Colorado's own Goose Gossage finally got elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame today, much to my great joy. For a look at his stats over his 22 year career in Baseball, click here:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=gossari01
Goose was on the ballot a total of nine times, and came close last year, falling 21 votes short of election. Goose was a dominating closer, and he was pretty blunt about it. Goose knows how to throw a curve and a change-up, but he generally relied on his fastball. In his prime, Goose could run that baby up to the plate at up to 102mph, which is pretty hard to hit, let alone see. Goose also didn't take a lot of crap, and if you were caught crowding the plate, Goose would buzz you off.
It took Goose a while to get elected for a few reasons. First, Goose was always just a closer. Second, Hall of Fame voters are idiots. Dennis Eckersly, who was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2004 actually had significantly worse stats than Goose, but he also had a long career as a starter. Goose was also (rightly) elected after Rollie Fingers and (wrongly) after Bruce Sutter. Really though, that's all sort of sour grapes now. Goose is in, and justice has been served. It's interesting to note that Goose is the only player being inducted in 2008. It would have been nicer to see him go in last year with Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, but this way, the spotlight is on him, so that's kind of nice too.
Way to go, Goose!
By the way, I can't get the link to work for some reason, so just copy and past it into your browser...
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