We Didn't Start the Fire

Goose Gossage into the Hall of Fame, finally.

Boys and girls back before the days of the closer, back before Lee Smith, Dennis Eckersley, Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman; baseball teams had relief pitchers who were Fireman. They came into the game - not in the beginning of the 9th inning, no on, no out, with their team ahead. They came into the game in the 7th, 8th or 9th with men on base and good hitters up and their job was to prevent not merely the batter at the plate from scoring, their job was to prevent the runners at 2nd and 3rd from scoring. They were call Firemen. They doused opposition rallies.

In this role no one was better than Goose Gossage.

In the beginning, pitchers pitched the entire game. Babe Ruth pitched 107 complete gamesi in 5+ seasons; Greg Maddux has completed 109 games in 22 seasons. Relievers were not that important before the 1960's.

There were a couple of successful relievers for a season or two but the first star reliever was Hoyt Wilhelm. He changed the game. He was a knuckleball pitcher and a relief specialist. He set the example for relief specialists who had one or two dominant pitches. In the 1960's the firemen role was established by guys like Roy Face, Ron Perranoski and Dick "the Monster" Radatz. This was the role that Gossage assumed in the 70's and 80's.

He came to the Yankees in 1978. In the previous year, 1977, Sparky Lyle was the Yankee fireman and won the Cy Young award. But everyone knew that Gossage was much, much better. Craig Nettles offered a famous and brilliant line that Lyle went from Cy Young to Syanora when the Yankees signed Goose.

He was that good. And, certainly better than Bruce Sutter who was elected into the Hall of Fame last year.