Ringolsby: Relief should come for Gossage next year

Published January 12, 2007 at midnight

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This time, the bad news wasn't so bad for Goose Gossage.

For the eighth time, the door to Cooperstown was shut in his face.

This time, though, it wasn't slammed. In fact, it was left slightly ajar. With the way Gossage's vote total has increased each year, the 71.1 percent is a strong indication that next year - when there won't be a Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripken Jr. or any other first-time eligible worthy of induction on the ballot - Gossage should finally get the spot in the Hall of Fame he deserves.

Only one player who has received more than 70 percent of the vote from the veteran members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America failed to later be elected by them.

Nellie Fox, who fell one vote short in his 15th and final year on the writers' ballots, eventually was voted in by the Veterans Committee.

Gossage, however, still has seven more opportunities to be elected by the writers, and he should need only one more. The wait hasn't been easy.

"That's why I became a closer, I never did have much patience," he said after his latest failure to be elected. "I didn't like the four days off between starts. That's why I loved relieving."

Gossage has been gaining support. He has gone from being named on 33.27 percent of the ballots in 2000, his first year on the ballot, to the 71.1 percent this year.

He had minimal declines in his support in 2002, 2003 and 2004 but has risen from 40.74 percent in 2004 to 55.23 percent in 2005 to 64.61 percent a year ago and the 71.1 percent this year.

There have been 19 Hall of Famers who took more than nine elections to be enshrined, including the days before players were limited to 15 opportunities to be elected. Red Ruffing was elected in his 18th year as a candidate. Dazzy Vance was voted in the 17th time he was on the ballot and Rabbit Maranville went in the 16th time he was considered.

And Gossage will find a year from now, when he gets the call, that the wait will have been worth it. If he doesn't believe it, he can ask Bruce Sutter, who was inducted last year, having been elected in his 13th year on the ballot.

Like Sutter, Gossage figures to be the lone enshrinee next year, considering the top new candidate will be Tim Raines.

Overheard

• Oakland is offering Darin Erstad a chance to play center field and first base.

• Pittsburgh has offered right- handed pitcher Tomo Ohka a two- year contract, but his agent says Ohka, who has gone 48-58 in his major league career, wants a three-year guarantee.

• Houston is willing to move third baseman Morgan Ensberg. The Astros would use a platoon of Mike Lamb and Mark Loretta at third if Ensberg was dealt.

The readers' turn

Shane True, of Casper, can't figure out why there never has been a unanimous election of a player to the Hall of Fame and points to this year's inductees, Ripken and Gwynn, as perfect examples of players who would seem to merit such support.

It's really an old-time mentality that hangs on. Remember, the first Hall of Fame election wasn't held until 1936, and there were years in the first three decades when no election was held.

In the five-year span from 1940 to 1944, the only election was in 1942, and elections were every other year from 1956 to 1966. As a result, in the early elections there was an abundance of worthy players, which meant few were elected in the first year of eligibility.

As a result, through the years, there became a voting trend among some to rarely, if ever, vote for a player in the first year of eligibility.

Seven of the top 10 percentages have been compiled by players elected since 1992, including Ripken, who, with 98.53 percent of the vote, is third all time, and Gwynn, who, with 97.61 percent of the vote, is seventh all time.

For Tracy Ringolsby's response and to ask questions of your own, check out the Rockies blog.

Two cents' worth

Here's a tip for major league owners: Don't waste time expressing outrage over performance-enhancement drugs. Do something about it.

When the New York Mets give free agent Guillermo Mota a two-year, $5 million contract before the first game of his 50-game suspension for failing baseball's steroids testing, it speaks volumes for the adage that winning is all that counts.

Mota isn't even an impact player. He is a middle reliever. But yet a team will prostitute itself to sign him.

And people wonder why athletes act so spoiled.

It seems only fitting that the hang-up in getting details worked out in Barry Bonds' new contract with the Giants stems from a disagreement on how large an entourage Bonds can have in the clubhouse, where baseball is supposed to have a rule limiting nonbaseball personnel.

MILE HIGH WATCH

• Center fielder Cory Sullivan has spent the past two seasons with the Rockies, but he still is salary arbitration-eligible.

Sullivan received 140 days of major league service time three years ago when he missed the entire season recovering from left elbow surgery. Sullivan picked up the service time while he was on the disabled list.

With 2 years, 140 days of service time, he qualified for arbitration as a so-called Super II, meaning that among players with less than three years of major league service time, he was in the upper 17 percent.

Other Rockies players who have the leverage of arbitration this offseason are pitchers Jeremy Affeldt and Josh Fogg and outfielder Matt Holliday. Jamey Carroll signed a two-year contract last week, keeping him out of arbitration.

• Outfielder Eli Marrero, signed by the Rockies last offseason and traded in midseason to the Mets for second baseman Kaz Matsui, has returned to his original organization, St. Louis. Marrero signed a minor league contract with a spring training invitation.

• While center fielder Willy Taveras brings much-needed speed to the Rockies lineup, he doesn't figure to have much impact when a left-hander is pitching. Only five of his 68 major league stolen bases have been with a left-hander on the mound.

• There are familiar names on the Giants' spring training invitation list: right-hander Sun-Woo Kim, who spent slightly more than one year with the Rockies; reliever Dave Cortes, a member of the Rockies bullpen the past two years; and left-hander Ryan Meaux, a product of Cherry Creek High School and Lamar Community College.

• Former Rockies assistant to the general manager Tony Siegle has returned to the Giants as a senior adviser of baseball operations. This is his third tour with the Giants, where he was working when he left to join the Rockies in 1995. He returned to San Francisco briefly in 2001 after parting ways with Colorado. Siegle, who still lives in Denver, began his baseball career in the Houston front office in 1965.

ringolsbyt@RockyMountainNews.com

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