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Elroy Leon Face
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pitcher
Born: February 20, 1928, Stephentown, NY
Signed: Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1949
Major League Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates 1953, 1955-1968; Detroit Tigers 1968; Montreal Expos 1969
Roy Face was one of the best relief pitchers of his era, compiling an unprecedented record of 18-1 for the 1959 Pirates. Only Max Scherzer has matched that mark since, going 18-1 for the 2013 Tigers. He ended his 16-year career with 191 career saves and 802 games with the Pirates. At the time, only Walter Johnson had pitched in that many games with one team, as Johnson had appeared in 802 games for the Washington Senators.
Face was a three-time All-Star with the Pirates, making the N.L. squad in 1959, 1960 and 1961. With the help of his forkball, he helped seal the 1960 World Championship with three saves in the Pirates' seven game win over the Yankees. Face led the league in saves three times, including an impressive 28 save season in 1962. He was baseball's all-time saves leader during the 1962 and 1963 seasons before being passed by Hoyt Wilhelm (#276) in 1964.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1956 Topps blog.
February 29, 2020 from King of Prussia, PA - Card #75
Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show held on the bottom floor of the Valley Forge Casino on the final day of February. I did a post over at The Phillies Room with a few pictures of Doug taken with some of the show's autograph guests.
We purchased this Face card from an initial batch of 17 commons and semi-stars purchased from John's Sports Cards within the first hour of our arrival. I didn't track each individual price of the cards purchased, but this card was originally marked at $6 and the entire 17-card lot cost me $50 total.
The Card
Face appeared in 16 different Topps flagship sets, all showing him wearing a Pirates uniform and only his 1969 Topps card updated to show a Tigers team designation. As the back of his card points out, he had 68 appearances in both 1956 and 1960 to lead the league. Wilhelm and Hersh Freeman finished in second place in 1956 with 64 appearances, and Lindy McDaniel (#244) was second in 1960 with 65 appearances. Face's 17 games won in a row in relief is also celebrated on the back of the card.
Pirates Team Set
1965 Season
As a 37-year-old reliever, Face went on the disabled list for the first and only time in his career following knee surgery. He appeared in only 16 games in April/early May and late August/September, compiling a 5-2 record with a 2.66 ERA and no saves.
Phillies Connection
Face was originally drafted by the Phillies and he spent the first two seasons of his professional career (in 1949 and 1950) pitching for the Class D Bradford Blue Wings in the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League. Face pitched extremely well for the Blue Wings (32-7 with a 2.88 ERA), but the Phillies made the unfortunate decision to leave him unprotected in the annual winter draft. Branch Rickey drafted the young right-hander and added him to the Dodgers stable of young pitchers.
In 1954, Rickey, who had moved on to the Pirates, drafted Face again beginning what would become a 15 year relationship between the reliever and Pittsburgh.
I'm not a huge fan of the modern day Bowman releases, but it's cool to think that if prospect sets had been around in the late 1940s/early 1950s, we'd have a card of Roy Face in the 1950 Bowman Draft set, photoshopped into a Phillies uniform.
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First Mainstream Card: 1953 Topps #246
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (16): 1953-1954, 1956-1969
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2018 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RFA
130 - Face non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/16/20.
Sources:
1956 Topps Blog
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year. Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.
Prior Card: #346 Bobby Bragan MG - Milwaukee Braves
Next Card: #348 George Banks - Cleveland Indians
Face is the oldest living player from the 1965-69 time period.
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