I honestly cannot believe Goose Gossage is not in the hall of fame. He was one of the only players I VIVIDLY remember from watching baseball as a kid. I didn't even really like baseball that much, but I had a Goose Gossage baseball mitt because he was just so awesome and dominating.

This is a great article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/column...bob&id=2272958

In fact, it's a travesty that Gossage has been excluded from the Hall. During his 10-year prime, he allowed fewer hits per inning (6.1) than Eckersley (7.5), Rollie Fingers (7.8) and even Mariano Rivera (7). Gossage's ERA in that golden era was a mere 2.03, which is better than Bruce Sutter's 2.62.

An endless series of comparisons favors Gossage over his peers, and even allows him to go chest-to-chest with the great Rivera. But what has held the Goose back, sadly, is his modest save total -- just 310, less than Eckersley (390), Trevor Hoffman (436) and Rivera (379). Goose's only crime is that he pitched in an era before closers racked up saves the way a younger Madonna used to go through boyfriends.

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And as the Post further cites, Gossage averaged 2.1 innings per relief appearance in 1978. In 2005, Rivera averaged just one inning. Only once has Rivera struck out more than 83 batters in a season. Gossage did it eight times, and fanned 100 batters six times.

More? The New York Daily News marshaled a telling stat from Retrosheet -- that Sutter and Gossage average 4.73 and 4.72 outs per save, respectively, while Eckersley averaged 3.33.

The point should be fairly obvious: Gossage and Sutter worked harder than Eckersley and certainly Rivera, and deserve to be recognized for what was a very different job than it is today. Not that Gossage has any animosity toward Rivera. Quite the contrary, he says: "If you have a guy like Mariano in your bullpen, you should find a way to use him every night.

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ven if the numbers get tossed aside and Gossage is subjected to the low-tech litmus test some writers insist on -- did his career have a Hall of Fame aura? -- Goose still comes out ahead. The right-hander, now 54, was the most dominant and feared reliever of his era, regardless of how his role was defined. That should seal Gossage's verdict, even if his legacy was diluted by the last seven or eight years, when he was no longer an elite-caliber reliever.