the Rolaids Relief Man Award each season. He also finished in the top five in voting for the Cy Young Award during this span. Unlike many of his peer closers, Quisenberry did not possess a hard fastball, and thus had to rely on pinpoint control, guile, and deception, which was augmented by the submarine delivery he first used in 1980. His primary pitch was a sinking fastball, which causes hitters to hit the ball on the ground rather than in the air. He also threw a curveball, a changeup he developed in 1984, and an occasional knuckleball. Although Quisenberry was not a strikeout pitcher (averaging only 3.3 strikeouts per nine innings during his career), he offset this deficiency by seldom walking batters or throwing wild pitches. His 45 saves in 1983 set a single-season record (tied in 1984 by Bruce Sutter and broken in 1986 by Dave Righetti), and set a team record that was matched in 1993 by Jeff Montgomery and surpassed in 2013 by Greg Holland. Quisenberry was the first pitcher in major league history to save more than 40 games in a season twice in his career. He won a World Series with the Royals in 1985 and was the winning pitcher of Game 6, notorious for Don Denkinger's blown call at first base. In 1983, the Royals signed Quisenberry to a lifetime contract, similar to the contract of his teammate, George Brett. However, a rocky start in 1988 led to Quisenberry's relegation to middle relief and mop-up duty. Shortly before the All-Star break, he was released by the Royals. Ten days later, the St. Louis Cardinals, managed by ex-Royals manager Whitey Herzog, signed Quisenberry as a free agent. After pitching for a year and a half in St. Louis, Quisenberry signed to play with the San Francisco Giants in 1990. He tore his rotator cuff just five appearances into the 1990 season; this was the first serious injury of his career. Quisenberry retired from baseball in 1990 with 244 saves, then the fifth-highest total in major league history. In the 1996 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Quisenberry received 18 votes, just under the 24 vote (5%) cut-off to remain on the ballot. In the same election, Bruce Sutter, a pitcher with remarkably similar overall statistics, received 137 votes; Sutter went on to be elected to the National Baseball Hall