Yanks original Moose...

one of his cards from the year of my birth...

William Joseph "Moose" Skowron Jr. (born December 18, 1930) is a former Major League Baseball player, primarily a first baseman. He is currently a Community Relations Representative for the White Sox.

Skowron was born in Chicago, Illinois, and is of Polish descent. His father was a garbage collector. His friends called him "Mussolini" as a joke, after his grandfather gave him a haircut which looked like the dictator's, but his family shortened the nickname to "Moose." The name stuck throughout his career.

"Moose" attended Weber High School on the intersection of Division and Ashland in Chicago. He went to Purdue University on a football scholarship, but found himself better suited to baseball when he hit .500 as a sophomore, a record in the Big Ten Conference that lasted ten years.

Signed by the New York Yankees in 1950 as an amateur free agent, he played his first game for the Yankees on April 13, 1954. He wore uniform number 53 in the 1954 season, but switched to #14 in 1955 and stayed with that number for the rest of his years with the Yankees. In the beginning, he was platooned at first base with Joe Collins, but from 1958 on he became the Yankees' full time first baseman. He played in five All-Star Games as a Yankee: 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961.

Agree completely with NoMaas.org......

SHUT UP HANK!!

Hank Steinbrenner insists Yankees still talking Johan Santana swap

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tuesday, January 15th 2008, 4:00 AM

TAMPA - Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner has not closed the door on a trade for Minnesota Twins lefthander Johan Santana.

"It's still in the deciding process," Steinbrenner said Monday night outside Legends Field at the Yankees' spring training complex. "We're still discussing it. There's still a little talk back and forth."

Phil Hughes and center fielder Melky Cabrera would likely be part of a multiplayer package needed to obtain Santana, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who can become a free agent after this season.

Steinbrenner said reports that the Yankees recently withdrew a formal offer to the Twins are not true.

"There wasn't an official offer anyway. You can't withdraw something that wasn't there," Steinbrenner said. "There was no official offer on the table at this time."

The Mets and Red Sox also are interested in Santana.

Clemens was never a Real Yankee....

He was never anything more than a mercenary for hire.
The Yanks just happened to have the most money.

Funny how when he was still "The Rocket" Sox fans still hoped for him to wear a B on his HOF plaque...

excellent read by tim marchman on new york and the goose.....

A Brilliant Reliever in a Brilliant Time for New York
Baseball
By TIM MARCHMAN
January 9, 2008

Reliever Rich ‘Goose’ Gossage, who pitched for the Yankees for six seasons, was elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday.

New York was brilliant in the late 1970s and 1980s. Books have been written and movies have been made about the blackouts, riots, and serial killers that haunted New York, but rarely since has the city seen such torrential creative energy. When Goose Gossage pitched his first game for the Yankees, the only place to hear hip hop was at Bronx parties where DJs ran sound systems powered by electricity from lamp posts; the year after he left, Queens' Run D.M.C. went gold. In Manhattan, artists and real estate speculators transformed SoHo, Martin Scorcese filmed his best movies, and Wall Street redefined the nature of finance. And a vicious tabloid war was on.

They were exciting times, and the Yankees were worthy of them. In the six years Gossage spent in the Bronx, the team went through 12 managers and won three pennants, two division titles, and a World Series. Again, books and movies have been created about those teams, but until yesterday, when he was finally elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, Gossage still hadn't gotten his due. More than just a dominant closer for great teams, he embodied their volatility and vigor, and that of the city in his time. He wasn't so absurdly outsized a figure as Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, or Thurman Munson. But he was pretty close.

Fourteen years after his retirement, 30 years after his prime, Gossage remains the archetypal reliever. He had the violent, ferocious delivery that saw him flail his limbs and torque his whole body, driving everything he had into a fastball that hit bats like a medicine ball; he had the bizarre facial hair, which at times made it look as if Chester Arthur had taken the mound in anger, and he had the scowl of a starved and feral dog. Everything about him was scary; to this day, teams still run imitators of him out to the mound.

During his time in the Bronx, Gossage's earned run average was 2.10, and it was there that he earned his reputation. He had great seasons with Bill Veeck's Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning San Diego team, and with Willie Stargell's Pirates, but history will remember him as Martin's fire-eating pitbull.

The skeptical baseball fan should remember, though, that just like other products of his time from Theoretical Girls to Bret Easton Ellis, Gossage's image was quite contrived at the time and has grown more so since. Gossage is recalled, for instance, as a true iron man, last and brightest of a generation of nervy warriors who shouldered workloads in relief that would break today's pitchers. The way he was used with the Yankees — he was brought in whenever the game was on the line, rather than being reserved for late-inning leads, and he would pitch up to five innings at a time — is held up by many as an ideal. (It's tempting to wonder why exactly the Yankees couldn't use Joba Chamberlain this way while breaking him into the majors this year.)

Gossage was an exceptionally durable reliever, but there's more to the story than just his innings totals. He pitched more than 130 relief innings three times, something that was done 28 times during his career and has not been done since. He pitched more than 100 innings four times, but that was done 221 times during the span of his career, and has been done just 16 times since. And especially in the Bronx, after the years in which he was used most heavily, Gossage was somewhat injury prone: From 1978 to 1981, at his physical prime, he missed two different half-seasons to injury.

None of this affects his qualifications for Cooperstown at all — he should have been in years ago, and his decade of true dominance makes him vastly more deserving than most of the more than 50 men and women who have been enshrined in the Hall since he was first listed on a ballot in 2000. But just as ballplayers can personify their times in some ways, so can they personify ideas. And the idea that Gossage would like to personify is that relievers were tougher in his day, and that baseball was better. He'll tell you: Last year he was quoted as saying dismissively, "Don't even compare what Mariano does to what we used to do."

So far as Gossage's line of argument is meant to make himself look good, there's nothing wrong with it. The man is certainly entitled to a bit of self-promotional bluster. The problem comes when people try to apply that reasoning to today's game as a hammer against today's players.

Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman may not be as tough as Gossage was, and they may not be used as efficiently, but both are still dominant at an age when Gossage had long since lost his effectiveness. Moreover, Gossage was very much affected by the times in which he pitched. Yes, he was able to pitch 130 innings a year; but there was always someone around who was used that way. It wasn't a really rare or singular thing to do, but rather something pitchers did when the game was played differently. DJs don't run their systems out of lamp posts anymore, managers don't punch star players on live TV, and Joba Chamberlain isn't going to throw 130 innings in relief this year. In all cases, that's probably a good thing.

tmarchman@nysun.com

Goose Gossage Makes Hall of Fame

NEW YORK -- The "Goose" is on the loose in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

A year after Tony Gwynn was a first-time electee, along with Cal Ripken Jr., the induction ceremony on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y., will again have a distinct Padres flavor.

Rich "Goose" Gossage, who may be better known for his first tour with the Yankees (1978-83), was elected on Tuesday in his ninth year on the ballot. He'll join his former Padres manager, Dick Williams, on the stage behind the Clark Sports Center this coming summer.

"This was very emotional, off the charts -- I can't even describe this," Gossage said about taking the phone call telling him that he was selected. "I've waited a while, but there isn't anybody I'd rather go in with than Dick Williams. He was a great, great manager, and I really enjoyed playing for him."

Jim Rice, the former star of 16 seasons, all with the Red Sox, barely missed by 16 votes, as he fell 2.8 percent (72.2) below the necessary 75 percent to gain admission to the hallowed red-brick Hall on Main Street in Cooperstown. Voting trends suggest that he could very well break through in 2009, when Rickey Henderson will be an obvious first-time favorite. Rice then will be on the writers' ballot for his 15th and final year.

"Today's results are obviously a disappointment," Rice said in a statement released by the Red Sox. "I believe my accomplishments speak for themselves, and a majority of the voters seem to agree. It is tough to come this close, but I remain hopeful for the 2009 results."

Rice should take heart: of the 20 previous players who have registered 70 or more percent but less than 75 percent, every one of them has ultimately been elected.

Williams, who won the World Series twice as manager of the A's and will go in wearing an Oakland cap, teamed up with Gossage in 1984, as the Padres won the first National League pennant in franchise history, but lost a five-game World Series to the Tigers.

Williams' wife, Norma, answering the phone on Tuesday at their Las Vegas home, said Williams had already spoken to Gossage, and that her husband "was just as giddy as the day he got into the Hall of Fame."

"They just acted like two crazy little people," she said.

Williams was one of five managers and executives elected last month by separate, newly formed Veterans Committees.

World Series-winning managers Williams and Billy Southworth were elected along with Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and owners Walter O'Malley and Barney Dreyfuss.

All will also be inducted late in July, although Williams is the only living member of the quintet.

"It's terrific, it's terrific," said Williams about Gossage joining him. "I got a hold of him and we were just like two little kids. I'm as thrilled about him getting in as the day they called me. This is wonderful."

Gossage, who fell short by 21 votes in 2007, was this time named on 85.8 percent or 466 of the 543 ballots cast.

Andre Dawson, who hobbled on bad knees through many of his 21 seasons with the Expos, Cubs, Red Sox and Marlins, received almost a 10-percent uptick to 65.9 percent and may be right on the bubble in 2009. Voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America also are taking another look at Bert Blyleven, a pitcher whose career ended after 22 seasons, just 13 victories shy of 300. Blyleven finished fourth behind Gossage, Rice and Dawson with a healthy 61.9 percent of the vote.

Gossage said that all three of the runner-ups should eventually get the Hall call.

"Just what I know about facing these guys, I think Jim Rice deserves to be in the Hall," said Gossage, who retired Rice and Carl Yastrzemski with a pair of runners on base and the Yankees clinging to a 5-4 lead, thus ending that famous 1978 playoff game for the division title in Boston. "No hitter scared me, but Jim Rice came the closest. Dawson should [be elected], because he also has great numbers. He was a teammate of mine with the Cubs. And Blyleven was a tremendous pitcher over a great career. Those are three guys who come to my mind right away."

In the wake of last month's Mitchell Report, Mark McGwire, the first star player tainted by the steroids era to face the electorate, finished at 23.6 percent, almost exactly the same place as last year, when he also received 128 votes despite hitting 70 homers in 1998 to win his famous record home run race against Sammy Sosa and finishing with 583 in his career. In 2007, McGwire also received an underwhelming 23.5 percent.

Gossage said he felt for McGwire and the voters who have to make that decision.

"I don't really know how to approach this," Gossage said. "McGwire was a great guy and a great teammate of mine the two years I played with him out in Oakland. And what a thrill it was to play with him. But this steroid thing is hanging over baseball now, and hopefully we can put this thing behind us and clear the gray areas out. I have a lot of empathy for [the voters] on how to go about this. I'm glad I'm not voting."

2008 Results

Player	Total Votes	Percentage
Rich Gossage	466	85.8%
Jim Rice	392	72.2%
Andre Dawson	358	65.9%
Bert Blyleven	336	61.9%
Lee Smith	235	43.3%
Jack Morris	233	42.9%
Tommy John	158	29.1%
Tim Raines	132	24.3%
Mark McGwire	128	23.6%
Alan Trammell	99	18.2%
Dave Concepcion	88	16.2%
Don Mattingly	86	15.8%
Dave Parker	82	15.1%
Dale Murphy	75	13.8%
Harold Baines	28	5.2%
Rod Beck	2	0.4%
Travis Fryman	2	0.4%
Robb Nen	2	0.4%
Shawon Dunston	1	0.2%
Chuck Finley	1	0.2%
David Justice	1	0.2%
Chuck Knoblauch	1	0.2%
Todd Stottlemyre	1	0.2%
Jose Rijo	0	0%
Brady Anderson	0	0%

Of the 11 first-timers on the ballot, only one -- Tim Raines -- received the requisite 5 percent to remain. Raines earned 132 or 24.3 percent of the vote. Dave Concepcion, the shortstop on Cincinnati's great "Big Red Machine" teams of the 1970s, received 88 votes or 16.2 percent in his 15th and final chance among the writers. He'll now be eligible, beginning in 2011, to be elected by the Veterans Committee voting on players.

Gossage had one of his best years under Williams in 1984, his first of four seasons with the Padres, finishing 10-6 with 25 saves and 84 strikeouts in 62 games (102 1/3 innings). He was on the mound in the ninth inning of Game 5 against the Cubs in San Diego to close out the NL Championship Series, his final postseason save. That was also Gwynn's first of his 20 Major League seasons with the Padres.

"The impact that Goose Gossage had on this organization was incredible, on the field, in the clubhouse and for our fans in San Diego," said Padres president Dick Freeman, who was in a lesser role with the front office back then. "He was the final piece to our National League championship in 1984, which really established the San Diego Padres as a Major League franchise. It's hard to overstate what his contributions were to that team."

The Goose's baseball career line over 23 seasons is a road map of baseball stops around the world: Chicago (White Sox); Pittsburgh; New York (Yankees, twice); San Diego; Chicago (Cubs); San Francisco; Fukuoka, Japan; Arlington; Oakland; and Seattle.

His 1978 Yankees team, after Gossage pitched the final 2 2/3 innings to vanquish the Red Sox in that playoff game, went on to defeat the Dodgers in a thrilling six-game World Series. Gossage, a nine-time All-Star, never saved a World Series game, but he was the winner of Game 4 at Yankee Stadium for pitching the final two scoreless, hitless frames of a 10-inning, 4-3, come-from-behind win.

Gossage said on Tuesday that signing with the Yankees as a free agent in 1978 was "an out-of-body experience." But he said he left the Yankees for the Padres as a free agent six years later because he was tired of the endless wars between in-and-out manager Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner, the team's longtime principal owner.

"I needed a little change of scenery," Gossage said. "The fun had kind of been taken out of the game. I had always played the game for the fun of it."

Steinbrenner was more than gracious on Tuesday after learning the news that another player who starred in Yankees pinstripes had been added to the Hall.

"The Baseball Hall of Fame was really on the ball today in their selection of my close friend Goose Gossage," he said in a statement. "Goose was a fierce competitor and one of the all-time great pitchers, who in his career set a new standard for relief pitching. The New York Yankees are very proud of his achievement and I, personally, would like to congratulate him and his family on this wonderful honor!"

Gossage finished his career as a Mariner in 1994 with a 124-107 record, 1,502 strikeouts and a 3.01 ERA. His 310 saves are 17th on the all-time list, but he never had more than 33 saves in a single season -- 1980 with the Yankees.

A power pitcher who snarled beneath his mustache and intimidated hitters with his 98-mph fastball, along the way, Gossage went from rookie closer to starter back to veteran closer and finally finished as a setup man. Near the end of his career, Goose set up in Oakland for Dennis Eckersley, who was elected to Hall of Fame in 2004 and may have broken some ground for relievers.

It is the second time in the past three years that a premium reliever has been the only player elected to the Hall. Two years ago, Bruce Sutter was elected in his 13th year on the ballot.

Sutter, who had 300 saves in a 12-year career shortened by arm injuries, was preceded by Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers and Eckersley, three closers, like Gossage, who also started during their stellar careers. Sutter is the only reliever inducted thus far who never made at least one start.

Fingers, who was inducted in 1992, had 341 saves and threw 1,701 innings in 17 seasons. Gossage had 31 fewer saves in 1,809 innings.

Fingers had seven seasons as a reliever when he logged 100 innings or more. Gossage did it four times and came close in several other seasons.

In a yardstick of how the job of closer has changed since then, Eckersley did it as a reliever only once. So has the Yankees' Mariano Rivera. San Diego's Trevor Hoffman, the all-time leader with 524 saves, never did it.

Asked how effective Gossage might have been if he'd been restricted to one-inning saves, Williams quipped: "He'd still be playing."

Hoffman and Rivera are almost certainly future Hall of Fame electees, although Lee Smith, who held the all-time record of 478 surpassed two years ago by Hoffman, has been an afterthought among the writers, garnering only 235 votes or 43.3 percent this year.

Like Smith, Gossage said he always implored the writers not to compare him to the closers of this era.

"I'm probably the only pitcher to see the evolution of the bullpen from the time I broke in to the way it is today," Gossage said. "That's the only point I've ever tried to make: please don't compare me to these modern-day relievers. It's apples and oranges. It's not the same game. That's the only thing I've tried to set the record straight on. The way they're being used today is the way they should be used."

And the way the Goose almost never was.