COOPERSTOWN _ The Goose is one tough bird.
"You either eat or get eaten," Rich "Goose" Gossage said Monday at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. "That's kind of the way playing in the major leagues is. It's not for the faint of heart and if you're soft, you better be really, really good."
Gossage never came across as a softie during his 22-year Major League Baseball career, but he certainly was really, really good.
The owner of 310 saves, 1,502 strikeouts and 3.01 lifetime ERA, Gossage returned to the Cooperstown shrine Monday for the first time since Aug. 12, 1974. Back then, he was part of the Chicago White Sox, 12-9 losers to the Atlanta Braves in a Hall of Fame Game at Doubleday Field that featured then home run king Hank Aaron.
Monday's appearance, though, was as different as the game is today.
Gossage, 56, sat in apparent comfort for a 40-minute media conference in the Hall of Fame Gallery, where his plaque will hang indefinitely following the July 27 Induction Ceremony at the Clark Sports Center. His "break" to answer questions and reflect upon his Hall of Fame career followed an orientation tour of his new home that lasted roughly two hours.
Seated in a director's chair similar to the one Dick Williams _ his former San Diego Padres manager _ graced 11 days earlier, Gossage candidly spoke about how baseball has changed for the worse since he broke into the big leagues with the White Sox in 1972.
"No one could tell me how the role of the relief pitcher changed, because I did all the jobs," Gossage said through his trademark mustache, a thick line of white these days that still extends over each corner of his mouth. "I was a long man down there (with Chicago). The bullpen in '72, when (manager) Chuck (Tanner) put me down there, I didn't want to be in the bullpen there. That was a junk pile down there, where old starters couldn't start anymore.
"But hell, I was in the big leagues," he continued. "I would have cleaned the toilets, whatever was necessary, to stay in the big leagues. But at that time, it started to evolve."
Looking at his career, Gossage noted how the relievers of the 1970s paved the way for current star closers such as Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees.
"The closers of today are so dominant in that role, I think people kind of forgot what we used to do," he said. "The number of innings that you pitched, the staff that used to come in _ now it takes three guys to do what we used to do. That's the only thing I ever took offense to.
"Saying that Mariano's the greatest reliever of all time, certainly Mariano's a great relief pitcher, but it's not comparing apples to apples _ it's comparing apples to oranges. Now it takes three guys to do what we used to do. All I ever tried to do is point out the differences between what they do now, and I think today is the way a closer should be used. We were kind of abused at that time.
"I saw that total evolution of what the bullpen was to what it became," continued Gossage, who pitched for nine teams, including a six-year stint with the New York Yankees. "I played until 1994 and I knew how the job evolved, and no one had a better bird's-eye seat than I did."
Maybe that's why Gossage seemed so tough _ at least on the outside.
Gossage, who indicated he will enter the Hall as a Yankee, keyed on how brushback pitches are more or less a thing of the past _ particularly his.
"This is the big leagues," he said. "You want to play tee-ball, go somewhere else. That's just the way I was brought up. It's a tough game, and brushback pitches are part of the game.
"They're not a part of the game anymore. These guys stand up there and take BP (batting practice) basically and for pitchers, I don't even know how a pitcher even makes a living today. "¦ Guys get kicked out of games for coming close to guys _ they didn't even hit them. I would have had a hell of a time and so would all these guys in the Hall of Fame had a hell of a time even playing today."
Gossage said Tanner more or less ordered him to take command on the mound.
"Chuck Tanner told me when I first came to the big leagues, Son, if you don't make that hitter as uncomfortable as you can, you might as well do something else,'" said Gossage, who added that he has invited Tanner and former White Sox teammate Dick Allen to the Induction Ceremony. "When Chuck said something to you like that, you stood up and took notice and said, Yes Sir.' That's how tough Chuck was."
And that's how Goose got as tough as this:
"There are three guys I drilled intentionally _ Ron Gant, Andres Gallaraga and Al Bumbry," he said. "Just for various reasons. They had it coming. Andres Gallaraga didn't, I can honestly say that."
Gossage went on to say that the only reason he hit Gallaraga was because he was "as hot as a firecracker" and, with runners at second and third in the eighth inning, first base was open.
"When I started to come forward (with his delivery), I thought, I'm not taking any chances; I'm going to put him on," Gossage said. "So I saved four pitches and drilled him. He wasn't happy. I drilled him as good as I could drill him _ right in the rib cage _ and you could hear the air go out of him. It was beautiful."
Gossage said he eventually made up with Gallaraga, revealing a much softer side of Goose that came through a few times Monday but never on the mound.
Gossage's crystal-like, bluish-green eyes seemed to be on the verge of tears when he spoke of his biggest fan _ his mother, Sue, who died two Septembers ago _ as well as when he recounted stories about those who influenced his career, the demolition of Chicago's Comiskey Park and the "overwhelming" emotions associated with becoming a Hall of Famer. All surely will be part of his induction speech, which, he said, he has yet to write.
"I can't even imagine standing in front of the fans, first of all, then having those guys behind you," Gossage said of the Hall of Famers who will return to Cooperstown on July 27 for an Induction Ceremony that also will feature Williams, the only other living member of the Class of 2008.
Veterans Committee picks Williams, Billy Southworth, Barney Dreyfuss, Bowie Kuhn and Walter O'Malley will be honored with Gossage, who received 85.8 percent (466 of 533) of the Baseball Writers' Association of America votes to earn election to the Hall in his ninth year of eligibility.
"I've got to get through my speech and I'll probably write it the night before," Gossage said. "I'm just going to speak from the heart."
Gossage said he already has received some advice on his speech from Hall of Famer Yogi Berra.
"Yogi made sure to tell me, Don't make it too damn long.'"
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Dean Russin can be reached at drussin@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 215.
