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What A Relief: Gossage Earns Hall Entry

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By CARTER GADDIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

TAMPA - Rich "Goose" Gossage waited eight years for the ultimate validation of a baseball career that thrust him - unwillingly, at first - into the role of relief-pitching trailblazer.

While he waited, he lost his mother, in September 2006. While he waited, contemporaries Dennis Eckersley and Bruce Sutter were enshrined at Cooperstown, N.Y.

Validation finally came Tuesday, when Gossage became the fifth reliever elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in his ninth year on the ballot.

"I guess waiting has even made this sweeter than if I had gone in on the first ballot," said Gossage, who was named on 466 of 543 ballots cast (85.8 percent). "The anticipation has been tremendous. I can't lie; there's been some frustration and some disappointment. But now getting in, it feels even more special."

Gossage was the only player elected this year by the Baseball Writers Association of America, whose voting members fell 16 ballots short of electing former Red Sox slugger Jim Rice (72.2 percent of the 75 percent needed).

Former Expos and Cubs slugger Andre Dawson (65.9 percent) and pitcher Bert Blyleven (61.9 percent) were the only other candidates named on more than 50 percent of the ballots.

By the time Gossage received the happy call Tuesday from BBWAA secretary/treasurer Jack O'Connell, the freshly minted Hall of Famer already had shoveled 6 inches of snow off the sidewalk in front of his Colorado home.

After barely missing in 2007 with 71.2 percent of the vote, Gossage was as close to a sure thing this year as he has been since receiving 33.3 percent in his first year of eligibility in 2000.

He joins Hoyt Wilhelm and his contemporaries, Rollie Fingers, Eckersley and Sutter as the only Hall of Famers whose careers were spent primarily as relievers.

Gossage began his career as a 20-year-old in 1972 with the White Sox and became known for his bushy mustache, his intimidating glare from the mound and his even more intimidating fastball as he helped the 1978 Yankees win the World Series and two other teams, the '81 Yankees and '84 Padres, win pennants.

Cubs manager and Tampa native Lou Piniella was Gossage's teammate with the Yankees.

"The years that he was over there in New York, you couldn't have a better teammate," Piniella said. "You could get on him. You could have fun with him. But I'll tell you this ... when he got out there on the mound, he was all business."

Both played pivotal roles in the one-game playoff victory against the Red Sox to decide the 1978 American League East champion, a game which capped one of the most memorable and competitive pennant races of the '70s. It was, Gossage said, the high point of his tenure with the Yanks.

"To be a part of that game and pitch the last 2 2/3 innings of that game was unbelievable," Gossage said. "And then it seemed like the playoffs that year and the World Series were kind of anti-climactic after that."

Gossage played for nine teams and was a nine-time All-Star. He stands 17th all-time in saves with 310. Of those 310, Gossage recorded seven or more outs 52 times.

Gossage, along with Fingers, defined the evolving role of closer in the '70s after White Sox and Pirates manager Chuck Tanner decided Gossage's skill set made him a formidable weapon out of the bullpen. It wasn't a role Gossage initially embraced.

"When I broke in, in '72, the bullpen was the junk pile," Gossage said. "I'm probably the only pitcher to see the evolution of what it was then to what it is now."

Gossage went so far as to predict that a setup reliever could one day earn Hall of Fame consideration.

"I think moving to the bullpen was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I say that all the time," Gossage said. "That's why I say Tanner had the most influence on me. He's the one who put me in the bullpen. I can't even fathom having nearly the career that I had if I'd have been a starter."

The only one of the 11 first-time candidates on the ballot to receive enough votes to carry into next year's election was Tim Raines (132 votes, 24.3 percent).

Gossage will be inducted, along with Veterans Committee selections Barney Dreyfuss, Bowie Kuhn, Walter O'Malley, Billy Southworth and Dick Williams on July 27 in Cooperstown.

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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