Wake Up With Billy Wagner Recording His 400th Career Save (2010)
If you grew up with 90’s and early 2000’s baseball, I’m sure you’re mostly going to associate that time period with home runs. You would not be wrong for doing so. Because of the massive home run totals, there have been a few guys who have slipped through the cracks in terms of who we should appreciate from that era. One of those guys — at least, for me anyway — is Billy Wagner. I forget what the special was on or what it was from, but I remember watching something with Derek Jeter talking about Wagner and how he prepared to face him. Jeter started to talk about how Wagner threw triple digits with regularity, and I remember that BLEW my mind. A HUNDRED miles and hour?!
We see relievers throw 100+ all the time now, but back then, Wagner was one of the most feared closers in the game and finished his career with the most strikeouts ever by a left-handed reliever (1,196). Aroldis Chapman, another left-handed reliever who lights up the radar gun with triple digits regularly, is obviously the biggest threat to Wagner’s record, and he’s more than halfway there (670 strikeouts) in his eighth big league season, while Wagner hung it up after 16 seasons.