Frederick "Firpo" Marberry
(November 30 1898 –
June 30 1976) was an
American
right-handed
starting and relief pitcher in Major League Baseball from to , most
notably with the Washington
Senators. The sport's first prominent reliever, he has
been retroactively credited as having been the first pitcher to
record 20
saves in a season, the first
to earn 100 career saves, the first to make 50 relief appearances
in a season or 300 in a career, and the only pitcher to lead the
major leagues in saves five times. Since relief pitching was still
seen as a lesser calling in a time when starters were only removed
when clearly ineffective, Marberry also started 187 games in his
career, posting a 94-52
record as a
starter for a respectable .644 winning percentage. He pitched in
later years for the
Detroit Tigers
(1933-1935) and
New York Giants
(1936) before ending his career in Washington.
Career overview
Born in
Streetman,
Texas
, he became well-known around the majors for the
scowl he seemed to constantly have on his face that sometimes
frightened batter; his appearance
and demeanor reminded observers of boxer Luis
Firpo, earning Marberry the nickname for which he often
expressed disdain.
Like many players, right-handed Marberry started and ended his
career with the same ballclub, the Senators. When he first came up
in August , Marberry was effective in 44 and 2/3
innings pitched for the remainder of the
season. He went 4-0 that year, proving himself ready for the pros.
An 11-12 season with a 3.09
ERA
came the year after, which might have seemed fairly average in that
era were it not for his relief work, which saw him save 15 games –
a new major league record, although it was not realized at the
time. Marberry's role was crucial in helping the Senators reach the
World Series for the first time in
franchise history.
In the
1924 Series against the Giants,
Marberry was thrown into a difficult situation in his first
appearance; after the Senators had taken a 3-1 lead going into the
9th inning of Game 2 at Griffith Stadium
, starter Tom Zachary
allowed the Giants to score twice to tie the game. Marberry
came in to
strike out Travis Jackson to end the inning, and the
Senators scored in the bottom of the 9th to tie the Series; Zachary
was credited with the win, although modern rules would have
credited it to Marberry.
The next day, Marberry started Game 3 at the
Polo
Grounds
, but suffered from two unearned runs in the 2nd
inning, was pulled for a pinch hitter in the top of the 4th while
trailing 3-1, and was charged with the loss. He rebounded in
Game 4 the next day, however, entering in the 8th inning with a 7-2
lead and closing out the victory to again tie the Series.
He showed his mettle in Game 7 at Griffith Stadium, entering with
two men on base and no one out in the 6th inning, leading 1-0.
Although the Giants scored three times in the inning, two of the
runs were unearned, and Marberry effectively shut the Giants down
through top of the 8th, being pulled for a pinch hitter as the
Senators tied the score in the bottom of the inning. Legendary
Walter Johnson came in for the 9th
inning, and redeemed himself after two losses in the Series by
shutting out New York for four innings; the Senators scored in the
bottom of the 12th to take what would be the only World Series
title in Washington history. Marberry ended the Series with a 1.12
ERA in 4 games.
Marberry came back with another remarkable season in , again saving
15 games to tie his own record as the Senators won their second
consecutive pennant. But although he allowed no runs in 2
appearances, Washington dropped the Series to the
Pittsburgh Pirates, again going seven
games. Marberry had an excellent year in , breaking his own record
again with 22 saves and posting a 3.00 ERA, the lowest of his
career (besides his brief 1923 season) in an era which strongly
favored hitters. He also took over the major league record for
career saves, with 52. After two subpar seasons, he came back in to
again lead the
American League with
11 saves, while also winning a career-high 19 to finish 4th in the
AL.
Marberry was never a full-time starter, but was often considered
one of the few great pitchers that could go back and forth from the
bullpen to being a starter, since there were
so few of his era. In and , Marberry was employed primarily as a
starter, and posted an overall record of 31-9 for the two seasons.
In 1931, showcasing his talents as both a starter (25 starts), and
a reliever (20 appearances), he posted a 16-4 record with a 3.45
ERA (5th in the league) and 88 strikeouts. While he picked up 11
complete games and 1
shutout as a starter, he also had 7 saves, and
finished 13th in
MVP
voting (
Lefty Grove won the
award).
After again leading the league in saves in , for the fifth and last
time, he was traded to Detroit on
December
14.
With the Tigers, Marberry adjusted well to
the move from pitcher-friendly Griffith Stadium to Tiger
Stadium
, and posted a record of 31-16 in his first two
years before his career faded away. After appearing in only
5 games for Detroit in 1935, Marberry was offered a job as an AL
umpire, and he did serve in that
capacity for the remainder of the season, though never in a
Washington game.
He made a single relief appearance for the
Giants in before ending his career on June
10 in the town that had come to love him, Washington,
D.C.
In a 14-season career, Marberry had a lifetime record of 148-88
with a 3.63 ERA in 551 games (187 starts), accumulating 86 complete
games and 7 shutouts. His career records of 364 relief appearances
and 101 saves – both more than double the previous records – were
surpassed by
Jack Russell in
and
Johnny Murphy in respectively. He
struck out 822 batters in 2067-1/3 innings pitched. Marberry would
not begin to gain true recognition for many of his accomplishments
until the save was created as a pitching statistic in the 1960s,
and later research was done to identify saves earned in the past.
He died of
a stroke at age 77 in Mexia, Texas
, and was buried in Birdston Cemetery near
Streetman.
On May 6, 1934, Marberry served up a record-tying four consecutive
triples to the
Boston Red Sox. The four hitters were
Carl Reynolds,
Moose Solters,
Rick
Ferrell, and
Bucky Walters
Highlights
- Top 10 in the American League in wins, five times (1929, '30,
'31, '33, '34)
- Top 6 in the league in ERA, four times (1924, '29, '31,
'33)
- Led the league in saves, five times (1924, '25, '26, '29, '32);
in the top 10 four more times (1927, '28, '31, '34)
- Led the league in games, six times (1924, '25, '26, '28, '29,
'32), and led the league in games finished, four times (1924, '25,
'26, '28)
See also
External links
References
Wikis
Facts
Map
Search
