Rich "Goose" Gossage Finally Elected into the Hall of Fame After Ninth Try

On Thursday January 8, Rich "Goose" Gossage was finally elected into the baseball Hall of Fame, becoming only the fifth relief pitcher to make it into the Hall of Fame. Gossage received 85.8 percent of the vote and was the only player selected to the Hall of Fame this year in 2008.

Gossage has the most wins and innings pitched out of any relief pitcher in the history of baseball and some baseball analysts consider him to be the best relief pitcher ever. Closers and relief pitchers have had a difficult time being selected to the Hall of Fame, as the role of a closer has changed over time. Goose Gossage was an amazing pitcher and it was disappointing for him that eight previous times he did not get selected to the Hall of Fame.

Gossage was not today's modern relief pitcher or closer. In today's modern baseball, closers only come in the game in the ninth game. Goose Gossage played in an era in which he would often come into the game in the sixth or seventh game. He would simply dominate games and would come into the game when the score was tied or even when his team was down by a run in the game. Gossage pitched about every third day and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Gossage received 466 votes out of 543 votes. Last year he fell 21 votes short of making it into the Hall of Fame.

The list of Hall of Fame relief pitchers includes: Hoyt Wihelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter and now Goose Gossage. Gossage played in 9 All Star games and finished with 310 saves and an astonishing 1,809 innings pitched.

Gossage compares favorably to Bruce Sutter who made the Hall of Fame last year. While both dominated the eras they played in, Sutter didn't even pitch 1,000 innings in his career. He also compares favorably to Dennis Eckersley who had more saves than Gossage, but Gossage had more innings pitched and more multiple save innings. Gossage changed the game with his style of pitching and defining the role of the closer in baseball. Comparisons have also been made the Yankees closer Mariano Rivera who is a first ballot Hall of Fame player. Rivera will have more saves entering the Hall of Fame, but Gossage has 125 two inning saves while Rivera has only 11 in his career.

Gossage pitched for 9 teams during his baseball career, most notably for the New York Yankees.