men would someday make the Hall of Fame while the other would fade into relative anonymity (as evidenced by his unsponsored $10 page on baseball-reference.com), the casual baseball fan probably would have guessed that Hrabosky, not Goose, would be going to Graceland.
In my (strained) analogy, Rollie would have to be Bill Haley, I guess.
I've got the Quiz as Buddy Holly--witty and great, life tragically cut short.
Bobby Thigpen is the codpiece guy from Cameo.
Also, doesn't Al look illustrated? Does that support your analogy, as Carl Perkins might be more likely to be immortalized in drawing, while the thousands of pictures of Elvis survive on every teen age girls' walls?
2) Whom, on the rock'n'roll side, lines up with Lindy McDaniel?
(That is, if McDaniel -- a well-known Christian -- lines up with anybody ... a gospel artist, maybe?)
I'm trying to come up with a match for Eckersley. The closest I can think of is Ricky Nelson.
Sam Phillips sat on the Wages song for years after determining it was "too wild" to be released...unlike Freddy Beene who was released in 1976.
I even looked up "fireman" in the American Heritage dictionary. It's there, the fourth definition: "a relief pitcher."
I have a sense of when the term started to fall out of use--it was gradual, tapering as the specialization of bullpens increased and bullpen aces became one-inning "closers"--but I'm not sure when the term began. Whenever it began, I believe that it crested in the '70s and early '80s with the guys pictured here and Fingers and Tekulve, etc. I like the term better than closer, just as I like (on a level of pure enjoyment) the way relief aces were used then better than now, "closer" being a term borrowed from the more predatory realms of capitalism (like Pacino's character in Glengarry Glen Ross) and "fireman" of course being someone turned to in a desparate situation, the world collapsing.
Ah, hell, now I'm in my forties I might as well completely embrace the following line of thinking: Everything was better in the old days.
he-he...long time, Eric.
"It doesn't bother me," the hard-throwing Goose said. "Of course, if I pitched to him, I'd flip him. I'd knock him down. And that would be the end of it."
Who's Roy Orbison? Perhaps Tekulve, if only for being a strange looking man that wore dark glasses.
Hrabosky has been a Cardinals broadcaster for many, many years. I'm rather surprised that nobody has mentioned this...as a Cubs fan, I'm keen to ascribe it to the inability of those half-witted, slack-jawed Cardinal fans to take an interest in a blog as intelligent as Josh's...but really, the Cardinals have such a huge following, I'm surprised that a Cards fan hasn't popped up to mention that fact.
Hrabosky was Jack Buck's broadcast partner for awhile, a very odd combination.
25 : I'd vote for Tekulve as Orbison. Besides the glasses and odd "aura of loner" appearance, the effectiveness of each resided in part in strange abilities that were, in the context of their chosen fields, almost effeminate: with Orbison the ability to hit notes more often associated with large-lunged women in Viking helmets, and with Tekulve the ability to throw (practically) underhand.
This just occurred to me, after 30 years of knowing him as "The Mad Hungarian".
I'd address Zernialophile's Cards fan baiting, but I've got to go clean the memorabilia from the many, many WS titles and pennants the Cards have won in my lifetime (not to mention my parents', grandparents', and greatgrandparents' lifetimes).
Like Hrabosky, Harry Caray was a Cardinals announcer for a very long time and, sure enough, one of the rockabilly boys was apparently a fan of his...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5Eb0FqJCgck&feature=related
And Reggie asked for time.
When he stepped back into the box, Hrabosky had to start the whole routine over again. Stomped to the back of the mound, rubbed up the baseball angrily, muttered to himself, slammed the ball into his mitt, charged back onto the rubber. And Reggie stepped out again, grinning.
I don't for the life of me remember how long this went on - it had to be three or four times - or who finally caved, or how. By that point I was laughing so hard it didn't matter.
http://tinyurl.com/2rtac7
Jackson, meanwhile, had also starred in the only off-beat element of this game, a waiting contest with Al Hrabosky, the relief pitcher who likes to give himself a pep talk behind the mound before pitching...
...Hrabosky came in to face Jackson. Every time Hrabosky stepped back, pumped himself up and climbed back on the hill ready to be ferocious, Reggie called time and stepped out himself.
Eventually, the count reached 3-2 and Reggie delivered the run with a solid fly to center.
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Thanks to the sac fly and the home run, Reggie's career line against Hrabosky (including postseason) is a rather remarkable .125/.111/.500.
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