Career Highlights
1978 AL Rolaids Relief Winner
9 All-Stars
1 World Series Ring

Led his League in

Three times
Saves

One Time
Games Finished

Next up in the series is Rich "Goose" Gossage, one of the last of his kind, the ace reliever, before anyone called them "closers." With 100 MPH heat, a walrus moustache and a wild, violent delivery, Goose was the most intimidating reliever of his time. Like Bruce Sutter, Goose has fallen into something of a gray area when it comes to Hall of Fame voting, either the writers have a dislike for relief pitchers, or they just can’t figure out what criteria to use when evaluating them. In either case, Goose has been sitting around waiting for a while now, and the odds say this next election marks his best chance of getting 75% of the vote. Let's have a look...

Gossage debuted in the major leagues in 1970, pitching for the Chicago White Sox. The young man of just 20 years entered a world entirely different than the bullpens of today- his rookie season Cincinnati's Wayne Granger led all pitchers in saves with all of 35. At that point, starting pitchers were expected to go nine innings as often as possible, bullpen help was summoned only when the pitcher was tiring or had an off-day. Set up men weren't even dreamed of yet, and the closer role of today's game was about fifteen years away. Rich turned in three less than spectacular seasons for the Sox before stepping it up in 1975, when he appeared in 141 2/3 innings, turning in 26 saves, 130 strikeouts, and a 1.84 ERA- all in relief.

At this point the Sox ruined a great thing for themselves, using Gossage as a starting pitcher in 1976, before dealing him to Pittsburgh for the '77 season. When the Pirates got their hands on him, they put him right back in the bullpen, and Rich's career took off.

In his only season in Pittsburgh, Gossage set what would be his career high by appearing in 72 games. Over the course of those games, Rich stuck with the fastball, striking out 151 batters in 133 innings. The prior season, when he was starting games, Rich had K'd 135 batters in 224 innings of work. A niche was found, a star was born, and Goose tried out the newfangled practice called free agency.

Start spreadin' the news, I'm leavin' today..

Even though the Yankees had the reigning AL Cy Young winner in their bullpen (Sparky Lyle), George Steinbrenner was convinced Rich Gossage was a better option to finish up ballgames- before the end of November, Gossage was a Yankee. Goose joined a team that had won back to back AL pennants, and was the reigning World Series winner- the Yankees gave him the keys to the late innings and let him do his thing. Over the next six seasons, Gossage finished 266 games for the Yanks, winning 41, saving 150, and losing 28. In his run with the Yankees, Goose struck out 516 batters in 518 2/3 innings, with an ERA of 2.10. Those years in New York are the ones Rich will be remembered for but if you discount the one year he was used as a starter, Rich was right there with the very best at his position over an 11-year period, from '75-'85.

Gossage will always be compared to Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers, and fellow Hall candidate Bruce Sutter. No doubt, these three were the class of their era, here's a statistical comparison, also including Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm. These numbers are averages per season

S= Seasons, GF= Games Finished, BF= Batters Faced, WHIP= Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched 1 Season = 34 Starts or 68 total games

Right away we see a key difference in eras, for today's closers an average season is about 75 innings pitched, facing roughly 300 batters. These players all averaged more than 100 innings per season, and faced an average of nearly 500 batters each year. Much more was asked of relievers during the Fingers- Gossage-Sutter era, there's no question about it.

Since Wilhelm, Fingers and Dennis Eckersley are the only closers in the Hall, it's hard to figure out who to compare Gossage to, and which stats to use. Eck closed games after things had changed, his stats won't work, Wilhelm broke into the big leagues 20 years prior to Gossage, and threw his knuckleball in a variety of roles during his long career, I'm not certain he's the best match here either. This leaves only Fingers to use as a comparison, which speaks volumes. We can either conclude that relief pitchers are almost universally unworthy of Hall of Fame status, or that the voters need to figure themselves out on this issue.

Personally, I think it's some of both, relievers have a limited role, it's a very important role, but the scope of their opportunity is much smaller than that of everyone else you'll find in Cooperstown. Since relievers, or now closers, are a defined segment of major league baseball, I do believe the best of them should be identified with election to the Hall of Fame. However, since their overall contribution is much smaller than that of a position player, or a starting pitcher, I think the percentage of players elected at this position should be commensurate to that contribution. It's always going to be harder to get in as a reliever, or perhaps as a Designated Hitter, than it will be for the others, which I think is justified. So then, knowing that the position he played makes it almost impossible to impress enough Hall voters, did Gossage do enough to be considered a Hall of Famer?

Well, until someone has clearly identified an accepted set of criteria, I'm left comparing Gossage to Fingers. So, for lack of a better method of determination, I'll use each player's "period of dominance" as a measuring stick. For this comparison, I'll use the '75-'85 seasons for Gossage (minus '76 when he was used as a starter), I'll use the '72-'84 seasons for Fingers (minus '83, which he missed due to injury).

In comparison, we see that Fingers' run lasted 2.8 seasons longer, and that he was asked to work more innings, facing a great deal more batters. Those stats are very powerful, as we see Fingers clearly recorded more outs in pressure situations than did Gossage.

In Goose's favor, his ERA and WHIP are incredible, as is the K per IP ratio, which just missed one strikeout per inning over an entire decade.

In postseason play, Fingers went 3-4, with 10 saves and a 2.35 ERA, his team lost the '81 AL Division Series, his teams were 3-2 in League Championships, 3-0 in the World Series (I threw out '82, since Fingers was unable to pitch). Gossage went 5-3, with 8 saves and a 2.87 ERA. His team won the '81 Division Series, and went 3-1 in League Championships, 1-2 in the World Series.

Fingers has a clear edge in awards, winning four Rolaids Relief Awards, a League MVP, a World Series MVP and a Cy Young Award to Gossage's one Rolaids Relief Award. One other note, Gossage led his league in saves three times and games finished one time, Fingers led his league in saves three times, games three times and games finished twice.

So then, should Rich Gossage be elected to the Hall of Fame? In my opinion the answer to this question is anything but clear. His stats are very good, his peak seasons were certainly among the best at his position, but he stuck around way too long, and there is no clear cut dividing line for relief pitchers.

When I started writing this article I would say my vote was a weak no, because I couldn't find the one thing that put Goose over the edge. Once I did the statistical comparison to Fingers, I changed my vote to a sort of weak yes. The WHIP and ERA Goose put up in his prime tell us that he just did not allow baserunners, and did not give up big innings. I wish he had walked away sooner, and I'm not exactly driving the bandwagon on this one, but I cannot overlook Gossage's effectiveness during his peak seasons. He was asked to hold leads in pressure situations, and he certainly did that. Yes for Goose, this year, before he gets lost in the pile.