Goose Gossage is back at New York Yankees’ spring training and he wants you to get off his lawn.
In an interview with NJ.com, Gossage cast shade on Mariano Rivera, calling him “great … for one inning,” and saying it’s “insulting” for him to be compared to the all-time saves leader. Rivera finished his career with 342 more saves than Gossage, an ERA 0.8 runs lower, 1.2 more strikeouts per nine innings, four more All-Star appearances and a WAR that stands at 14.8 points more than his counterpart.
Gossage, however, called the characterization of Rivera as a great reliever “bulls**t,” and would like to know “how many of Mo’s saves are of one inning with a three-run lead.” If he had only pitched one inning at a time, Gossage said, he “might still be pitching at 65.”
Making sure to avoid being seen as arrogant (okay, maybe not), Gossage answered “I don’t know,” when asked who he considers the greatest reliever of all-time. However, he was sure to let it be known that “you can’t compare what I used to do with (what) Mo did.” That’s one of few things said in this interview that most people would likely agree with.
The Hall of Famer also hit on sabermetrics, saying new-age general managers “don’t know baseball” but “won their rotisserie leagues at (bleeping) Harvard.” He went on to say that players now are “soft” and “it’s going to get worse.”
On steroids, Gossage said that Bud Selig should have wiped Barry Bonds’ home run record from the books. However, “there are probably a couple of (PED users) in (the Hall of Fame) already,” he said, referring to newly elected Ivan Rodriguez.