The Goose is in

Former Appleton Fox Rich "Goose" Gossage is headed to Cooperstown.

Hall welcomes Gossage into its doors

The "Goose" is on the loose in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

A year after Tony Gwynn was a first-time electee, along with Cal Ripken Jr., the induction ceremony on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y., will again have a distinct Padres flavor.

Rich "Goose" Gossage, who may be better known for his first tour with the Yankees (1978-83), was elected on Tuesday in his ninth year on the ballot. He'll join his former Padres manager, Dick Williams, on the stage behind the Clark Sports Center this coming summer.

MiLB.com has this:

Gossage's game emerged in Appleton

The argument that Rich Gossage's career began to flourish when Chuck Tanner made him a full-time closer in 1975 is certainly a valid one.

After all, he was a dominant figure that season, leading the Majors in saves as a member of the White Sox.

The fact, however, that Chicago's brain trust, sans Tanner, put him back in the rotation for the '76 season suggests they weren't entirely sold on his value out of the bullpen, despite his 26 saves and 1.84 ERA the previous year. So, a more accurate turning point in Gossage's career -- and one to which he readily points -- may have occurred back in the spring of 1971 when Tanner and then-White Sox pitching coach Johnny Sain taught him the merits of adding a breaking ball to his repertoire.

Gossage was 18-2 in 1971 and he remembers it well:

"It was just one of those seasons," Gossage said. "Johnny had shown Chuck Tanner a few things to show me, and Chuck came down and worked with me one day on the side early in the year. It was the first time I had an off-speed pitch to go with my fastball.

"I picked it up immediately and that's where my career took off. I had certainly thought about a breaking ball before that, but I had never been taught one. He [Sain via Tanner] taught that slurve that was bigger than a slider and not as big as a curve, and it was just a nasty, nasty pitch. That changeup got me to the big leagues. I could not have gone to the big leagues had I not picked it up."

There is a game-by-game of his 1971 season at the story. Check out the 15-0 streak over 17 starts.

I'll have more later tonight.