When trying to pinpoint a postseason high point of an illustrious pitching career, Rich “Goose” Gossage needs a felt pen.
His gaze stretches over several days, but at least he keeps it in the same postseason. Gossage’s big days came in the 1978 season and his highlights are part of baseball’s folklore.
“There really were two things,” Gossage said. “The playoff game with Boston in Fenway Park was the biggest game I ever played in,” Gossage said. “Then I have to look at repeating as world champions a few days later in Los Angeles.”
Gossage was in his first year with the Yankees in 1978. After the Red Sox and Yankees finished the regular season tied with 99-63 records, a playoff game was necessary to determine which team advanced to the postseason.
The playoff will always be known as the Bucky Dent home run game, as the Yankees won and raced through the American League Championship Series against Kansas City and to the World Series versus the Dodgers.
“Everything seemed anticlimactic after the playoff game in Boston,” Gossage said. “But any time you win a world championship, it’s the last layer of frosting on the cake. Everything seemed easy after the playoff game, but in reality nothing was easy.”
The Yankees beat the Dodgers for the second straight year in six games. Gossage worked in three of the World Series games, collecting a victory and allowing one hit in six innings and striking out four.
Gossage pitched in three different World Series, two with the Yankees and one with San Diego.
But he may not have been any more excited than he is this year as he watches the Rockies play the Boston Red Sox.
“For me being a native of Colorado, this really is exciting,” Gossage said. “It was hard for me to imagine that Colorado was going to have a World Series.”
Even with the fast start by the Red Sox, Gossage doesn’t count the Rockies out.
“The Rockies by no means are out of it,” Gossage said. “Even though they’re backed into a corner, they’re not even close to being out of it. We’ve got a World Series on our hands.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
