In celebration of the 65th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, my collection is going to be the subject of this year-long series.
Shortly after starting my obsession in 1971, the goal was to have at least one Topps card from every year.
Although the 1952 set is considered to be the first released by Topps, the company issued two series that was a part of the game a year earlier.
Saves became an official statistic in 1969, but there were bullpen specialists prior to that time.
A 1962 card in my collection highlights one of those individuals. That season, thanks to retroactively figuring all-time saves, Roy Face of the Pittsburgh Pirates would have been the career leader with 118. He would hold that lead with 134 for one more season before Lindy McDaniel would take over.
Face would also be the all-time leader for the Pirates with 188. Kent Tekulve is the current official leader for the team with 158. Face does hold the record for most games pitched with 802.
A three-time all-star from 1959 to 1961, in the 1962 season Face posted career-best numbers of 28 saves with an ERA of 1.88.
Perhaps the most memorable year for the righthander from New York was in 1959 when he had just 10 saves. That year, he won 17 games in a row and went 18-1 overall. His .947 winning percentage still stands as the all-time record for a single season. An oddity of that year was that he had nine blown saves.
During the 1960 World Series, he finished off three of the Pirates wins as they defeated the New York Yankees on Bill Mazeroski‘s famous home run. He saved games one, four and five before appearing in the wild seventh and decisive game.
Face pitched for 16 years with all but one of them in Pittsburgh. He was sold to the Detroit Tigers late in 1968 and then finished his career the following season with the Montreal Expos when he was 4-2 with five official saves.
Overall, he was 104-95 with 191 saves. The save total would be 51st on the all-time list.