NSBB HOF Ballot: Rich "Goose" Gossage

Next up: Goose Gossage.

From the Baseball HOF website

7th year on the ballot… Pitched 22 seasons… Led the AL in saves three times (1975, ’78, ’80)… Two seasons with 30-plus saves… Named The Sporting News AL Fireman of the Year in 1975 and ’78… Named to nine All-Star teams (1975-’78, ‘80-’82, ’84-‘85)… Finished in top 10 in AL MVP voting twice in 1980 (3rd) and ’81 (9th)… Received Cy Young Award votes in 1975 (T6th), ’78 (5th), ’80 (3rd), ’81 (6th) and ’84 (5th)… Ranks 16th all-time in saves and 10th in games pitched… One AL Division Series (1981); three saves and no earned runs in 6 2/3 ALDS innings… Four League Championship Series (1978, ’80, ’81, ’84); owns 4.91 ERA and three saves in 11 LCS innings… Three World Series (1978, ’81, ’84); owns 2.63 ERA and two saves in 13 2/3 WS innings… Member of 1978 WS championship team.

So, now it's time to debate Gossage. See the HOF thread in baseball discussions for explanation of the rules.

Bob Klapisch makes a case for Gossage.

Gossage shouldn't have to sound like a man begging for spare change, but he's seen Dennis Eckersley, a closer with an arguably thinner résumé zoom by him into the Hall. So the Goose keeps pounding away at the wall of ignorance, unembarrassed to say, "I hate to see injustice."

 

He has a point. In fact, it's a travesty that Gossage has been excluded from the Hall. During his 10-year prime, he allowed fewer hits per nine innings (6.1) than Eckersley (7.5), Rollie Fingers (7.8) and even Mariano Rivera (7). Gossage's ERA in that golden era was a mere 2.03, which is better than Bruce Sutter's 2.62.

 

Here's a pretty compelling case for the Goose.

Voters are still trying to figure out how to apply Hall-of-Fame standards to closers. On the one hand, they toiled in the highest-pressure situations. On the other hand, their career inning totals pale in comparison to those of a garden-variety starting pitcher. On a third, genetically aberrant hand, it's hard to make statistical comparisons between contemporary closers and the firemen of yore because of how differently they're deployed. Perhaps Gossage — at least until Mariano Rivera is eligible for induction — should be the gold standard. (Then again, we'll probably never see his kind again.)

 

 

Three times Gossage logged at least 130 relief innings in a season, four times he worked 100 relief innings in a season, and seven times he worked at least 80 innings. That kind of durability isn't something you see anymore, perhaps for good reason. In 1975, 1977 and 1978, Gossage cobbled together three of the best relief seasons ever. (You could add a fourth to the list had the players' strike not abbreviated the '81 season; for the year, he worked 46.2 innings and logged an ERA of 0.77). Goose pitched for 22 years, worked more 1,500 innings in relief and had an astounding collection of peak seasons. That's a Hall of Famer.

 

An article in today's Denver Post supports Gossage for the HOF.

As if the younger members of the BBWAA can relate to what Gossage and other closers from his generation had to endure. Today's closers typically come on in the top of the ninth inning, no runners on, often with a two- or three-run lead. That's assuming their managers don't save them for the final out of the game.

 

Gossage? If the seventh inning rolled around and a couple of runners reached, he was getting the call. And once he got out of that jam, he would pitch the eighth and ninth, too. A couple of ice packs later, he would do it again.

 

Neyer seems to favor Gossage over Sutter.

Link.

Gossage...was a fantastic pitcher for roughly 11 seasons, and if he'd been used like Sutter was, he'd have saved just as many games in his best seasons. In his career, he pitched 1,809 innings with a 3.01 ERA. Sutter pitched 1,042 innings with a 2.83 ERA. Honestly, it boggles the mind to think that year after year, Sutter gets more votes than Gossage. Perhaps both belong in the Hall of Fame. It depends what value you attach to premier relief pitchers of their era. But the line should form behind Gossage.