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The resurgence of Craig Kimbrel is a good sign for Chicago Cubs fans. The modern game of professional baseball demands an effective ‘closer’ for a team to be successful.
Chicago has been fortunate enough to have had some outstanding closers in their longstanding history. Let’s hope Kimbrel’s early successes are just an indication of things to come.
A short history lesson on the closer
Although pitchers being used to close games goes way back, saves were not an official statistic until 1969. According to Peter Morris’ ‘A Game of Inches: The Game on the Field,’ “In 1905, manager John McGraw used Claude Elliot eight of his ten appearances as a reliever.