Who invented relief pitching?

Answer 1

If you talk to Cardinals TV broadcaster, Al "The Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky, he invented relief pitching and claims that middle relief pitchers are the greatest thing to happen to baseball since the invention of baseball bats.

Answer 2

Relief pitching has been around for as long as baseball has. As early as the MLB has been around, pitchers were needed to finish a game when a starter, for what ever reason, couldn't do it. The early relief pitching appearances were either from starters who, on their day off, had to enter a game to replace an injured or completely exhausted starter. But for the longest time, bullpen pitchers were considered starters who were failures at their jobs.

Bill James observed that in 1904, John McGraw won the National League pennant with the New York Giants, even though his team finished last in the league in complete games. In 1911, Cubs ace Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown made almost as many relief appearances (26) as starts (27), and that practice continued well into the 1930s.

It wasn't until the 1970's, with the introduction of very talented pitchers like Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter, when the bullpen was considered other than an exile for starters who just weren't good enough. Rollie Fingers was a starter who, when converted to the bullpen, was nothing short of lights out. Many people consider him the greatest reliever of all time.

From then on, the role of the bullpen flourished and received recognition as a vital part of a winning team. By the late 80's, the 100 pitch limit for starters became popular which further solidified the role of the bullpen. A modern day start is considered good if the starter can go 7 innings and give way to the bullpen with the lead. The roles of the bullpen such as long relief, setup, closer, and mop up came about during this time.

Answer 3

Relief pitching has been around practically since the game started.

As far as having a dedicated relief corps, that really took off in the 1950s and '60s; in particular, Roy Face and Hoyt Wilhelm are often regarded as among the first true relief specialists, though a number of other pitchers (such as Johnny Murphy of the Yankees in the 1930s) had decent careers as backup pitchers.

Answer 4

They had relief pitchers around in the early days, they just didn't come into games that often and weren't really classified as "relievers." Probably wouldn't give it to Eckersley because Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter and Gossage were all closers about the same time, if not before Eckersley.

Answer 5

there never was relief pitching back in the day. guys used to pitch complete games like it was nothing , hell some pitched back to back double headers, Nolan Ryan was known to throw 200 pitches in a single game on several different occasions.

Answer 6

relief pitching i do not know, but just to give you something tony larussa invented the modern day "closer" he decided to only use his closer for the last inning or so, this practice became popular with dennis eckersly.

Answer 7

The manager on a team with horrible starting pitching.

Answer 8

Abner Doubleday.

Answer 9

no one invented it, just evolved in time.