Here’s a subjective ranking of the top five for Feb. 14.
1) Pretzels Getzien (1864)
Anybody who goes by Pretzels is automatically No. 1 on any list, but it turns out Getzien — real first name Charles — was one heck of a hurler in the late 1800s. The German-born right-hander spent nine years in the Majors, the bulk of it for the Detroit Wolverines, starting 40 games or more in five seasons. He went 29-13 with a 3.73 ERA in 1887 to help lead the Woverines to a National League pennant, and he pitched six complete games in Detroit’s successful 15-game championship bout with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association. Of course, the sport Getzien played was almost unrecognizable to 21st-century fans — baseball gloves were still fingerless with an open back, and that 1887 Wolverines squad hit only 55 home runs across its 127-game regular season — but he was a top-notch twirler all the same: His 277 career complete games rank 58th all time.
2) Dave Dravecky (1956)
Dravecky was an excellent left-handed pitcher for the Padres and Giants in the 1980s, earning one All-Star selection with a 3.13 ERA over 226 games. He was especially good in the postseason, allowing just one earned run in 25 2/3 innings across seven appearances. But his career was tragically cut short after he was diagnosed with cancer in his pitching arm in 1988. Despite being told that “outside a miracle, you’ll never pitch again,” Dravecky received a hero’s welcome when he returned to the Major Leagues with the Giants on Aug. 10, 1989, in a moment Hollywood couldn’t script — he allowed only one hit through seven scoreless innings until surrendering three runs in the eighth. Unfortunately, Dravecky would only pitch once again: He broke his arm while pitching in his next start, and the arm re-broke a month later as he was was celebrating with his teammates on the field after the Giants clinched the NL pennant. After battling a staph infection in the arm for 10 months the next year, Dravecky chose to have the arm amputated, a procedure that he credited with saving his life. He became a motivational speaker, sharing his inspiring story of perseverance and courage.
3) Tyler Clippard (1985)
The archetypal journeyman reliever, Clippard completed his 15th season for his 10th team in 2021, when he pitched to a 3.20 ERA over 25 1/3 innings for the D-backs at age 36. If it feels like the bespectacled right-hander has been on your TV every night of the past 15 summers, you aren’t far off — his 803 games played rank second among active players and 50th all time, and his famously unhurried mound presence adds extra gravitas to every late-inning pitch. Through it all, he’s been an effective fireman, earning two All-Star selections during his seven-year run with the Nats and posting a career 3.13 ERA as of the 2021-22 offseason.
4) Takashi Saito (1970)
By the time Saito began his excellent seven-year run in the Major Leagues in 2006, he was already a 36-year-old veteran of 13 seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The right-hander spent 12 of those seasons with the Yokohama BayStars, whom he helped lead to a Japan Series championship in 1998. He was a sensation when he debuted in America as the Dodgers’ closer in 2006, finishing eighth in NL Cy Young voting after saving 24 games with a 2.07 ERA in 72 relief appearances. He was even better the next year, with a 1.40 ERA and 39 saves in 63 games, and he didn’t post an ERA above 2.83 until his final year in 2012. A baseball lifer, he returned to Japan at age 43 in 2013 and pitched three more seasons.
5) Arthur Irwin (1858)
As a player, Irwin was more proficient than prominent — he was a .241 career batter with 934 hits over all or part of 13 seasons from 1880-1894 — but nobody could call him boring. Irwin inserted himself into many facets of professional baseball of his era, from being a key figure in an early attempt at a players union to being a player/manager, organizing rival leagues and part-owning Minor League teams. He courted controversy throughout his career, throwing around accusations of game-fixing, alienating his own players by signing his inexperienced little brother and instigating conflict between team owners of competing leagues. His personal life was no less complicated: He had two families and reportedly ended his life by jumping off a steamship in 1921.
Others of note:
Earl Smith (1897)
Smith was a good-hitting backstop (career .303 average) for 12 seasons from 1919-30, winning World Series with the 1921 and 1922 New York Giants and 1925 Pirates and playing in two others.
Yermín Mercedes (1993)
Mercedes was the story in baseball for the first two months of the 2021 season. The White Sox catcher grabbed headlines from the get-go, starting the year 8-for-8 with six RBIs in his first two games and winning AL Rookie of the Month for April, and he sparked a league-wide discussion about unwritten rules after homering through a take sign in a blowout in May, to the displeasure of his manager Tony La Russa. But he was demoted in July after struggling at the plate and caused some confusion by appearing to announce his retirement before returning to play the next day.
Nick Pivetta (1993)
There are players born on Valentine’s Day with more impressive resumes than Pivetta’s, but that might not be the case for long. After struggling in his first three seasons with the Phillies, Pivetta found his footing with the Red Sox in 2021, including three strong postseason appearances (three runs allowed in 13 2/3 innings).
Candy Lachance (1870)
It’s only fitting that the Valentine’s Day list ends with some Candy. In this case, we’re talking about the turn-of-the-century first baseman Lachance, a .280 hitter with 1,380 knocks over 12 seasons from 1893-1905. He was a member of the first official World Series champions in 1903 with the Boston Americans (later the Red Sox).