Gossage honored by Yankees
On a day when dozens of Yankees greats were back on the field in pinstripes, Goose Gossage was overwhelmed to be the center of attention.
The Hall of Fame reliever with the blazing fastball and bushy mustache was honored by the team on Old-Timers’ Day with a plaque to be put in Monument Park.
“This is the greatest day I’ve ever had,” he told the sellout crowd of 47,493 at Yankee Stadium in New York.
Joined on the field by his family and old-timers from Yogi Berra to Bucky Dent, Gossage unveiled his plaque at home plate and grabbed the microphone Sunday to chants of “Goooose” before New York hosted the Baltimore Orioles.
“I played for nine different teams, and putting on the pinstripes was like the closest thing to an out-of-body experience I’ve ever had,” Gossage said.
Gossage pitched for the Yankees from 1978-83, helping them to a World Series title during his first season in pinstripes. He returned for 11 games in 1989. Gossage went 42-28 with a 2.14 ERA and 151 saves for the Yankees, leaving him third on the club’s career list behind Mariano Rivera (652) and Dave Righetti (224).
The inscription on his marker begins by calling Gossage “one of the most intimidating pitchers ever to don pinstripes.”
It becomes the 28th plaque grouped behind the center-field fence, where seven monuments commemorate such all-time greats as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, along with late owner George Steinbrenner.
The tribute came one day after the Yankees presented Tino Martinez with a Monument Park plaque in a similar celebration.
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