First Gloves: Roy Face

There’s only so much to say about the defense played by relief pitchers, but if you have a soft spot for Roy Face because you’re both not very tall, and then you run across this glove out at at an antique store, then you have to find a way to write about him.

When you’re 5-foot-8 and hoping to make it as a big league pitcher, you find every little edge you can. Roy Face was a master at that, on top of being a very good pitcher for 16 years.

Face, like Stu Miller, who I recently wrote about, is on the short list of the finest relievers in the game’s history before 1980. And, also like Miller, Face was a small guy. He was just just 5’8” and 155 pounds. Standing on the same mound in Candlestick Park that Miller made infamous in the 1961 All-Star Game, it’s a wonder the wind didn’t blow Face all the way to Oakland.