To say that Goose Gossage was an ex-Cub is much like saying that Turd Hundley was an ex-Cub, except that Gossage was the greatest reliever of all time, and Hundley was the sweaty drug-abusing demon spawn of a real ex-Cub. 

This entry is going to be, again, about the Hawk, but yes, I DID say that Gossage was the greatest reliever of all time.  I believe that with all of my heart, and I believe the numbers, if I actually made the effort to dig them up, would support my claim.  Peoples, for about 10 years starting around 1976, when he entered a game with a lead, it stayed that way.  Take the best years of Rivera, Gagne, Hoffman and Sutter, and hook them all together.  NOW you might be able to imagine yerself some Goosage.

Justice has prevailed today in muddy gray upstate New York.  Gossage shouldn't have had to wait a single year, let alone nine, and fairness has prevailed upon his home.  I may also maintain the same thing about the homes of Andre Dawson and Jim Rice, who did NOT get in today, and will NOT ever get in via the regular method of HOF inclusion.  If they didn't get in this year of our Lord 2008, the Year of Appreciation For All That Was Natural and Steroid-free, they never will.  Rice missed by only 3 percent, but next year is his last year of eligibility, and most support next year will center on the singularly taut hamstrings of the greatest base stealer and run scorer in history, Senor Rickey!

Yesterday, I may have inadvertently caused you to think that I felt that Rice was better and more deserving of inclusion than the Hawk.  I was merely reacting to the buzz I discerned from the various national media sources; most of which included Gossage as a given, dismissed Dawson, and chose to center the bulk of discussion on Rice.  This, I believe, is based on the following:

• Rice played in Boston, and as we all know, according to the national media, all real baseball is played either in Boston or New York
• He was a central figure with the 1975 World Series team, probably the most famous of all World Serieses
• He WAS very very slightly better than Dawson

But to be honest, when I saw him play, and when I think of his career as a whole - I do not consider him to be in the same realm of Mays, Aaron, Mantle.  Same with the Hawk.  I DO consider both of them to be as good as Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield, though...

....which I suppose IS the can of worms we are chewing on today.  This is probably core to all the controversies concerning Baseball Hall of Fame voting.  Some will take all the names on the wall, shake them out, grab the two LEAST deserving, and hold the current candidates up against THEM.  By their analysis, this is how a deserving candidate is chosen.  (Also known as the Jayson Stark Methodology).  This leads to votes for several candidates annually.  On the other hand, there is the Jerome Holtzman Methodology, which theorizes whether or not a candidate deserves to occupy the same space on the wall in Cooperstown as the Total Greats of the game; Ruth, Cobb, Aaron, Mays, etc.  This leads to the scant 3.1 average candidates per 10-space ballot returned.  Some guys return ballots with one or NO names on it.  Gossage got 83% of the vote.  What is amazing is that 17%, or roughly 80 guys, DIDN'T vote for him?!?!

Then there is the Joe Morgan Methodology, where any player who isn't in the Hall now shall never be, because if they should be, then they already are...this process should result in a lot of punches thrown and bones broken, ideally Morgan's.  Thankfully, he does not get a vote for the first phase of the Hall; just the Veteran's Committee, where he is allowed to rub his fat dick against the facial skin of our poor feeble elderly, like Ron Santo.

Anyway, I guess I lean towards the Holtzman method.  When I think Hall of Fame, I think Ruth, Mays, Aaron, and I also think of Banks, Williams, Jenkins, and Sandberg, because they were my guys. At the same time, I rarely if ever conjure up images of Eddie Murray or Phil Niekro.  And sure, Hawk was Our Guy, too, and if he were to be inducted somehow, henceforth when we thought of the HOF, we would also think "Dawson".  It just doesn't seem like a grave injustice was committed today, to me at least.  Of course, your mileage may vary.