THE GOOSE OR MO? WHO'S THE GREATEST YANKEE CLOSER EVER?

I get chills when I hear Enter Sandman play.  The chills spike as Mariano Rivera leaps out of the bullpen and runs briskly to the mound.  I love his windup- he bends his body at the stretch and hauls gas, intimidating most with his lethal cutter.  And when I first began watching Mo, I always compared him in my head to my favorite childhood closing pitcher, Richard “Goose” Gossage.

He was this giant who came into the game in the 7th or 8th inning and blew everyone away.  He was our Goliath- with a slingshot that overpowered hitters from both sides of the plate.  But is Mo better than Goose?  It is an interesting question to ponder.  Let’s take a closer look.

The closer role- it is a relatively new position.  Sure, we have always had relief pitchers, although many more starters pitched complete games in the early days.  You have to see this list put together by ESPN’s Baseball Almanac to believe it.  There are guys that had 40 or more complete games back in the 1800s.  And even in the 20th century, guys like Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Ron Guidry and Steve Carlton had 18 or more complete games in a season.  So the closer, although important, was not the critical position it is today. 

Goose Gossage pitched 21 seasons for nine different teams from 1972-1994.  He pitched for the Yankees from 1978-1983.  His career 3.01 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 310 saves earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame in 2008.  Goose was as intimidating, as the day is long- he was big, hairy and he looked mean.  He was a giant to me- larger than life and I just loved him!  It was lights out when the Goose game in and we saw him a lot more frequently than we see closers today. 

"I think that these guys are so dominant in that one-inning role that they've forgotten what we used to do," the former Yankees closer said. "It takes three guys to do what we used to do,” said Gossage in an interview earlier this summer.  Gossage, unlike closers today who pitch one or so innings, often pitched three innings.  There were no set up men, no managers’ playing lefty/righty angles, there was Goose and guys like him in the 1970s and 1980s.

Guys like Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley held that three inning dominant closing role.  Eckersley was the first to be deemed “the one inning specialist” in the late 1980s.  Even the early 1990s, we didn’t see the kind of closer we have today.  The bullpens were not as thick and as critical as they are today.  Starters did a lot more of the work.  They went longer into the games.  They seemingly had more endurance.  They didn’t necessarily throw as hard or even have the variety of pitches as today, so perhaps they could go longer?

"Believe me, I do not want to take anything away from this guy (Rivera), this guy is right up there. But had we been used like that, hard telling what [our] statistics would be. They'd be right there. We were dominant in that role for three innings,” said Gossage who is also a spring training instructor for the Yankees (HERE.)  “I believe had Mo been used like us, he might have 350 saves," Gossage said. "You just wouldn't have had the numbers. The workload was amazing."  Mo’s last regular season six out save was in 2006.  He is just not used like Goose and the others were- it’s not the way the game is played today.  Gossage had 125 career six out saves to Rivera’s 11.

Mo to me is just incredible.  He is lean, clean cut and is healthy.  Not to say Gossage wasn’t healthy, but he never had the physique of Mo and he loved to drink with the rest of the guys between games, something Mo does not do.  Mo is a forever Yankee, where as Gossage pitched for nine different teams in his career.  Both guys gave us a lot of quality innings, longevity, consistency and leadership.  What Mo is giving to the guys behind him in David Robertson, Shawn Kelley, Boone Logan and the rest is incredible mentoring and leadership- readying them to step up their role when he retires at the end of the season. 

So, frankly, comparing Mo to Goose and Goose to Mo is like comparing apples to oranges- they are both fruit but they have different purposes, different reasons for existence.  Goose is Great, Mo is Great- The End!  We are lucky to have them both as New York Yankees and Hall of Famers.

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof




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