My Bad, Goose

As I was bopping about various news sites and blogs this afternoon I passed a headline detailing Rich "Goose" Gossage's singular election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The story was accompanied with a recent photo of Goose complete with handlebar mustache.

I skimmed the article trying to discover the last player to be posthumously elected to the Hall before Gossage, but none was mentioned. I pulled up the Google News accounts and a second article made nary a mention of Gossage's recent demise. All reports plugged his 22-year career, 3.01 ERA and 310 career saves, but none brought up the fact that this guy would leave the induction podium unfortunately empty.

I just could not fathom how a player's untimely death is not part of any story about a legendary closer getting 86% of the writers' votes and then I remembered I'm not that big of a baseball fan.

Baseball is a very distant fifth on my sports ladder, but I'm still interested enough to be informed, albeit sometimes that information gets muddled once you throw in closers who played for both the Cubs and Padres and had distinctive facial hair.

Goose Gossage is heading to the Hall of Fame, and he's very much alive. Unlike Rod Beck, God rest his soul.

By the way, when oh when will the Hawk get his due? Put Andre Dawson in the Hall of Fame already.