The Collected Wisdom of Rich 'Goose' Gossage

Rich "Goose” Gossage, 56, is one of the greatest relief pitchers in baseball history. In 22 major league seasons he won 124 games, earned 310 saves and had a 3.01 earned run average. He is 17th in major league career saves.

A nine-time All-Star Game selection, Gossage intimidated batters with his glowering presence, with a bushy mustache, longish hair and sideburns and, most of all, a 102-mph fastball that he didn't mind throwing inside.

A host of baseball people, including the Goose, wonder why he isn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He's been eligible since 2000. This year he came very close, just 21 votes shy of induction. He got 71.2 percent of the vote and 75 percent is needed for induction.

Many baseball people agree that Gossage will, indeed, be voted into the Cooperstown hall in 2008.

I think they (Hall of Fame voters) have forgotten about how much the role of the relief pitcher has changed. We pitched a lot more innings in that role. I used to come in in the seventh inning with the bases loaded, have to get out of that jam and then pitch the eighth and the ninth.

I think people have forgotten how we were used as relief pitchers. Now it takes three guys to do what I did.

I take exception to hearing that Mariano (Rivera) is the greatest reliever of all time. I think he's the greatest modern-day closer, but I would challenge him to do what we did. We'll compare apples to apples instead of apples to oranges.

I don't have to take a back seat to anybody as a relief pitcher. I don't think anybody did it the way I did it, with the power I did it with, and getting out of the jams that I got out of. Those 1,500 strikeouts were huge strikeouts. There was no padding there. They came at critical situations in the game.

Every statistic I put up was in a pressure-packed situation. So I do take exception to being compared to these guys now and what they've done. I challenge any of these guys to do what we did.

Steroids are a big cloud, an unfortunate cloud that's hanging over the game today. We'll wait and see what comes out of this investigation.

I think the game has been manipulated by Major League Baseball. They wanted to put more offense in the game and I think they've gone completely out of their minds. Five hundred home runs don't mean what 500 home runs used to mean. And I think it's a slap in the face to all the great players in the 500 Home Run Club that earned that.

Today, the home run doesn't mean what it used to mean. I think there's got to be a line drawn somewhere that these statistics are these statistics, and these statistics from here on are these statistics.

The ballparks are smaller today, the ball is more lively and the pitching is really, really pathetic in my opinion. There are some great pitchers, but these kids are trying to learn. They've been forced into the big leagues by expansion and they're really trying to learn how to pitch in the big leagues.

The greatest pitcher I've ever seen? Catfish Hunter was right up there. Nolan Ryan certainly was right up there. To watch Nolan was a real treat. Those two come to mind. Bert Blyleven isn't even in the Hall of Fame, but he was a great pitcher to watch. Those guys prided themselves in finishing what they started.

Ron Guidry, the 25-3 year he had, that was the greatest season I ever saw one individual have. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

George Brett, in his prime, was the greatest hitter I saw. I faced a lot of great hitters on their way out. Tony Oliva, Hank Aaron, Al Kaline, guys like that. But George Brett was the best hitter that I ever faced, absolutely.