Goose is one of my favorite baseball players of all time - he was a great player and deserves to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame...
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Rich “Goose” Gossage, the intimidating closer with the explosive fastball and the Fu Manchu mustache, secured baseball’s highest honor on Tuesday when he was elected to the Hall of Fame.In Gossage’s ninth year on the ballot, he received 85.8 percent of the vote. Jim Rice, who was in his 14th year on the ballot, received 72.2 percent, which was 16 votes shy of enshrinement. Candidates need to eclips 75 percent to gain admission to the Hall and can remain on the Baseball Writers Association of America’s ballot for up to 15 years if they receive at least 5 percent of votes.
Mark McGwire, whose 583 homers are the eighth best on the all-time list, garnered a paltry 23.6 percent of the vote, nearly identical to the 23.5 he received last year, the first time he was on the ballot. McGwire’s candidacy has been damaged by the suspicion that he used performance-enhancing drugs and his refusal to answer questions about steroids at a Congressional hearing in 2005.
Besides Gossage and Rice, the only other players who were mentioned on more than half of the ballots were Andre Dawson, who received 65.9 percent of the votes, and Bert Blyleven, who notched 61.9 percent. There were 543 votes cast, which included three blank ballots.
Gossage, who pitched for nine teams across a 22-year career, went 124-107 with a 3.01 earned run average and 301 saves. The right-hander pitched for the Yankees’ 1978 World Series Championship team and had 150 saves in six superb seasons with New York. Gossage was a nine-time All-Star, he pitched in three World Series and he twice finished in the top 10 in the Most Valuable Player balloting.
After Gossage received 71.2 percent of the vote while sharing the ballot with first-year candidates Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn in 2007, he returned as the most deserving candidate in 2008. He joins fellow relievers Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley and Bruce Sutter in the Hall.
Rice, who hit 382 homers in an era that was not defined by steroid use, fell agonizingly short of being enshrined this year. He will make his 15th and final appearance on the writers’ ballot next year. Rickey Henderson, who is the all-time leader in stolen bases and runs scored, will make his first appearance on the ballot next year.
