If you’re even a mildly serious baseball fan, you know that the “one” referred to in this piece’s title (Rollie Fingers: World Series Closer Second to Only One”) is New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Fingers, the long-time relief ace for the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, and Milwaukee Brewers, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1992. Next summer, on Sunday, July 21st, Rivera will join Fingers in the Hall.

Today is Rollie Fingers’ 72nd birthday. Fingers is the owner of three World Series rings and 341 career saves. In this piece, I’ll demonstrate that, outside of Rivera, no relief pitcher had a greater impact on his teams’ World Championships than the tall right-hander with the sport’s most singular mustache.

Cooperstown Cred: Rollie Fingers (RP)

  • Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992 (with 81.2% of the vote)
  • Oakland A’s (1968-76), San Diego Padres (1977-80), Milwaukee Brewers (1981-85)
  • Career: 114 wins, 341 saves, 2.90 ERA
  • 74 career saves of at least 7 outs (2nd most ever to Hoyt Wilhelm: 76)
  • 1981 Cy Young and MVP Award winner: 6-3, 28 saves, 1.04 ERA, 0.872 WHIP
  • 4 times in the top 10 of the Cy Young Award voting
  • 7-time All-Star
  • Won 3 World Series titles with the Oakland A’s (1972-74)
  • 1974 World Series MVP (Win, 2 Saves, 1.93 ERA)
  • Career: 4-4, 9 saves, 2.35 ERA in 30 post-season games

(cover photo: si.com)

Rollie Fingers is in the Hall of Fame for four reasons:

  1. His 341 career saves were the most all-time for over a decade.
  2. He played an integral role in the Oakland Athletics’ three World Series titles.
  3. He won the MVP and Cy Young in 1981 with the Milwaukee Brewers.
  4. He had one of the greatest mustaches in the history of the sport.

All kidding aside about the mustache, in 1992 Fingers supporters had a heckuva “elevator” pitch about why he deserved a plaque in Cooperstown: 3 rings, most saves ever, MVP, and Cy Young. Period. Done. Hall of Fame.

In subsequent years, there have been some in the sabermetric community who have called into question Rollie’s Cooperstown credentials, pointing to his 2.90 career ERA as being nothing special for a relief pitcher who spent most of his career in pitchers parks.

I disagree for this reason. Post-season performance has always been a factor in Hall of Fame voting, but, for me, it would be a much, much bigger factor, and especially for relief pitchers.

In a piece I authored last fall, The Cooperstown Closer Debate, I ranked Rollie Fingers as the 4th best relief pitcher of all time, behind just Rivera, Rich Gossage, and Dennis Eckersley. In addition, I ranked him ahead of Bruce Sutter, even though the split-fingered specialist had a superior ERA and WHIP (walks+hits per inning).

(Some portions of this piece are culled from that piece and others in my 7-part series on the history of relief pitching). 

I also ranked Fingers ahead of Trevor Hoffman, despite the recently inducted Hall of Famer’s vastly superior rate stats and 601 career saves. Besides the apples-to-oranges factor that Fingers was a multiple-inning closer and Hoffman mostly a one-inning specialist, I put Fingers ahead for three key reasons: ring #1 (1972), ring #2 (1973), and ring #3 (1974). Tell me that Hoffman wouldn’t trade 260 career regular-season saves for Fingers’ three rings.

Question: What do players talk about all the time when asked about their goals?

Answer: How much they want to win the World Series or “bring a championship” to the city of ___________.

Winning championships (or at least getting close by making the playoffs) is what team sports are all about. It’s where the media focus lies. It’s what people remember. It’s what puts the Fame in the Hall. Rollie Fingers went 4-4 with 9 saves (out of 10 chances) in his post-season career with a 2.35 ERA. Good numbers, but not other-worldly.

However, if you drill down just to the three World Series in which he appeared (1972 against the Cincinnati Reds, 1973 against the New York Mets, and 1974 against the Los Angeles Dodgers), the numbers are markedly better: 2-2, 6 saves, 1.35 ERA. In addition, Fingers stranded a remarkable 16 out of 17 inherited runners in those three Fall Classics.

The Record: Rollie Fingers in the World Series

Take a look at the specifics of each of Fingers’ 16 World Series appearances.

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Notice that Rollie Fingers appeared in all 12 of the A’s World Series wins and that every win was by 3 runs or less. In 1972, all four wins were by a single run, and the first two wins in 1973 were also one-run victories. In 1974, when he won the MVP, three of the four victories were by just one run. There was not one blowout in any of the A’s 12 Fall Classic W’s.

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Of course, since this was the 1970’s and not the 2000’s, Fingers didn’t just go one inning in most of his appearances. He pitched the last two innings of Game 7 in 1972 to close out the series against the Reds. He tossed 3.1 innings in Game 7 of the ’73 Series (against the Mets) before wearing down; he was replaced by Darold Knowles for the final out. In 1974, he preserved a one-run lead in the decisive Game 5 against the Dodgers, getting the final 6 outs.

Fingers wasn’t perfect. He did allow the Reds to tie Game 5 of the ’72 Series in the 8th inning and then take the lead in the 9th, but even in defeat, he shined: his 8th and 9th inning blemishes happened after he had already tossed 2.1 scoreless innings from the 5th through the 7th. The only other foible was in Game 2 of the ’73 Series. He lost the game in the 12th inning, again, shining in defeat, because he had already pitched a scoreless 10th and 11th.

Want more? In his entire post-season career (spanning 30 games), Fingers entered the game with 30 runners on base. Just 2 of those 30 inherited runners crossed the plate. Two out of thirty. And, by the way, 16 of those inherited runners were in scoring position; just 2 scored. (Mariano Rivera, by comparison, even in his greatness, allowed 10 of 53 inherited runners to touch home plate in post-season play).

Fingers was the MVP of the 1974 World Series, and, with all due respect to Reggie Jackson, he arguably should have earned MVP honors in the ’73 Fall Classic also. Reggie drove in two runs in Game 6 and two more in Game 7, but Fingers played a crucial role in all four wins.

Putting Context into Rollie Fingers’ World Series Record

In Part Five of my History of Relief Pitching series, I showed how one of the most useful tools to measure post-season performance is WPA, Win Probability Added (See Glossary). If you’re skeptical of some of the advanced metrics in the baseball world, hear me out on this one. It’s fairly easy to understand. If you get lost, I won’t be offended if you scroll to “The Dismantling of a Championship Squad.”

The short version is that WPA measures each at bat in terms of how it adds or detracts from the player’s team’s chances of winning the game. If you’re a pitcher, every out increases your team’s chances to win; every base-runner decreases those odds. What this means is that WPA is context-dependent. A 1-2-3 inning in a game where your team is winning 10-0 is essentially meaningless in terms of increasing the win probability. On the other hand, a scoreless 9th inning in a one-run game is immensely valuable.

In Game 7 of the ’72 World Series, Rollie Fingers entered in the bottom of the 8th with a 3-1 lead with no outs and two runners in scoring position. In that situation, according to the game log on Baseball-Reference, the A’s had a 57% chance of winning the game. Rollie allowed a sacrifice fly but otherwise got out of the inning with the team still up 3-2. With a one-run lead now entering the 9th inning, the A’s odds increased to a 86% chance for victory, thanks to Fingers holding the lead in the 8th. With WPA, Fingers got 0.29 WPA “points,” by adding a positive 29% to the chances of winning (from 57% to 86%). Essentially, 0.29 WPA means a 29% “Win Probability Added.”

In the bottom of the 9th, since the A’s failed to add to their lead in the top of the inning, the odds of winning dipped slightly to 83%. Fingers then tossed a scoreless 9th, increasing the odds from 83% to 100%, Game Over! That’s another 0.17 WPA for a total of 0.46 WPA for the game.

For the A’s three championships, on the fluctuating batter-by-batter odds of his team winning each individual game, nobody added more value to the team’s wins than Rollie Fingers, and it’s not even close.

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Comparing Rollie Fingers’ World Series Record to Others

In the entire history of baseball, only 12 pitchers have appeared in at least 10 World Series games in relief. Fingers appeared in 16 Fall Classic tilts; only Mariano Rivera (24) and Mike Stanton (20) appeared in more. Again, we can use WPA to see who added the most value to his teams’ World Series fortunes:

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If you’re not familiar with some of the names on this list, please enjoy this brief sidebar history lesson.

Stanton pitched for the Atlanta Braves in 1992 & 1993 and was a set-up man with the New York Yankees from 1998-2001, appearing in a total of 6 Fall Classics, one fewer than Rivera’s 7.

Tug McGraw is a name older fans will know. He was on the 1969 World Champion New York Mets (although he did not appear in the World Series). The coiner of the phrase “Ya Gotta Believe” regarding the ’73 Mets, McGraw appeared in 5 games in the Fall Classic against Fingers and the A’s. Finally, McGraw was the closer for the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies and was on the mound for the final out in the clinching Game 6.

One of the pioneers among relief pitchers (see Part One of my Relief Pitching Series), Johnny Murphy won 6 rings with the Yankees from 1936-1943. The Bronx Bombers were 6-for-6 in the years in which he appeared in at least one World Series Game.

Will McEnaney is well known for jumping into Johnny Bench’s arms in the iconic Sports Illustrated cover after the 1975 World Series. He was the top relief ace for the Big Red Machine’s champions of ’75 and 1976.

Larry Sherry was a 24-year old rookie for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959 and wound up being the World Series MVP; he saved Games 2 and 3 and won (in relief) Games 4 and 6 of the Dodgers’ six-game series win over the Chicago White Sox.

Finally, as the Yankees’ relief ace, Joe Page was the successor to Murphy and contributed to the Yanks’ Fall Classic wins in 1947 and 1949. Although the World Series didn’t have MVP Awards back then, in January 1950, the New York Chapter of the BBWAA conferred, upon Page, the Babe Ruth Memorial Award as the outstanding player of the ’49 World Series.

Here endeth the history lesson tangent.

The Dismantling of a Championship Squad

Topps (1972 & 1973)

In the spring of 1972, Roland Glen Fingers grew his unique handlebar mustache and kept it because A’s owner Charles O. Finley offered $300 to all players who would keep their ‘staches on Opening Day, thinking it would be a good marketing ploy.

Fingers has confirmed the story many times, that he grew his trademark mustache for 300 bucks. Please enjoy the photos to the right. The Topps photo from 1972 was taken the previous season.

At the time, Fingers was 25 years old and had just completed his third first full season in the Major Leagues. There was nothing about those first few seasons that foreshadowed a future Hall of Fame plaque. The save had only become a official statistic in 1969, and Fingers only had 31 of them at the time, to go with a 17-22 record and 3.53 ERA.

In the next three years (from 1972-74), the handlebar mustache-wearing relief ace posted a 2.34 ERA in the regular season to go with 27 wins and 61 saves, not to mention his post-season heroics.

Fingers, Reggie Jackson, and Catfish Hunter were the three Hall of Famers on that A’s dynasty, but there were other great stars on those teams, including third baseman Sal Bando, left fielder Joe Rudi, shortstop Bert Campaneris, catcher/first baseman Gene Tenace, and pitchers Vida Blue and Ken Holtzman.

Sadly, owner Charles Finley was determined to resist the free agent trend and market value that his players were worth, and he traded or didn’t sign virtually all of the A’s stars. Hunter was gone (to the New York Yankees) in 1975. Right before the ’76 season, Jackson and Holtzman were traded to the Baltimore Orioles.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Then, in June, Finley sold Fingers and Rudi to the Boston Red Sox for $1 million each and Blue to the Yankees for $1.5 million.

Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ultimately rescinded the player sales, saying that “the door would be opened wide to the buying of success by the more affluent clubs.” Finley argued that he would get nothing in return if the players left as free agents.

Finley sued Kuhn over the issue but lost the suit. Still, the matter of compensation of lost free agents lingered throughout the sport and was ultimately at the crux of the dispute that led to the 1981 players’ strike.

The sale of Fingers and Rudi to Boston were official long enough for there to be a photo of Fingers wearing a Red Sox uniform even though he never played for the team.

At the end of the ’76 season, eight members of the Oakland A’s were granted free agency, including their long-time relief ace.

Fingers (along with Tenace) signed with the San Diego Padres. Don Baylor (acquired in the Jackson trade) also went west (to the California Angels). Campaneris signed with the Texas Rangers, while Bando inked a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. The following spring, starting second baseman Phil Garner and right fielder Claudell Washington were shipped elsewhere in trades.

The 1977 A’s finished won 63 games and finished last in the A.L. West.

From Oakland to San Diego to Milwaukee

In my opinion, the number one reason Rollie Fingers absolutely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame is what he did in the World Series from 1972-74. However, he wouldn’t have gotten his Cooperstown plaque without his four years with the Padres and four years with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Fingers spent four years closing games in San Diego, saving 108 games while posting a 3.12 ERA, a number inflated by the one dreadful season in his career, 1979. He had a 4.52 ERA and blew 10 out of 23 save chances in that forgettable season.

After the 1980 season, General Manager Jack McKeon (“Trader Jack”) sent Fingers and Tenace to the St. Louis Cardinals in an 11-player deal. Rollie’s tenure in St. Louis lasted just a day longer than his non-tenure in Boston; four days later, he was dealt again, sent to the Milwaukee Brewers along with catcher Ted Simmons and pitcher Pete Vuckovich in exchange for outfielders David Green and Sixto Lezcano along with pitchers Dave LaPoint and Lary Sorensen.

The trade was a coup for the Brewers. Fingers had his best season ever in the strike-shortened 1981 campaign (winning the Cy Young and MVP) while Vuckovich would win the Cy Young in ’82, and Simmons was a still-productive All-Star behind the dish.

Fingers became just the fifth pitcher in history to win both the MVP and Cy Young in the same year (the others being Don Newcombe, Sandy Koufax, Denny McClain, and Vida Blue) and the first to do it as a reliever. His 1.04 ERA was the lowest for any pitcher logging at least 75 innings since the Deadball era. In today’s game, with one-inning closers, we see microscopic bullpen ERAs more than ever, but, in 1981, Fingers posted that number while pitching more than one inning in 30 out of his 47 appearances.

The Brewers made the playoffs in 1981 and ’82, but Fingers couldn’t participate in the ’82 World Series. He tore a muscle in his right forearm in September and missed the rest of the season. It’s a shame because the Brewers were matched up against the St. Louis Cardinals in the Fall Classic. It would have been a neat retrospective if Fingers and Bruce Sutter (the Redbirds’ closer and also a Hall of Fame reliever) had been squaring off in the late innings.

Fingers missed the entire 1983 season, returned to his All-Star form in 1984, and then, at the age of 38, had his worst season ever in ’85 (going 1-6 with a 5.04 ERA). As a result, he was released by the Brewers after the season.

Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose reached out in the offseason and asked Fingers if he would like to try out with the Reds. But there was a catch: the Reds had a no-facial-hair policy, and Fingers would have to shave off his trademark handlebar mustache. So he refused, choosing retirement instead, and still wears the perfectly styled ‘stache to this day.

The Legacy of Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers

When the members of the BBWAA received their ballots in December 1990, Rollie Fingers’ name was on it for the first time, and his 341 saves were still the most in history, ahead of the not yet retired Goose Gossage (307) and the recently retired Sutter (300).

Rollie received an impressive 66% of the vote his first time on the ballot, the most for any player who wasn’t actually elected that year. When the voting occurred the following December, Fingers cleared the bar, earning 81% of the writers’ vote and a plaque in the Hall of Fame. On the day his election was announced, he was still the all-time saves leader, but the still-active Jeff Reardon (327) and Lee Smith (312) were closing in on the mark.

By the time he gave his speech in Cooperstown (on August 2, 1992), Fingers had been passed on the all-time list by Reardon; Smith would also pass him two weeks later. Today, with the proliferation of the cheap save, Fingers’ 341 ranks 13th all-time.

Relief pitching has changed so much since the days of Fingers, Gossage, and Sutter. In 201 of his career 341 saves, Fingers recorded 4 outs or more. Craig Kimbrel, who will soon surpass Fingers on the all-time saves list, has done it just 14 times, and, in each of those 14, it was exactly 4 outs, not more. Fingers recorded at least 5 outs in his saves on 171 occasions, more than 50% of his overall total.

Bullpen usage continues to evolve on a year-to-year basis. Still, it’s unlikely we’ll ever again see multi-inning closers who routinely enter the game in the 7th or 8th innings and get the congratulatory handshake at the end of the 9th.

In some ways, Rollie Fingers was one of the first of his kind and also one of the last. And a Hall of Famer.

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