COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Three jerseys from the Yankees, Padres and White Sox sit still in the glass exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving glimmering reflections from the nine championship rings at the base.
The marquee on the volunteer fire department on Route 28 praises his career. A local watering hole has a grainy photo of him serving cold beer.
Reminders of Goose Gossage are everywhere in Cooperstown, be it the collector’s pins in the Hall of Fame gift shop to the screams of “Goose” as he enjoyed a Saturday morning round of golf with his family.
When he becomes the first Colorado-born player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame today, he will represent the rise of the reliever and the evolution of the closer.
When Gossage first became a reliever, he was insulted and disappointed.
“The bullpen was a junkyard for starters who couldn’t pitch anymore,” Gossage said.
After nine years on the ballot, Gossage’s work as a closer ultimately punched his ticket to Cooperstown. It took that long because voters tried to come to grips with the importance of a reliever whose 22-year career spanned the transformation of bullpens from mop-up men to highly defined specialists.
“Please don’t compare today’s relievers with what we used to do. It’s apples and oranges,” Gossage said. “I think the way they are used today is the right way. But it wasn’t always like that.”
Not just a one-inning wonder
When Gossage pioneered the craft, he worked as his own setup man. How he was used was an example of a manager acting more strategic than becoming a slave to the “save” statistic, which was instituted in 1969.
Anyone can get saves if they are run out there enough, a point driven home by former Rockie Shawn Chacon in 2004 when he recorded 35 saves with a 7.11 ERA.
From 1975 to 1985, with a one-year interruption as a starter, Gossage recorded a 2.06 ERA as a closer. Even more impressive, of his 310 saves, he posted seven or more outs in 52 of them. Trevor Hoffman, the sport’s all-time leader, has done that twice in 543 saves.
“It’s a different role now,” said the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera, one of the few current closers who will work more than one inning or enter a tie game.
The idea of a closer hatched in the 1930s with the Washington Senators’ Firpo Marberry and the Yankees’ Johnny Murphy. The term “fireman” became more popular in the 1940s and ’50s. It was manager Dick Williams, an inductee into the Hall of Fame today, who embedded the idea of the closer into the lexicon with his world championship Oakland A’s teams in the 1970s.
Rollie Fingers was his late-inning answer.
“There are a lot of fellows making a great living pitching only the ninth inning,” Williams said. “Rollie had to be a reliever because he was a poor starter. The more he waited around to pitch, the more nervous he got. Eventually we put him in a stopper role. He could throw three or four days in a row, and I believed then like I do now that the more you throw, the stronger you get.”
La Russa’s plan alters relief staffs
Most credit Tony La Russa’s model from 1989 to ’91 for creating the modern bullpen. He used more pitchers, placing nearly equal emphasis on the seventh through the ninth innings. There were left-handers to retire left-handers. Setup men to bridge to a closer, who in his case, was Dennis Eckersley, who entered in the ninth inning in 95 percent of his appearances. This led to more appearances, but fewer innings. Gossage, in a bit of irony, served as one of Eck’s bodyguards.
“The idea came about because of four factors,” La Russa said Saturday. “You have to have a really good team with a chance to be ahead in several ballgames every week. Two, you have to have a legitimate shutdown closer. Three, you have to have a solid enough bullpen to get the outs before the ninth, which we had. And four, you have to have a pitching coach who is bright enough to think of it. Dave Duncan put it all together for us.”
The debate rages on whether the current bullpen model is the most effective arrangement. Relievers don’t challenge hitters as much, and they are more susceptible to injury.
And the roles are so specific that they can eliminate a manager’s instincts.
“Maybe bullpens are too specialized,” Diamondbacks general manager Josh Byrnes said. “They have evolved as units unto themselves. But it would be difficult to move back to the way it was.”
As Gossage stands before 15,000 fans today, he will serve as a reminder of who a closer was and how important the role has become.
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
Open-and-shut cases
The term “fireman” first became popular in the 1940s with Yankees reliever Joe Page. By the 1970s, the likes of Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter and Rollie Fingers were embedding the idea of the closer into the lexicon. The role has evolved into a one-inning specialist. Said Gossage: “They have it easy. It takes three guys to do what I did.” National baseball writer Troy E. Renck looks at the relievers in the Hall of Fame, those on the way and those on the fence:
In the Hall
Hoyt Wilhelm, 1952-72: Finished with 227 saves, including 13 at the age of 47.
Rollie Fingers, 1968-85: Recorded 341 saves, won AL MVP honors in 1981.
Dennis Eckersley, 1975-98: Posted 390 saves, spent first 12 seasons as a starter.
Bruce Sutter, 1976-88: Finished with 300 saves, pioneered split-finger pitch.
Goose Gossage, 1972-94: Of his 310 saves, 52 featured seven or more outs.
On the way
Trevor Hoffman, 1993-2008: All-time saves leader with 543; arguably best changeup ever.
Mariano Rivera, 1995-2008: 17-9 with an 0.77 postseason ERA.
On the fence
Lee Smith, 1980-97: 478 saves, 3.03 ERA, but 0-2 with 8.44 postseason ERA.
