Closer
After years of being in Tom Henke's shadow, Ward took over the closer's role in 1993. The Blue Jays again won the World Series, and Ward posted a league-best 45 saves, tying him with Jeff Montgomery of the Kansas City Royals.
Ward set the Toronto Blue Jays' single-season record for saves with 45 in 1993.
The rest of Ward's career was beset by injuries and he would never save another Major League game after 1993. After missing the entire 1994 season due to biceps tendinitis, he retired from the Toronto Blue Jays after pitching four games during the 1995 season. He finished with a 3.28 ERA and 121 saves.
Read more about this topic: Duane Ward
Famous quotes containing the word closer:
“An accurate charting of the American woman’s progress through history might look more like a corkscrew tilted slightly to one side, its loops inching closer to the line of freedom with the passage of time—but like a mathematical curve approaching infinity, never touching its goal. . . . Each time, the spiral turns her back just short of the finish line.”
—Susan Faludi (20th century)
“Oh! for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heav’nly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“The finest works of art are those in which there is the least matter. The closer expression comes to thought, the more the word clings to the idea and disappears, the more beautiful the work of art.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)