A bit more of the Goose

MLB.com points out that with Rich "Goose" Gossage now in the Hall of Fame, there are a pair of Geese in Cooperstown.

Rich "Goose" Gossage was the lone player voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday afternoon, joining Leon "Goose" Goslin as inductees bearing that nickname. And that's a good thing, because geese usually are found in pairs.

Goslin was an outfielder who played all or part of 18 seasons in the American League, from 1921 to 1938. That "Goose" finished with 2,735 hits, 248 homers and a .316 career average. He played in five World Series, helping the Washington Senators to the 1924 title by hitting three homers and batting .344 against the New York Giants, and he also won a title with Detroit in 1935.

It goes on for some other bird nicknames in the Hall, like "Chick", "Ducky", and "The Grey Eagle".

It also notes that there could have been a "Hawk" joining Gossage in this class.

In one of the stories yesterday, it was pointed out that Gossage's career ended in Seattle in 1994, the year of the strike. The Post-Intelligencer has a bit more on that final season.

Goose Gossage certainly didn't reach the Hall of Fame based on his one year with the Mariners. But for John McLaren, who was the bullpen coach in 1994, Gossage's final season in the big leagues, having the Goose around was a special treat.

"It was the end of his career, a great career, but he was such a class act," McLaren, now the Mariners manager, said Tuesday, minutes after Gossage was announced as the only player to be voted into Cooperstown this year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

He was also a leader...

What McLaren remembers is Gossage's way of leading by example and getting in a player's face if he thought that player was being unprofessional.

McLaren talked about a game in Kansas City in which all the potential relief pitchers were in the bullpen to start the game that day except one, rookie starter Roger Salkeld. Gossage was a big believer in being on time and took notice.

"He came to me and asked if I minded if he said something to Roger," McLaren said. "He said he wanted to get on him a bit, and I said OK. So he went up to Roger and said, 'Do you mind if I ask you a question? I've been in the big leagues 25 years and I don't remember when you won the Cy Young.'

Apparently, Salkeld was never late again.

Gossage deserved to go out in style in his final season, but that didn't happen. It was 1994, and mid-season the roof at the Kingdome suffered damage that forced the Mariners on the road for the rest of the season.

In early August, players went on a strike that lasted into spring training of 1995. Gossage's farewell tour in Seattle wound up being a farewell without a tour.

"Everybody scattered after the strike, and that was it for Goose," McLaren said. "We were vagabonds, and then after the strike was called, we had that last game in Oakland, and it was over."

Well, it's over now. In Cooperstown.

How did Gossage wind up in Seattle to begin with? Larry Stone has the answer.

It was a curious marriage, Goose Gossage and the Mariners back in 1994.

The Mariners were a young team brimming with talent, on the brink of a breakthrough that would come so dynamically the next season.

Gossage, meanwhile, was 43 years old and well into the journeyman portion of his career, having played for six teams in six years, including the Daiei Hawks in Japan.

Gossage knew he was at the end of the line. But when the Oakland Athletics released him near the end of spring training, and his old Yankees running mate, Lou Piniella, called to tell Gossage he wanted him to help teach the young Mariners staff how to pitch, Goose jumped at the chance.

There are also a few words from Gossage on the current topic of interest in baseball.

"If you did performance-enhancing drugs, you need to come clean and put an end to this because of the history of the game and because of how great baseball has been over such a long period of time," Gossage said. "What we have at stake is the greatest part of the game, the history of it, and they can't allow steroids or anything to get in the way of the history of the game.

"I think the best thing to do is come clean. Just 'fess up, and life will go on."