Late and Close: A History of Relief Pitching

by Paul Votano

Relief pitchers have important roles in baseball today, often coming in to pitch at some of the game's most critical and exciting moments, but they have not always been a part of the game. This work provides a history of relief pitching in the major leagues and explains how, why, and when it began to evolve. It discusses the first managers--John McGraw, Leo Durocher, and Joe McCarthy--who used relief pitchers to win games, and the managers who took full advantage of it in later years--Casey Stengel, Earl Weaver, and Tony LaRussa. It also covers how and when the idea of a pitcher's hurling a complete game began to disappear, great World Series performances by relievers, how relief pitchers are rated and why, what the future holds for them, and how and when they were used not only to finish games but as long and middle relievers, setup men, and closers. Profiles of leading relief pitchers over the years are also included.

191 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2002

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never write reviews here but since there are 0 on here so far, I wanted to make sure no one else ever fell for this book again. Poorly written, completely lacking anything interesting or original to say, a total rehash of generic baseball history. Votano appears to have taken a look at a baseball statistics history book and just relayed the information therein to the reader as if that gleaned some sort of knowledge. There's no talk about how contemporary writers/managers/baseball people viewed relief pitchers at all. All we talk about is saves and ERA and while Votano mentions that saves weren't created until the 60s, that stat is apparently the most important thing for any pitcher. If you have more you're good, if you have less you're bad. Maybe in 2002 this was interesting and new, but it's severely lacking in originality.

Where Votano does provide some original thought is when it comes to the entire 'blacks in professional baseball' idea. His first outrageous idea comes in the first chapter when he says that the Negro Leagues starting up was the cause of segregated baseball pre-1940s. I can't even imagine the hoops one's mind has to go through to make that seem like an honest statement. Later, Votano suggests that Kennesaw Mountain Landis was incorrectly thought to be a racist. Anyone who knows anything at all could not come to that conclusion.

I really should have just given up on this book. Never does this book ever get to the point of a history of relief pitching, it's simply a history of baseball... occasionally talking about relief pitching entirely through the lens of saves. You can find any of this information elsewhere, without all the poorly cloaked racism.