Goose Gossage

[Brandon Glick]

Richard "Goose" Gossage is a former professional baseball player who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 for his work across 22 professional seasons, just one of which was spent with the Chicago Cubs.

Were this another team's forum (like the White Sox or Yankees), there would be plenty to say about Gossage's legendary career. However, seeing as he played just one nondescript season on Chicago's North Side, we'll lay out a brief history of his career accomplishments prior to landing with the Cubs in 1988:

Gossage was a nine-time All-Star who won the 1978 World Series with the New York Yankees. He appeared in 1,002 games in his career, just 37 of which were starts (all in the beginning of his career with the White Sox, most of which came during 1976 season when he started 29 games and pitched 224 innings). He finished in the top-six of Cy Young voting five times and the top-13 of MVP voting four times. He and those 1970s Yankees teams are credited with pioneering the modern day "closer" role, though in truth, he was more of a long-man. Gossage had 17 games where he recorded at least 10 outs in his first season as a closer, including three games where he went seven innings. He pitched over 130 innings as a reliever in three different seasons. In total, he pitched for eight teams in his MLB career, accruing 41.6 bWAR and logging a 3.01 ERA (3.18 FIP) in 1,809 1/3 innings.

And, deep breath.

Finally, after 16 brilliant seasons in the major leagues, Gossage was traded by the San Diego Padres to the Cubs (along with Ray Hayward) in exchange for Keith Moreland and Mike Brumley. 36 years old at the time, Gossage's best days were well behind him, and he tallied just 13 saves against nine blown saves while in a Cubs uniform. Fun fact: Gossage posted a positive WAR with seven of the teams he played for, and a negative WAR for just one. Making you guess which franchise is the latter would be derivative, since of course the Hall of Famer's least memorable tenure came with the 1980s Cubs. However, it is worth fondly noting that Gossage recorded his 300th career save with the Cubs, retiring Phillies left fielder Phil Bradley on a popup to second baseman Ryne Sandberg on August 6, 1988. Though he was under contract for the following season, the Cubs released the veteran reliever during spring training in 1989.

After the Cubs, Gossage made cameos for a number of teams, including the Seattle Mariners and Fukuoka Daiei Hawks of the NPB. He officially retired after the 1994 season, and would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. In the years since, Gossage has become somewhat of a controversial figure, routinely criticizing Yankees ownership and management, as well as taking some outdated stances on important movements and making inflammatory political remarks.

View full player