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New Hall of Famer Goose Gossage

Baseball's Best Reliever of the 1970s Makes it to Cooperstown

Jan 22, 2008

Rich Gossage dominated hitters. But a prejudice against relief pitchers and a big change in the way great relievers were used kept him out of the Hall of Fame for years.

For those who watched his career, Rich "Goose" Gossage was far and away one of the greatest relief pitchers in baseball history. Nevertheless, Hall of Fame voters denied him entry to Cooperstown in each of his first nine years on the ballot.

Gossage was kept out of the Hall for two reasons: (1) a general prejudice against relief pitchers; and (2) the advent of the one inning "Closer" de-valued the Goose's impressive accomplishments.

But in recent years, the first issue seems to be disappearing: both Dennis Eckersley and Bruce Sutter were inducted in the last five years alone. The latter issue, however, was more complex, and it hurt Gossage's Hall of Fame candidacy for a full decade.

You see, the Goose's greatness couldn't be fully understood through the prism of today's relievers, who routinely collect more saves than did Gossage during his career. The Goose pitched the majority of his career before the age of the "Closer", which Dennis Eckersley ushered in (along with others) in or about 1987. Since Eckersley, the best relief pitchers have become one-inning specialists, who usually come into the game with the bases empty in their team's half of the ninth inning.

The Closer's job? Get three outs for the team and one save for his personal record. There is no doubt that the ultra-specialization of relief pitching has forever changed the game of baseball. For one thing, since the Closer is only throwing one inning at a time, he can get a lot more appearances and hence, a lot more saves.

In the Gossage era, 30 saves was a rare accomplishment. Today, 40 is commonplace and 50 is not that rare. Accordingly, when voters came to the ballot with their pens dripping, most of them looked at only one statistic when it comes to Gossage, and that is saves. And if you only look at his saves, without taking into account how times have changed, he doesn't seem all that great.

Goose only registered 30 or more saves twice in a career that spanned more than 20 years. Doesn't seem all that impressive based on today's standards, right?

But every player must be judged according to the norms of his era. And even more than that, each player must be judged based on his own merits, not just measured up against some artificial statistical benchmarks. When Rich Gossage pitched, he was a reliever, not a closer. The Goose's job was to come into a game in the 6th or 7th inning to relieve a starting pitcher who had gotten himself into some kind of mess, and finish the game. The great majority of his outings were two or three (or more) inning affairs. Over his 20-plus year career, Gossage's average outing was 1.9 innings. During the heart of his greatness, from 1975 through 1985, it was almost always closer to three innings.

Well, in 2008, the voters finally came around and elected Gossage. He was named on almost 86% of the ballots, well beyond the required 75% for admission.

The copyright of the article New Hall of Famer Goose Gossage in Baseball is owned by James Lincoln Ray. Permission to republish New Hall of Famer Goose Gossage in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.