RINGOLSBY: Gossage's long wait perplexing

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Mike Stobe / Getty Images

Goose Gossage will be inducted in the Hall of Fame on Sunday after being named on 85.8 percent of the ballots.

Goose Gossage will finally be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Now that the time has arrived, Gossage said, it was worth the wait.

Emotionally, he might be right. Logically, however, it just doesn't make sense.

What happened during the eight years that Gossage was jilted by the Hall of Fame voters that suddenly made him Hall of Fame worthy this year?

Other than an awakening of the electorate, nothing. Gossage hasn't thrown a single big-league pitch, added any saves or struck out any more batters.

Just the same, Gossage's vote total went from 33.3 percent in 2000 to 44.3 percent in 2001. His total then actually dropped three years in a row before making a steady climb that enabled Gossage to pass the required 75 percent required for election - he was named on 85.8 percent of the ballots in 2008.

There is a mentality among some voters that has been trapped in a time warp.

When the Hall of Fame was created in 1936, the ballots were overloaded with worthy candidates, and as a result, many of the game's greats were not elected in their first year of eligibility, including the likes of Cy Young, Rogers Hornsby and Lou Gehrig.

After 72 years, such ballot overcrowding has been eliminated, but there are voters who are reluctant to vote for a player in his first year of eligibility because of the precedent set earlier.

One of the more intriguing cases involves Jim Rice. He will be on the ballot for the 15th and final time in December and could well be elected considering he has gone from being named on 52.2 percent of the ballots in 2003 to falling 16 votes short of enshrinement this weekend when he was named on 72.2 percent.

The voting pattern has been strange for Rice. He received support from 29.8 percent of the voters in 1995, climbed to 42.9 percent support in 1998 before slipping to 29.4 in 1999. With the Red Sox mounting strong campaigns on his behalf in recent years, Rice has not fallen below 50 percent vote since.

Infield chatter

* Seattle left-handed pitcher Jarrod Washburn has attracted attention from the Yankees, St. Louis and Philadelphia.

* Atlanta left-hander Will Ohman, a Ponderosa High School graduate, is starting to draw interest from teams looking for left-handed bullpen help. The Braves are also shopping center fielder Mark Kotsay.

* The Cubs were reportedly fined $500,000 for not properly reporting the signing of shortstop Matt Cerda, their fourth-round pick in the June draft, to a $500,000 signing bonus, which was $150,000 more than any other fourth-round pick has received.

The rotation

Five reasons making the All-Star break four days would benefit the game:

* Participants would fly to the site of the All-Star Game on Monday instead of racing from ballparks to airports to catch Sunday night flights, some going coast-to-coast, to get to the game.

* The Futures Game, featuring the top minor league players, would be moved from Sunday afternoon, where it is a national afterthought, to Monday night, when it would be the only game in town and garner national attention.

* The Home Run Derby and workout day could be moved from Monday to Tuesday.

* The All-Star Game could be moved from Tuesday to Wednesday so that even pitchers who started on Sunday would be coming off two days of rest and could pitch an inning or two without concern.

* The draft, currently held the first week in June, could be moved to Thursday and held at the All-Star Game site, which would increase exposure because there would be no games that day and many writers from around the country could attend.

Out in left field

The competition continues between second basemen Ian Kinsler of Texas and Dustin Pedroia of Boston. But now it seems like Kinsler is getting the upper hand, even if the fans did vote Pedroia to the starting lineup of the American League All-Star Team.

Kinsler is No. 1 and Pedroia No. 2 in the AL in batting average, hits and runs. Kinsler also has a sizeable edge on Pedroia in stolen bases and RBI.

Big deal? Well, in 2002, after a year at Central Arizona College, Kinsler transferred to Arizona State and found himself in a backup role to a freshman named Dustin Pedroia. So Kinsler opted to transfer to Missouri for 2003. Kinsler signed with Texas as a 17th-round draft choice after that season at Missouri. Pedroia was a second-round pick by Boston in 2004.

Closing statement

Are the Astros wandering in nowhere land?

Despite needing an infusion of young talent, they instead traded right-hander Chad Reineke, who was 2-1 with a 1.84 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 44 innings in his last seven starts at Triple-A Round Rock, to San Diego for veteran lefty Randy Wolf. Wolf, who turns 32 on Aug. 22, has made 21 starts this year but could be wearing down, considering arm injuries limited him to a combined 43 starts the three previous seasons.

He is, after all, 1-5 with a 7.06 ERA in his past six starts. He did have a 6.63 ERA outside of Petco Park, a pitcher's best friend, where his ERA was 3.17. And he figures to carry at least a $3.5 million price tag for the Astros the rest of this season.

It's not like a pennant is at stake. The Astros are in last place in the NL Central.

Yes, Astros GM Ed Wade has special insight into Wolf because Wade was GM and Wolf was coming up in the Philadelphia system. Kind of like that special insight Dodgers GM Ned Colletti had when he signed free-agent pitcher Jason Schmidt. And Colletti and Dodgers trainer Stan Conte supposedly had special insight into Schmidt because they were with him in San Francisco.