Bert Blyleven certainly was a starting pitcher that had tremendous success in the big leagues. Jimmy Rice, this guy if you had to face him, I tell you what he'd get your attention cause he was a great... great player. I think those guys deserve some recognition, but it didn't happen for them. For whatever reason, I really can't answer that.

Goose Gossage

Categorized in : Thinking League Player

The game of baseball is a game of failure because it's so difficult to play. A 300 hitter, a superstar fails seven out of ten times at the plate. So what does that tell you about the game and its difficulty?

Goose Gossage

baseball games play

Baseball as I have said before to many... many parents it's not about wins and losses. It's about the life lessons that are learned on that baseball field. The perseverance, the hard work that it takes, dealing with failure.

Goose Gossage

life-lesson perseverance baseball

I was brought into situations God couldn't get out of, and I got out of them.

Goose Gossage

situation

Hitting in a game is no different than hitting in a home run contest. It pisses me off to say Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter. He's playing in a wussy era. The game is soft. You never get thrown at today. Last thing a hitter has to worry about today is getting hit. The first thing Hank Aaron had to worry about is: Am I going to survive this at-bat because I'm black.

Goose Gossage

yankees home running

The first year was weird. I knew I was just there to talk to pitchers and not step on any toes. I could feel my adrenaline start to flow in about the sixth inning. I had to tell myself, "What the hell are you getting excited about? You're not going anywere, big boy. Just go sign some autographs." I was still programmed.

Goose Gossage

yankees boys years

I played for nine different teams throughout my 22-year major league career and I loved every moment of every team.

Goose Gossage

team careers years

Some of my greatest memories were on a little league field. We didn't even have any uniforms.

Goose Gossage

league littles memories

Every life lesson is on that baseball field.

Goose Gossage

life-lesson fields baseball

In my opinion, the best setup guys now have a tougher job than the closers. They pitch more innings, inherit more runners.

Goose Gossage

opinion guy jobs

I'd like to be remembered for the way I went about doing my job.

Goose Gossage

remembered jobs way

I think that Jim Rice should be in the Hall of Fame. I think that Craig Nettles should be in the Hall of Fame and he didn't even get a sniff.

Goose Gossage

nettles fame thinking

The only urgency that I ever had was when my mom was alive. She died last year in September of 2006. She was my number one fan and she always said I'd love to see you go into the Hall of Fame. That was the only urgency that I ever had that I wish if I was going to go into the Hall of Fame that certainly it would've happen when she was around, but it didn't and now that she's passed.

Goose Gossage

mom numbers years

If your child's gonna be a star it's going to happen and just let it happen.

Goose Gossage

stars ifs children

These messages that we are sending our kids and the kind of lives people lead today so superficial it seems, just a lot of phony stuff. What does it mean when you really stop and think about it's kind of stupid.

Goose Gossage

stupid mean kids

There is nobody that wants to win more than George Steinbrenner.

Goose Gossage

winning want

Hitters never showed me up, as hard as I threw. And I was pretty mean out on the mound.

Goose Gossage

hard mean

When I played, Old-Timers Day was my favorite day of the whole season, because I got to share a locker with one of the great Yankees... It was an out-of-body experience.

Goose Gossage

yankees body favorite-day

I had set the standard for my style of relief pitching so high that when I came back to the rest of the pack, everybody said I was done.

Goose Gossage

relief style done

I don't ever remember seeing a base runner who was all the way to third base run back across the mound. It was kind of a respectful thing.

Goose Gossage

back run remember way