Post by Reddington on Feb 11, 2021 20:20:17 GMT -5
End of an Era
As 1993 drew to a close, the Braves exited from the playoffs early once again. 1993 was also an end to the era of the Braves having the most dominant closer of all time in HOFFBL. A guy drafted in the 2nd round in 1974, and once dangled as trade bait for nothing while he was in the minors, Doug never stopped working on his game and slowly emerged as thee dominant closer in the league.
His major league debut as a closer was in 1978, and he was clearly struggling under the pressure of being the closer, with numerous blown saves, and a 2-8 record, many wondered if event though he had the raw talent he would ever be a consistent closer. Something happened though in the offseason, and his clutch performance went from suffering to being great, and not only great, but perhaps the greatest of all time.
Doug played in 16 seasons winning the Rolaids reliever of the year more than anyone else ever, and voted to the all-star game, an astonishing 11 times, in which is probably one more record he holds. Might be more than any pitcher period, but that I don’t know.
Unlike most high caliber relievers, Doug didn’t blow batters away, instead, batters were constantly hitting the ball to where someone was.
In 1990 Doug had 53 saves, a mark that was only eclipsed 3 times, and 2 of them were by him, setting the record at 56 two times.
If you add in his 34 postseason saves (had 5 saves in 4 different postseasons) Doug ended up with 711 saves for his career. As for the record books based on regular season stats, Doug decided breaking the record was not enough, nor shattering it, when he broke the previous record of 557, he never looked back and tacked on an additional 120 more saves. For perspective the #25 all time save leader only has 275.
Never before, has there been a guy that night in, night out, every season, was money every time you called his number.
In 16 seasons, Doug Corbett showed what it was to be excellent, and it was fitting that his last appearance he came out and did what he always did, in the last game of the 93 season, he got one more save.
Always a reliever, and what might also be a record for someone that never started, Doug had 90 wins, and in 4 different seasons had double digit wins to go along with league leading save totals.
Drafted as a Brave at age 20, Doug retired from the Braves 20 years later. Doug will go down in history as being one of the greatest HOFFBL Braves ever.
Possibly the only overlooked accolade for Doug was how deserving he would have been for the Cy Young in 1983 when he went 5-1, had 56 saves and a 0.85 ERA. Never will there be such a dominant performance from the mound as he showed that season.
Doug joins Hammerin Hank on their Ring of Honor. Atlanta is going to miss you Doug!
The #94 rock song of 1994
