Rollie Fingers (born Roland Glen Fingers on August 25, 1946) is a former relief pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Oakland Athletics (1968–76), San Diego Padres (1977–80) and Milwaukee Brewers (1981–85).
Career[]
Fingers won both the American League MVP and Cy Young Award in 1981 while with Milwaukee. In 1974 he was given the World Series MVP Award while with Oakland, earning two saves and one win. Rollie Fingers was on the Oakland A's team that accomplished the first modern-day "three-peat," winning the World Series in '72, '73 and '74. Fingers won the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award in 1977, 1978, and 1980 with the Padres and in 1981 with the Brewers. He saved 29 games for the 1982 Brewers, but he pitched most of the season in pain and was forced to miss the Brewers' first trip to the World Series—where they were beaten in seven games by the Cardinals—and any prospect of a showdown or two with Bruce Sutter, who proved vital to the Cardinals' winning effort.
In 1992 he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, joining Wilhelm to become only the second reliever inducted (Eckersley, Sutter, and Gossage have since followed). In 1999, he ranked Number 96 on The Sporting News list of Baseball's Greatest Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Fingers later pitched a season in the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball League.
Fingers is one of only eight players who have had their numbers retired from more than one team.
