Mike Mussina- Baseball Hall of Fame Worthy or Not?

Mike Mussina is a Stanford graduate, by all accounts a man with a brilliant mind. But it doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out what keeps Mike Mussina's name from being mentioned with some of the elite pitchers to ever play the game of baseball. Because even though Mike Mussina is the only pitcher in the long history of the American League to win at least ten or more games in a year fifteen times, he has never gotten to the magical milestone represented by twenty wins in a season, and falling short of this mark may precipitate Mike Mussina falling short eventually of enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Michael Cole Mussina was born in 1968 in, of all places, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the home of the Little League World Series each year. He was a standout in football, basketball, and of course baseball in Montoursville, Pennsylvania and came up just shy academically of being the valedictorian of his class. Mussina attended Stanford University, where he earned an economics degree in three and a half years. He was drafted by the Orioles with the 20th pick in the first round of the amateur draft in 1990, and by August of 1991 he was in the majors, going 4-5 in his first twelve starts. Mussina burst upon the scene in a big way the next season, going 18-5 with a 2.54 earned run average.

In sixteen seasons in the big leagues, Mike Mussina has lost double digit games only five times, and four of those were a pair of ten and eleven loss campaigns. Only two losing records stain his resume; one is his rookie season and another is his 11-15 standard from 2000, his last year in an Orioles' uniform. As a member of Baltimore's rotation, Mussina went 147-81, and in the 1997 American League Championship series, Mike set a record since equaled by Roger Clemens by striking out 15 Indians. A winner of six Gold Gloves for fielding excellence at his position, Mussina became a free agent in October of 2000 and signed a six year deal with the New York Yankees.

Possessing a variety of off-speed pitches that he can throw for strikes, along with a plus fastball, Mussina is able to keep hitters guessing and off balance. Some of his troubles occur when he outguesses himself, and tries to get too cute with his offerings instead of relying on his stuff, but his results are tough to argue with. Since coming to the Yankees, even though he was 31 at the time, Mussina has a sparkling record of 92-53. He has flirted at numerous times during his career with no-hitters and perfect games. Twice Mussina has seen no-hitters broken up in the ninth, including a September 2001 perfect game bid against the Red Sox with two outs and two strikes on Carl Everett, who blooped a weak single to center in Boston's Fenway Park. Sandy Alomar Jr holds a particularly bitter place in Mussina's memories, as the veteran catcher not only broke up a 1997 perfect game but then proceeded to break Mike's nose the following year with a line drive off of his bat.

Mussina's post-season outing have had mixed results for the Yankees, but one of his finest ironically was the only time he has ever pitched in relief in the major leagues. After losing two decisions to Boston in the 2003 ALCS, Mussina saved New York's bacon when he relieved a tiring Roger Clemens in Game Seven and threw three scoreless frames while the Yankees trailed Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox, allowing them to eventually win a thriller in extra innings on Aaron Boone's dramatic homer. In 22 playoffs outings, Mussina, despite allowing 18 fewer hits than innings pitched is 7-8 with a 3.40 earned run average.

Signing in this off-season for twenty-three million dollars for two more years, Mike Mussina, if he pitches them both, will be 39 years old at the end of the second one. If he wins only ten games in each, unlikely given his track record and the Yankees' offensive prowess, Mussina will stand at around 260 wins, good for 40th on the all-time list. The fact that he has never won twenty is brought up time and again when his status as a Hall of Fame candidate is discussed, and he has also never won a Cy Young Award to offset the emphasis on his inability to get to that plateau. But pitchers such as Catfish Hunter, Bob Lemon, and Jim Bunning are in Cooperstown with fewer victories than Mike already has posted, with Bunning's record of 224-184 including only one season where he reached twenty wins. The argument can easily be made for Mike Mussina as a Hall of Famer and he could make everything that much easier if he did indeed go on and win twenty games in one of the next two seasons, but the reality is this. Would that make him any better of a pitcher than he is right now?

The 95 mile per hour fastball that he once possessed is no longer there, but Mussina has enough pitches to still baffle hitters. Lifetime his record stands at 239-134, with an earned run average of 3.63. The baseball writers that will ultimately judge his status in the game will be quick to point out some of his shortcomings. Perhaps someone should make a rule that only those scribes who have won a Pulitzer Prize can have a Hall of Fame vote. Then we would see how fast they would embrace a guy with numbers like Mike Mussin