Gossage pitched in 1,002 major league games, all but 37 in relief. He won 124 games, saved 310, finished with a 3.01 ERA and struck out 1,502 batters in 1,809 innings.

In his only season in a rotation, Gossage was 9-17 for the White Sox in 1976. He credits Chicago manager Chuck Tanner and pitching coach Johnny Sain for turning him into a closer.

"The bullpen was kind of a junk pile where starters went that couldn't start anymore. It wasn't a glamorous place to be like it is today,'' Gossage said. "Now it takes three guys to do kind of what I used to do.''

He was fiery during his career. He broke his thumb during a clubhouse brawl with Yankees teammate Cliff Johnson in 1979. In August 1982, he said owner George Steinbrenner should "quit treating us like animals'' and referred to him as "the fat man.''

Steinbrenner didn't take it personally.

"Goose Gossage had a tremendous impact on the Yankees and he did change the role of relief pitching,'' Steinbrenner said through spokesman Howard Rubenstein. "He set a standard as a closer and helped the Yankees immensely over the years. He is a great competitor and I think of him in glowing terms. He deserves to be voted into the Hall of Fame.''

Gossage's strong opinions have not been limited to his own career. He thinks there ought to be some method of denoting in baseball's history books that offense increased in the 1990s and 2000s, partly due to smaller ballparks, tightly wrapped baseballs and a shrinking strike zone.

He has harsh words for both the Mitchell Report and some of those implicated.

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"If my name had been in this thing, I know I would have been down in Times Square on top of a soap box screaming,'' Gossage said. "I'm glad to see that some investigation was done, but the type of investigation that it was, it just left a bunch of questions and doubt and, `Did they really do it?'''

Gossage is deeply committed to baseball history and is proud he has a big place in it. If he is elected to the Hall, he probably will wind up going in with a Yankees cap. He spent six of his best seasons with New York, from 1978-83, and returned for part of 1989.

He finds it hard to believe that Yankee Stadium, the ballpark where he heard all those roaring crowds, is set to be torn down after this season. The place where he got all those important outs - and gave up George Brett's big playoff home run and Pine Tar homer - won't exist.

"Oh my God, I can't even comprehend it. I really can't,'' he said. "The new stadium is going to be beautiful, and I understand they have to do it but, man, I think there's going to be a lot more missing than people think.''

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