DaytonDailyNews.com

A prototypical closer is a guy with boiling testosterone and a split-finger fastball or changeup that dives quicker and lower than a nuclear-powered submarine.

His hide needs to be rhinoceros-thick, because when he records seven straight saves, nobody darkens his locker. But as soon as he blows one, the media surrounds his space, sticking digital recorders in his face to ask, "What happened, man? How come you made that pitch?"

It is life on the edge, the most specialized job in baseball — walk into a game in the ninth inning with a one-run lead and permit no damage.

So what makes a good closer?

Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Dick Pole is in his 21st coaching season and doesn't even think about it when asked.

"Good fastball and a short memory," Pole said. "Or a trick pitch. It's mentality, really. You see guys who are good in the seventh inning or good in the eighth inning, but they don't make good ninth-inning guys because once they realize he is the last line of defense, he is the one, it's a little different ballgame.

"Trevor Hoffman closing games the last four or five years (with a fastball that has slipped from 97 mph to 89), that's just the mentality of him knowing he can do that job," Pole said. "Rod Beck was closing games with 83 miles-an-hour fastballs, but he had the mentality that he could do it."

It's all mental

Reds closer Francisco Cordero spent a lot of time this spring watching line drives bang around the park, but if it destroyed his confidence, it isn't evident. He recorded 34 saves and blew only six last season.

Asked if it takes strong willpower to be a closer, he said, "You don't have to be strong just to be a closer. If you are in the big leagues, you have to be strong in whatever you do.

"You have to be strong in your mind, that you'll be the best in anything you do," he added.

Cordero says his mind-set is that he is the best closer in baseball and the opponent has to prove he isn't.

"I feel I'm the best at my job and I'm going to get people out every time I'm on the mound," he said. "When I pitch, I think I'm going to get everybody out. I think I'm not going to give up walks, hits or runs."

Asked about a specialty pitch, Cordero shook his head and said, "The speciality pitch is throw strikes, get ahead of the hitter, no matter what pitch you throw. That's the pitch. Throw strikes and get them behind, and you have them thinking."

One great pitch

Reds catcher Ramon Hernandez knows a good closer when he sees one, because when he caught for the San Diego Padres he saw one nearly every day — one of the all-time best in Hoffman.

Hernandez tapped his skull and said, "All up here. It is mentality. A good closer never gets off his game.

"Those guys have to be strong mentally to be a good closer, period," he added. "Because sometimes you are going to blow a save, and you have to be able to come back the next day and pitch again."

As far as pitches, Hernandez says a closer needs one pitch — a hair-rising fastball, a serrated-edged slider or, like Hoffman, the world's best changeup.

"Those guys pitch one inning, and the hitter sees them once, so you throw hard, or a good slider or whatever your one good pitch is — that's all you need," Hernandez said.

And how does a hitter look at a closer?

"It's different facing a closer like Hoffman and Billy Wagner and Jose Valverde," Reds right fielder Jay Bruce said. "If you're closing, you have stuff a lot of people don't have. Most have two good pitches and throw 95 miles an hour with some kind of good breaking pitch.

"You have to have an attitude, too — that bulldog swagger," Bruce added. "You don't make your money off closers."

Contact this reporter at

hmccoy@DaytonDailyNews.com.