They say three times the charm, but sometimes it can be nine.
Rich "Goose" Gossage was finally
elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday on his ninth try. He becomes only the fifth reliever to make the Hall, joining Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley and Bruce Sutter.
It's been an arduous journey for Gossage.
Gossage garnered only 33.3% of the votes when his name first appeared on the ballot in 2000. Since then former players, writers and yes, even the Goose himself, waged a torrid campaign for his election. The Goose narrowly missed induction last year as he fell 21 votes shy of the magic 75% needed to gain entrance. On Tuesday Gossage came away with 85.8% of the votes.
Gossage played from 1972-1994 so I didn't get a chance to see him during his prime. Actually the first time I remember watching The Goose pitch was when he was a member of the San Diego Padres in 1984. I remember my cousin (who was older than me and also a Yankee fan) shaking his head in disgust as we watched the National League Championship Series. Goose helped the Pads defeat the Cubs and advance to their first-ever World Series.
I may have been too young to remember Gossage in pinstripes, but I've seen the highlights. He was all arms and legs and mustache and always came out of the pen spitting fire. The Goose may have been the first real intimidator to come in and close games out. The game was different then as evidence by this stat:
Gossage finished with 310 career saves and in 52 of them he recorded seven outs or more.
How incredible is that? With my quick math that comes out to 2 1/3 innings. You don't see guys doing that sort of thing anymore. And by comparison, Mariano Rivera has done that only once in his illustrious career.
The Goose played for nine teams during his 22-year career, but his prime was spent with the Yankees from 1978-1983. I think it's safe to assume that Goose will be wearing a Yankees cap when they present him with his bronze bust in the summer.
"The biggest game that I ever pitched in on any team by far was that '78
playoff game with the Red Sox," Gossage said. "It seemed like the playoffs after that
and the World Series were kind of anticlimactic because of the pressure that was
in that one-game playoff."
Ah, the good ol' days.
Congrats Goose.
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