Set Appreciation Post #10 - 1995 Emotion XL

The local card shop scene in Raleigh is pretty weak.  There is a card shop that is attached to a gas station in one of the far northern suburbs and there is also one that has been dying shopping mall, but actually just moved to within two miles of my house.  Neither are great for different reasons.  I am not going to hold my breath that it's going to be anything great in a new location.  

About a year ago, I was in the dying mall to pick up a pair of extra slim pants for my son.  I had been sorting out some cards at the time, needed a 5,000 count box for storage, so I stopped into the card shop while I was there.  To my surprise, they had out this huge table of old boxes of cards.  Not really their thing.  As you can imagine, the mall card shop's biggest fault is their pricing, which has always been ridiculously high.  The prices on the boxes weren't terrible all things considered, but the Emotion XL box was marked at $30.  A quick search of Ebay listings told me that I had found the rare mall card shop bargain.  Shocking. 

I bought it.  

These were really cool cards back in the day, so I was pretty excited to open this box of cards.  I started opening up the packs and put a bunch of the cards up on my once award winning, now neglected,  Instagram page.  

I ended up with the complete set, but it was much more of a mixed bag than I remembered it to be.  At some point, I stopped posting pictures of the cards.  Yes, I finished up the set.  I put the completed set in a box and shoved them into my card closet.  I liken this set to an old record or CD that you bought at another point in your life.  It was great music at the time, but you can't make it through the whole thing anymore.  

Like the first half of Pearl Jam's Ten album, or almost every Nas album after Illmatic.  

So, let's take a look at the set.  Here is the base card.  

Honestly, I love the full color picture and the last name and team name on the front.  The odd frame corners are a little bit unnecessary, but it's not like they are ruining the card.  The descriptive word is what has not aged well on these cards.  Yes, it would have been awesome to see something like "'Roider" or "Juiced Up" on a Brady Anderson card, but Driving isn't actually all that bad. 

You will see bad in a minute.  Hold that thought.  

Even the pictures on the back of the card are nice.  The little sentence about the player at the top of the card is pretty fair.  The stat line is small, but kudos for mixing in things like AB/HR and OBP% in the mid 1990s.  The card stock is nice too for the mid 1990s. 

THESE ARE TERRIBLE 

Let's get these cards out of the way first.  I went through all 200 cards in the set and picked out 4 that seemed really bad in retrospect.  For more examples, some I disagree with, check out this SB Nation article which likens this set to "Gas Station Cologne".  

"The Heat"??? What does this even mean?  Bichette has a 130 point split difference between his home and road slugging percentage.  He hit almost 300 career home runs, but less than 100 of them came on the road.  I would have gone with something like "Altitude" or "Low Humidity" for his card.  

Will Clark was a pretty intense guy, but this is just stupid.  Couldn't we just get a card that says "Intense", or maybe someone could have used a thesaurus and found a synonym for the word intense.  Personally, I would have done something to reference his tradition of drinking a post game beer.  

Player nicknames aren't emotions.  Dumb.  This is post White Sox, so I would have gone with "Regressing" or maybe "Declining".  

What's dumber than using a player nickname?  

Using a state nickname.  Luckily no Cardinals players have the phrase "ShowMe" stamped on the front of their cards.  

THESE ARE NOT SO TERRIBLE

So, if you clicked on the link to the SB Nation article above, I am going to go against some of the cards that they ripped on in their write up of the Emotion set.  I am not a SB Nation reader, so I was curious about the age of the author, considering he spent a large chunk of the article ripping the Cal Ripken card.  We were born within a few years of each other, so I am going to dismiss age as a factor in his writing and just say it's ignorance in an otherwise humorous article.  

I will give an equally long rant.  

The word on the Cal Ripken word is "Class".  I am not a Cal Ripken person and I rarely write anything about him on this blog.  I agree with the SB Nation article's assertion that MLB went overboard with Cal Ripken during the mid 1990s.  However, the obsession with Ripken was somewhat warranted and necessary.  

Let's review: 

1. Fans were irked with both the players and owners after the strike in 1994.  Many of the angry fans had promised to stay away from the game.  Baseball is the worst professional sport at selling its superstar players, but they went big on them when the games resumed in 1995 for once,  Ripken was included for an important reason.    

2. Ripken's run at Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak was the first important event that came up after the strike ended.  I am sure that if there was a player closing in on 3,000 hits, 500 home runs, or 300 wins, that would have been blown up too. 

3. Playing more than 2,000 consecutive games is a legitimately impressive record.  You have to be good enough to start.  Good enough to maintain your starting job over other players.  Healthy enough not to get injured over a 16 year period of time.  It's part talent and part luck, but it's not a record anyone is going to touch anytime soon. 

4. Tell me something bad that Cal Ripken did as a person while he was playing baseball?  ((You can't))

With that being said, as a person who watched a lot of baseball in the 1990s, it's not a stretch to say that Ripken was an important part of bringing disgruntled fans back to the game.  Yes, he was a good player.  Yes he was classy.  Ripken chasing Lou Gehrig during the 1995 season was an important hook that soothed a lot of bad feelings.  

Some other good cards.  

I am going to ignore the word "Precision", and instead focus on the fact that McGwire has a mullet in this picture.   Any McGwire card from the mid 1990s where he has a mullet is an instant winner in my book.  In fact, I am going to add that to my little note pad of future post ideas.  McGwire mullet cards.  

Manny Ramirez always had a great looking swing.  I love the look on his face in this card along with the word "Punishing" that is attached to his card.  I know he's a bit of a lightning rod, so I am not sure if/when he will get into the Hall.  Still a great player though.  

I saw this interview a few years back where someone was talking to Dennis Eckersley.  They brought up blown saves and I instantly thought he was going to start talking about the Kirk Gibson home run in the World Series.  Instead, he starts talking about this Manny Ramirez home run from 1995.  Eckersley threw him a fastball on the inside corner, catcher is not moving his glove in the clip, and Manny hit the ball halfway up the bleachers in Jacobs Field.  

Eckersley is smiling after the home run and says "Wow". 

Last one for the not so terrible section of this post.  

This card also gets torn apart on the SB Nation article, but considering Gwynn was one of the first players to use video to improve his hitting, I think it is a pretty fitting label.  Gwynn is a Hall of Famer based on his statistics, but he's also a very important innovator.  Where would baseball be today without him watching video?  I am sure someone else would have done the same thing at some point, but Gwynn turned video into a popular practice.  

The Best Cardinals Card 

I will go with a former player instead.  The Cardinals cards are decent, but none of them really stood out.  However, you don't get many relief pitchers wearing batting helmets on baseball cards.  Yet, here we are with 1986 National League Rookie of the Year Todd Worrell.  

The Todd Worrell card is also ripped apart in the SB Nation article, but I actually like this card as a Cardinals fan who knows something about his background.  He went to tiny little Biola College, which is apparently in the middle of Los Angeles and was founded by some Presbyterian pastor back in the early 1900s.  It's not an athletic powerhouse, but a Cardinals scout went to one of their games while in town to watch another player.  Worrell played outfield and catcher for the team, but occasionally pitched, mainly as a long reliever.  He threw in the mid 90s as a college position player who didn't really work with a pitching coach.  

Obviously, Worrell did not bat often as a back of the game reliever, but he did register a triple as one of his two Major League hits.  I am sure that players like Worrell, who have experience as a position player, take batting practice every so often.  

The back of the card has the more standard pitcher photos.  I like the one in the background with him finishing his pitch.  Worrell was really tall and had this great downward motion with a low finish at the end of his delivery. 

It's not as cool as the Bob Gibson follow through, but I always thought Worrell looked different.  Max Scherzer does something really similar to this too.  

Best Durham Bulls Player

I am going to ignore the word "Cool" and just focus on the fact that this card has a sweet photo of Braves first baseman Fred McGriff.  He had not actually been on the Durham Bulls at this point in his career.  He did not appear on the Bulls until the end of his career while trying to work his way back up to the Majors with the Rays in 2004.  

McGriff ended up making to Tampa. 

That's cool.   

His career was done by the middle of July in 2004.  

That's not cool.  

Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bull 

in 1995, what was the best reason to buy some Emotion XL cards? Before Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Wander Franco, and whatever other uber prospects who were overvalued by baseball card collectors, there was Hideo Nomo.  People were crazy for his cards.  Non-mania might have been worse to some degree because he was actually pitching in the Majors at the same time people were going crazy over his cards.  I didn't go out of my way to find them, but I still ended up with a few from random sets.  

The "Twisting" tag seems a little weak, maybe "Effectively Wild" would have been better.  I like the picture on the front.  It gives you a little insight into Nomo's pitching motion, but the back is really good.  

Love the picture on the left with Nomo's back.  That's not a side view, that's likely from behind the plate.  

I don't love the description of Nomo's throwing motion as herky jerky.  He paused at two different spots during his delivery.  Lots of pitchers have used a pause mid wind-up to throw off the timing of hitters.  Currently, both Johnny Cueto and Marcus Stroman use a pause.  I believe Marichal used one back in the day.  

How Does It Compare?  

I love the photos.  I like Emotion brand concept on some of the cards, but others do not work for various reasons.  Some of the cards did not age well, others were just not very well thought out, which goes with the gist of the SB Nation article, if you read it.  

Good card stock and photos count for something, but not enough to crack the top half of the sets that I have featured on my Set Appreciation Posts.  

10. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

9. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

8. 2000 UD Ionix 

7. 1995 Emotion XL 

6. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

Topps Salutes Mediocrity

The Topps Archives set came out awhile ago. It has always been one of my favorite places to find autographs every year.  It's nice to see some older players sign a few cards, and there are usually a fair amount of Cardinals included.  This year it seemed that they all came from the early 1990s Cardinals.  

The early 1990s Cardinals were young, many of the players never lived up to the hype, and they were a lock to finish in the middle of the division.  Never good enough to catch the Pirates or Phillies, never bad enough to hang out in last place.  

Really mediocre teams.  

I didn't think I would see the day when Topps would include a bunch of 1990s Cardinals on a modern set, outside of Mark McGwire.  I am posting the Cardinals in order from most surprising to least surprising in terms of appearance in a modern baseball card set.  

My jaw dropped when I saw this first name on the checklist.

The Cardinals got Felix Jose from the A's for renting Willie McGee at the end of the 1990 season.  He made the National League All-Star Team in 1991, and ended up spending two decent years with the Cardinals before he was traded to the Royals for Gregg Jefferies.  I best remember Felix Jose for not sitting near anybody on the bench during games. 

I couldn't find a picture of him in the dugout with the Cardinals, but here is one from later in his career with the Yankees.  

Felix Jose ended up spending a lot of time playing in Mexico and Korea, and only appeared in roughly 700 Major League games.  I am really surprised that he popped up in a baseball card set in 2020.  Decent signature and I love that they put him on a 1992 Topps card.  Always a plus in the Archives set when you can match-up the players era with the card style.  

Next.  Not as surprising as Felix Jose.  

The Cardinals have quietly had a good run of really good defensive catchers over the last 30 years.  There was a short window in the late 1990s where that wasn't true, but the team has filled the majority of those years with Tony Pena, Mike Matheny, Yadier Molina, and Tom Pagnozzi.  It took him a few years to latch on as a starter, he was actually the backup to Tony Pena at the beginning of his career starting in 1987. 

Pagnozzi won three National League Gold Gloves during the first half of the 1990s.  

I am not saying he is a complete unknown, but I am sure that if you did not watch baseball in the 1990s, there is probably no chance that you'd know the no-hit Gold Glove catcher on a third place team.  

This was one of my favorite plays he made.  The stairs at Busch Stadium II made foul balls near the dugout an adventure.  The steps were steep and there was no railing in front of the dugout until the mid to late 1990s.  

Again, I love that the card design matches the era of the player.  

The last two are not as surprising.  Love the picture on this card.  

Worrell is a name player from the 1980s and 1990s.  He won the National League Rookie of the Year closing out games for the Cardinals in 1986.  Very good player, had some arm injuries in the middle of his career, but came back to be a good closer during the late 1990s with the Dodgers.  Not surprising that he would be included in a modern baseball card set, but he hasn't really done anything with baseball cards or autographs since retiring.  

He is worthy of being on baseball cards, more surprising that he suddenly appeared after 20 years of nothing.  

The picture.  

The bullpens in Busch II were on the field in the corners.  The Cardinals were on the first base side, visitors were on the third base side.  This picture was clearly taken in the Cardinals bullpen with the right field foul pole over Worrell's shoulder.  

Last card, least surprising 1990s Cardinals player in the set, but also not pictured as a member of the Cardinals.  

Henke only pitched for the Cardinals for one season, which was his last one in the Majors.  He is from a small town outside of Jefferson City, and wanted to be closer to home.  Henke has other modern cards, but it seems like he has been popping up a little more frequently.  

No matter how much I might complain about the current Cardinals, some of the early 1990s Cardinals teams were worse.  You always had to look hard for the good.  Henke was definitely one of them.    

Throw in a few World Series titles with the Blue Jays in the early 1990s, and Henke is easily the best player in this post.  

A 1980s Card Part 26- 1987 Topps Todd Worrell Record Breaker

Everyone loves the 1987 Topps set.  I think I would put it in the middle of the pack if I had to rank all of the 1980s Topps sets.  I guess the appeal is that the wood frame of the cards is similar to the 1962 Topps set, or something like that. 

Give me the 1962 Topps card all day. 

The first Cardinals card in the 1987 Topps set is a Record Breaker card for relief pitcher Todd Worrell, who set the Major League record for saves in a season by a rookie pitcher during the 1986 season.  Seems a little odd given that the most memorable moment of his career came before his rookie season while pitching in the Postseason for the 1985 Cardinals. 

He was a September call-up who stuck on the Postseason roster. 

Whitey Herzog used all sorts of pitchers in the closers role during the 1985 season, but Todd Worrell was used almost exclusively as the stopper during the playoffs.  He also did a pretty good job of covering first base during Game 6 of the World Series no matter what Don Denkinger called. 

The 1986 Cardinals were not very good, but Worrell still managed to save 36 games and set the Major League record.  Here is his 1987 Topps Record Breaker card......

Beyond the wood border, this Worrell card has another trademark of the 1987 Topps set, which is poor centering.  Possible on any Topps set, even today, but look at that top border.  That's pretty bad.  I actually like the action photo of Worrell and his high leg kick with the green background.  I am farily certain that every 1980s pitcher who threw hard had a giant leg kick and was incredibly slow to the plate.  Looks like the beautiful green concrete from Riverfront Stadium.  

Love those multi-purpose concrete bowls stadiums.  Surprised you cannot see the lines from the football field going across the diamond.  

Here is the back of the card.  

  

I would not have guessed that Doug Corbett had previously held the rookie saves record prior to Worrell.  I would have gone Lee Smith, or Jeff Reardon.  Worrell's record was broken by Kaz Sasaki in 2001 with the Mariners, but is currently held by former Braves closer Craig Kimbrel.  It's probably only a matter of time before we get a rookie closer who saves 50 games.  They will likely pitch 50 innings or less too.  

Worrell ended up pitching until 1998, accumulating more than 250 saves with the Cardinals and Dodgers.  Pretty remarkable that he got that many saves though.  

While he was hardly a bust, Worrell had an injury shortened career, and his opportunities to close out games were limited at several points.  He missed almost two whole seasons in the prime of his career with arm injuries, and he spent one season with the Cardinals as a setup man for Lee Smith trying to rebuild his value for a run at free agency. 

Worrell lost his job closing out games for the Dodgers during his first season with the team, and only managed 11 his second season in Los Angeles.  He was terrible both years.  The 1994 baseball strike was terrible for the game, but the time off seemed to help Worrell.  He saved 112 games during his final 3 seasons in the Majors.  When you do the math, Worrell was really only the primary closer for his team during 7 seasons, so the 250 number is pretty impressive when given a little more context.

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 24 - Todd Worrell

I was a little surprised by the fact that Todd Worrell only pitched one season with the Cardinals during the 1990s.  He was definitely injury prone during his last few years with in St. Louis, but I didn't remember him missing two whole seasons.  I guess that's why we got Lee Smith for awhile.

Personally, I think of Worrell as more of a 1980s Cardinals player.  The team had Bruce Sutter as their closer at the beginning of the Whitey Herzog era.  He left for the Braves at the end of the 1984 season and was initially replaced in 1985 by a combination of Jeff Lahti and Ken Dayley.  Worrell was called up in August of that season just ahead of the Postseason roster deadline.

The Cardinals were in a tight pennant race that fall against the Mets.  Worrell appeared in 16 regular season games during September of 1985 picking up 5 saves.  He also appeared in 7 Postseason games that fall against the Dodgers and Royals.

Worrell was the pitcher who had his foot on first base ahead of Jorge Orta in Game 6.  Somehow Don Denkinger didn't see a 6'5 guy with red shoes standing on a white base during this play.  Pretty sure that Royals gave him a World Series ring and retired his umpire uniform number.  Some idiot at Topps gave him a baseball card and called him a good umpire.  

Since Worrell did not get called up until the very end of the 1985 season he did not appear in any 1985 products.  He did not make the Topps base set in 1986 either, but did make the Fleer and Donruss sets.  My favorite is the Donruss......

mainly because of the Rated Rookie stamp.  Worrell went on to appear in the Topps Traded set put out in the fall of 1986.  Considering Worrell led the National League in saves, and won the Rookie of The Year, that season his first Topps card was a pretty popular one.  

at least it was in St. Louis County.  So, just to fast forward through the rest of the 1980s for Todd Worrell, he saved a ton of games for the Cardinals before one his elbow ligaments tore at the end of the 1989 season.  Since Worrell was out for awhile, even though the 1990 Cardinals were a complete dumpster fire, they ended up trading for Lee Smith.  Worrell did pitch for the Louisville Redbirds in 1991.  He pitched 3 games and tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder.  Those were the only 3 games he pitched in during the first two years of the 1990s. 

In 1992, Worrell returned to the Cardinals, but since Lee Smith was on the team he was used as a set-up man.  Kind of a shame since that season was the beginning of Lee Smith's painful slide from throwing 95 and striking out batters, to throwing 95 and watching the outfielders chase down extra base hits.  Meanwhile, Worrell pitched in 67 games, had an ERA just above 2.00, and struck out a batter per inning.  

We also got baseball cards of Worrell.  Not just a boring Topps base card either, although that's out there if you want it.  

I have always kind of liked his 1992 Studio card from that season.  It looks a little odd at first, I will admit, but I like the jacket and hat on the card.  The 1992 season was actually the 100th Anniversary of the Cardinals and the team decided to leave the 1980s behind two years into the 1990s.  In 1991 the team wore.....

polyester pull overs.  In 1992 the team switched back to the button up jerseys and brought back the blue hats, which they had not worn since the late 1960s, as a part of their road uniforms.  They were pretty sharp looking jerseys.  

The Cardinals also wore blue batting practice jerseys and dugout jackets on the road.  The blue hats were really popular when they first came back out.  I am pretty sure that I got my parents to buy me one of those hats at West County Mall.  Probably either Champs or JC Penny.  

Back to Worrell.  You know the other great thing about Studio cards from the early 1990s was reading the backs of the cards.  Mark McGwire likes Whitney Houston?  Who'd of thought?  So, Todd Worrell.... 

1. What in the world is Biola University?  It actually stands for the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and it was founded by an oil baron.  Duke was founded by a tobacco baron, so there's that.   Reading a page with student writing on it, B.I.O.L.A. seems like a pretty literal place, since I believe in dinosaurs I am going to stop there.  

2. Josh Worrell was drafted by the Royals, never made it out of the lower Minors, but did play for the Burlington Royals for a brief time.  Local is good.  

3. Howard Johnson was 5 for 9 against Todd Worrell, but most of those hits were made using HoJo's "special" bats.  Think those popped up a lot against the Cardinals.  

I am smarter for having read the back of that card.

Last one.  

Amongst the last of his Cardinals cards from the 1993 Topps set.  I believe that the only two Worrell cards from 1993, with him pictured as a member of the Cardinals, were his Topps and Fleer cards.  Everything else was a Dodgers card.  I always liked these Topps Gold cards, since it's the end of the post I am going fancy.  The base card is nice too, don't get me wrong.  You get to see the blue Cardinals road hat and the team also wore a patch in 1992 to celebrate the team's 100th Anniversary.  The close up of the patch....

Worrell went on to pitch 5 years for the Dodgers.  He led the National League in saves during the 1996 season and helped the team get into the playoffs twice in 1995 and 1996.  He never appeared in a playoff game in 1995 against the Reds, but he recorded the final out in the clincher.....

The Dodgers did not win a playoff game either season.  1997 was a rough year for Worrell and he ended up retiring at the end of the season, but not before he crossed over 250 career saves.  

Friday Five: Top 5 Cardinals Relief Pitchers

5. Al Hrabosky 

Cardinals relief pitcher during the seventies, current television broadcaster, and bar owner.  The Mad Hungarian saved 59 games for the Cardinals over 8 years.  His best year in St Louis took place in 1975 when he went 13-3 pitching in 65 games, but also led the National League in saves with 22.   He had a WAR of 4.0 that year and an ERA+ of 228 finishing third in Cy Young voting.  Overall he posted a 40-20 record with the Cardinals in 329 games with a WAR of 7.2 and an ERA+ of 127.  Hraboksy finished up his career with stints in Kansas City and Atlanta.  

4.  Lee Smith 

Lee Smith pitched four seasons in St. Louis and is someone I watched frequently in middle school and into high school.  When the Cardinals first traded for the imposing relief pitcher he was one of the best in the game.  I think of Smith as being one of the first strictly one inning, strictly ninth inning relief pitchers.  He was big, threw really hard, and walked in from the bullpen really really really slowly.  Smith's first season with the Cardinals was in 1990 after the team traded Tom Brunansky to the Red Sox on May 4th.  That season Lee pitched in 45 games, saved 27 of them, and posted an ERA+ of 182.  The next two seasons, 1991 and 1992, Smith led the National League in saves with 47 and 43 and made two National League All-Star teams.  The 47 saves in 1991 were the National League single season saves record until Randy Myers broke the mark with the Cubs in 1993.  He is still the record holder (along with Jason Isringhausen) for saves in a season by a Cardinal.  The end of Lee Smith's time in St. Louis was pretty ugly.  In 1993 Smith made the National League All-Star team somehow, but his ERA doubled and he was barely an average player as measured by ERA+ (103) and below average with WAR (-0.1).  Somehow he bounced back and saved another hundred games or so with the Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds, and Expos.  

3.  Todd Worrell 

Worrell came up with the Cardinals in 1985 and was immediately put into the closer's role by Whitey Herzog.  He finished out 5 games late in the season for the Cardinals and appeared in 7 NLCS and World Series games that year.  His first full year, 1986, resulted in 9 wins, 36 saves, and ERA+ of 176, with a WAR of 2.6, and a National League Rookie of the Year.  Worrell would go on to save more than 30 games in each the next two seasons, but ran into arm problems towards the end of 1988 and into 1989.  He would eventually miss the last months of the 1989 season and all of the 1990 and 1991 seasons.  Worrell bounced back nicely in 1992 winning five games with an ERA of 2.11 and an ERA+ of 162.  However, he lost his closers job to Lee Smith and moved on to the Dodgers at the end of the year.  The Dodgers eventually moved him into the stoppers role in their bullpen where Worrell made two All-Star games and led the National League in saves during the 1996 season.  He and Smith were close on my list, but I give Worrell a slight nod since he won a major award and was on a National League Championship team.  

2.  Bruce Sutter

Sutter pitched four years as a Cardinal and was one of the most important players on the early WhiteyBall teams in St. Louis.  The Cardinals briefly ended up with both Sutter and Rollie Fingers during the 1980 offseason.  Herzog, the General Manager of the team, decided to keep Sutter and trade Fingers.  The former Cub would go on to led the National League in saves three of his four years in St. Louis, won 26 games, made two All-Star teams, and sealed the 1982 World Series.  

Sutter is the only player on the list this week who is in the Hall of Fame, he's even a Cardinal, because of his work with the split fingered fast baseball.  Still a great player and one of the last "closers" who would pitch more than one inning.  

1. Jason Isringhausen 

Counting numbers have to count for something and nobody in Cardinals history can touch the relief numbers posted by Isringhausen.  The team signed Izzy, a native to the St. Louis area, after the 2001 season.  He spent a total of 7 seasons with the Cardinals and racked up for than 200 saves while posting a 143 ERA+.  A modern closer, Isringhausen mainly pitched the ninth inning for the 2000s Tony LaRussa led Cardinals teams.  He was good for 30 saves most seasons and recorded as many as 47 in 2004.  In my opinion his best year was actually 2005 when he recorded 39 saves, posted an ERA+ of 199, a WAR of 2.0, and led the Cardinals to the National League Championship Series against the Astros.  Besides being the franchise leader in saves, Izzy also helped the Cardinals to playoff appearances in 2002, 2004, and 2005.  The most successful run of any closer on this list.  He was also on the 2006 World Series winner, but did not pitch in the Postseason that year.  I am also going to mention that he was briefly a Durham Bull, but that does not carry any actual weight, just a cool fact.