Here's How My Closers Collection is Coming

About a month ago I got this wild-eyed idea to start collecting some closers. Some firemen. Rolaids Relief Men. Stoppers. Enders. I talked about it here. Some of you knuckleheads even egged me on a bit. The idea was that I'd collect two cards each for every reliever who'd saved over 40 games in a single season - a prospect made too daunting by the fact that a ton of guys have done that. I switched it to 45 games in a season, and got going.

There are a total of 49 men who have saved 45 games in a single season (some guys like Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera - even Jim Johnson - have definitely done this more than once). I decided that I'd grab one "base" card for the guy, and then collect something cool for the second card - like an autograph, a relic, a weird parallel or something that caught my eye in some way. You can see how it's played out for Edwin Diaz - 57 games saved for the 2018 New York Mets, tied for second on the best-ever single-season saves list - up top here. There's one normal card from 2019 Topps Archive, and then a /99 Panini Immaculate Relic card from the same year. Done. Diaz is done!

Then there's el numero uno, Francisco Rodriguez, K-Rod, who set the all-time single-season saves record for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2008 with 62 saves, a record that stands 12 years later. Here's what he looks like in my project:

Both Donruss cards, one a 2003 "Rated Rookie" card and the relic being 2005. "Certificate of Authenticity" stamped on the back, baby.

I thought that it might be best to try and grab the base card from the same year that the pitcher broke 45 saves, and if not that, from the same team on which he did it, which isn't too difficult. That said, I had a few lying around that didn't fit that criteria, so I'm going with those for now - like, my Lee Smith is on the Cubs, but the dude saved 47 in 1991 with the Cardinals. Also, I'm working on it more or less sequentially down the list, so starting with K-Rod, on to Diaz, and then on to Bobby Thigpen and down we go. Here's the rest of the top 5 single-season saves leaders, starting with Thigpen:

Would you believe that you can grab an autographed 1988 Bobby Thigpen Donruss card on eBay for four bucks? Well, you can!

Man, I loved Gagne. I'm bummed about the steroids and that he was a Dodger in the first place, but I absolutely loved watching him come into the 9th and absolutely dominate.

My John Smoltz cards - 55 saves in 2002 - are actually both limited in number. The 2002 Bowman Heritage that I thought was some basic base card is actually numbered 236/350. It's also not pink, mind you, but that's how it scans. The relic comes from a 2008 Upper Deck set. 

A big thanks to the Garvey Cey Russell Lopes blog, who floated me a few guys a bit further down the list to get me going, including Francisco Cordero and Chad Cordero relics! I'll spare you all of the scans, but rest assured that when I've got all 98 cards lined up, I'll take a nice photo and place it on the blog - then figure out another strange frankenset to get going.