Goose Gossage says he had it easier than today's pitchers--1/4/08

• Gossage thinks pitchers today have it much tougher than he did. From AP:

"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." (The "Bud Selig Era").

From AP story by Ronald Blum on SignOnSanDiego.com, 1/4/08, "Goose Gossage Hopes Hall of Fame Vote Provides Relief."

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ESPN PULLS OUT THEIR BIGGEST WEAPON--Goose Gossage

Listed on ESPN.com's web page right now, top left corner--What a shock.

• "Insider Chat" with Goose Gossage....

Gossage is the most vociferous, enraged, irrational media magnet on 1 subject--BASHING MARIANO RIVERA FOR NO REASON. (Unless he's had a sudden change of heart...).

• In spite of his long and well documented losing record in the National League, ESPN has made a priority of elevating Trevor Hoffman to the HALL OF FAME using 2 themes: viewing the total save stat in regular season without considering other relevant data; and discounting post season performances as just something that obscures the regular season total save stat and about which one should feel sorry for their guy.

On June 1st, 2007 ESPN published a poll lauding Hoffman. Here's an example of the logic they used to sell their case (in case anyone is curious):

• ""There's no question Trevor Hoffman gets my Hall of Fame vote. I covered the Yankees for eight years and got to see Mariano Rivera on a regular basis.
• Unfortunately for Hoffman and other relievers of his era, they are compared to Rivera's body of work in the playoffs. There's no denying Rivera's greatness, but had the Yankees had Hoffman instead, I believe they would have been just as successful.'' -- John Delcos, The Journal News (New York)"

John Delcos quote from ESPN.com, "Hoffman Deserves a Plaque in Cooperstown," Crasnick: Surveying Hoffman's Hall of Fame Case," 6/1/07

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MLB Advanced Media advances their view via the bully pulpit, but Red Sox' Joe Castiglione knows the truth.

Listening to Angels-Red Sox play by play on XM Friday night, I got the Red Sox guys' view of the Yankee-Indian game. The score was tied at 1-1:

• Joe Castiglione: "Is Rivera coming back?" (asking his booth-mates what was happening in the bottom of the 11 th inning).

No answer, muffled sounds in the background, perhaps persons in the process of finding out the answer to Castiglione's question.

• Castigione: Not immediately having that answer, he suggests, "How many pitches has Rivera thrown?"

Crew still efforting, no answer.

• Castiglione: "Is Rivera coming out?"

Finally someone gives him the answer, and Joe says:

• Castiglione: "Rivera's out." OK.

Mariano Rivera had already pitched 2 scoreless innings in the tie game. Castiglione was asking if he was COMING OUT FOR A THIRD INNING. It was not a 'SAVE OPPORTUNITY' either. Unlike employees of MLB Advanced Media, Joe Castiglione is quite familiar with how Mariano Rivera has been used for the past 12 regular seasons and 13 consecutive post seasons. As the radio voice for the Red Sox during that time, he's actually seen Rivera pitch 3 consecutive scoreless innings (2003 post season, Game 7 ALCS) in a tie game. (Rivera got the Win in that game).

• THAT'S WHY YOU HEARD CASTIGLIONE REPEATEDLY TRY TO FIND OUT IF RIVERA WAS COMING IN FOR A 3rd CONSECUTIVE INNING IN GAME 2 OF THE ALDS GAME YANKS-INDIANS. Joe knows Rivera and his manager don't wait around for "saves" or "save opportunities," a distortion of Rivera's value still put forth by MLB.com which provides content for all MLB websites.

The latest is from a select MLB Advanced Media megaphone named Anthony DiComo. If he's the same Anthony DiComo who wrote for a Boston University student newspaper in 2004 as a sophomore, that would've made him 11 years old when Mariano Rivera burst onto the late inning relief scene in the post season of 1995.

• So Mr. DiComo, perhaps the same who wrote for a BU student paper in 2004, now writes for the multi-billion dollar behemoth, MLB Advanced Media. Even after knowing what Rivera did in Friday night's ALDS game v the Indians (2 consecutive scoreless innings in a tie game in A NON-SAVE SITUATION) he's permitted to leave the world with the following characterization of Mariano in the 2001 ALDS when the Yanks were also down 0-2:

"Mariano Rivera was there, too, sitting helplessly without a save opportunity against the Athletics." From MLB.com, 10/6/07, "Yankees Territory Not Foreign," by Anthony DiComo.

• Of all the things he could say about Rivera, that's the chosen one-- and he had plenty of space in which to elaborate. DiComo went on to detail the Jeter tag of Jeremy Giambi in Game 3 of the 2001 ALDS. Fine.

DiComo may have checked other stats like the 2001 World Series in which case he'd know his characterization of Rivera as "sitting helplessly" waiting for "save opportunities" was a sad lie:

• Mariano Rivera pitched 3 days in a row at one point in the 2001 World Series, and only 1 of the 3 days was a "save opportunity." The other 2 games were tied. No "save opportunity,' and both were extra innings.
• He pitched the 8th and 9th on 10/30/01 for a save (final score 2-1);

• He pitched the 10th on 10/31 in a TIE game which the Yankees won in 10, score 4-3;

• and He pitched a third day in a row on 11/1/01 for 2 innings, the 10th and 11th in a TIE game, which the Yankees won in 12 score 3-2. (Baseball-Reference).

MLB Advanced Media advances an incorrect view of Mariano Rivera's place in the game, but one which Goose Gossage and certain others would happily approve. Red Sox play by play veteran Joe Castiglione knows the truth.

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