Bobby Thigpen is a perfect example of all that's wrong about baseball.

That a strong enough lead-in for you?

OK, maybe he's not. But take a look at this:

Name	Team	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	ERA
Bobby Thigpen	CHA	317	.255	.327	.385	1.83
Steve Farr	KC	474	.255	.327	.382	1.98
League Average	AL		.259	.326	.388	3.91

Those are the 1990 stats for Bobby Thigpen and Steve Farr. The batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage stats are the numbers for the average batter who faced the pitcher that year. As you can see, they're about as similar as can be, and they're basically the average American League hitter for the year. So they faced the same quality of hitter, and produced a pretty similar ERA. Farr's is fifteen points higher, yes, but he also pitched to 52 more innings worth of batters, which is a tradeoff I'm pretty sure most anyone would take. The difference between the two is that Farr pitched in middle relief, and went 13-7 with one save. Thigpen was a PROVEN VETERAN CLOSER, and went 4-6 and 57 saves.

I'm not saying that Bobby Thigpen wasn't a good pitcher, because he was. The last fifteen years (god, we're all old) have somehow portrayed him out to be some sort of stumbling, bumbling reliever who lucked his way into 57 saves, which isn't exactly the case. He was a good pitcher with a very weird minor league career. He started off with 57 great innings of relief in A-ball in Niagara Falls at age 22 (1985 - it was a great year to be on the border). He then threw 160 pretty mediocre innings as a AA starter the next year, but was effective as a reliever for the big club when they called him up. The year after, he threw 52 awful innings at Hawaii (9 starts, 6.15 ERA, 17 strikeouts, 12 walks), but had 89 solid innings of relief for the White Sox as well. These three years, shockingly, were enough for the White Sox to get the hint.

The point is that Bobby Thigpen wasn't an otherworldly pitcher; his stat lines or even his save percentages (if you believe the whole closer mentality gibberish) don't compare to Rivera or Gagne. He just happened to be in the perfect save storm - he was a good pitcher, who played for a team that won a lot of close games, with an excellent defense behind him (the White Sox had the second best defense in the AL that year in converting batted balls into outs). All he needed was Tony LaRussa. Fortunately, Jeff Torborg is enough of a goof to blindly follow Mr. Mullet into the bright save light.