163rd Game of the Season... a Hall of Famer at the plate. And one on the mound. Ninth inning. Two outs. Two runners on. One run game. The man at the plate a multiple batting champion, a former MVP, thinking no doubt about tying or winning the game, and with it, the American League East Championship. The man on the mound? By his own testimony, thinking about fishing somewhere in Colorado, fairly soon... perhaps tomorrow... if things don't go well right now.
The man at the plate wiggles his bat slowly, awaiting the pitch. The man on the mound squints toward the catcher, pretending to look for a sign... even though everybody in the park, and everybody watching on TV, pretty much knows what's coming. Gas!
And the pitch. GAS!
The batter swings... and it's a pop-up! The ball soars high over the infield, drifting toward the leftside of the infield. The third-baseman looks skyward and awaits. The ball drifts downward into his glove. Clutching the ball, the third-baseman leaps with joy, and then heads toward the mound... along with all of his teammates, to mob the Hall-of-Famer on the mound and celebrate their AL Eastern division title.
If you recognize this scenario, you know who the participants were. Goose Gossage threw the final pitch of the 1978 regular AL season to Carl Yaz, who popped up to Graig Nettles at third to end a historic season.
Goose Gossage had 310 lifetime saves. That's a whole bunch.
Trevor Hoffman and Mo Rivera each have over 500, with Hoffman being the all-time leader, toiling, I might add, with a distinctly inferior team for his career (and with a superior save percentage... fodder for another article).
But of course, this is comparing yesterday's apples with today's oranges.
Consider the 163rd game above.
Everyone... I mean, EVERYONE, remembers the
Bucky Friggin Dent home run, a three run bomb (actually a fly ball that would have been an out in YS). But what people may forget is that this magnificent 163rd game was an exciting, exhilarating microcosm of the entire exciting, exhilarating season. For my money, THIS was the 1978 World Series... the two best teams in baseball, slugging it out like Ali-Frazier... for six long months.
The Red Sox got off to an early lead, as they did during the year. Then the Yanks surged ahead, 5-2, as they did during the year. The Red Sox could have wilted... but instead, they got off the mat, like Ali did, and fought back, closing the gap to 5-4.
Then, in the seventh, game the Yanks premier set-up man. Goose Gossage.
That's right, boys and girls! 163rd game. Red Sox on the bases. The GAME on the bases! Seventh inning. And the Yankee skipper, himself a Hall of Fame pitcher, Bob Lemon, summoned the Goose. And why not. Who would YOU have waved in? Correct-a-mundo!
And of course, Goose put down the rebellion. And pitched the eighth. And the ninth. And as I said, the Red Sox did not go quietly. But thanks to the Goose, they went home.
Goose did not save 50 games a year. Nor forty. I am not even sure if he hit thirty. But I do know, without looking up the stats (which I shall do later), that the Goose pitched more innings in some seasons then, than some starters do now! The Yankees, and other teams, did not pay Gossage to rack up stats. They paid him to stamp out fires... by any means necessary. And that he did.
If Gossage were pitching today, perhaps he'd have 500 saves. I don't know. I don't care. But if the Yanks had used their bullpen in 1978 the way lots of managers use their bullpens today, there might have been nothing for the Goose to save in the ninth inning of the 163rd game of the 1978 regular season.
Goose was the best.
These were the dimensions of the Polo Grounds from 1923 until 1957. In case you can't squint, it's 279, 447, 483, 440, 258ft, left to right. Willie made The Catch in the 1954 Series just to the right of the center field cut out, which led to the clubhouses.
