Goosed: Bert & the Hall of Fame

Friends,

Today, the Baseball Hall of Fame elected a new member today. Who is it? Why, it is mustachioed superstar Rich "Goose" Gossage! Behold, the Goose:

Look at him in that stately yellow-and-brown of the San Diego Padres. And look at that mustache! Clearly a hall of famer....in spite of his tour with the Cubs.

Also Jim Rice, a known mustache commodity was nearly elected. Other nearly-made-it mustaches included Andre Dawson , Jack Morris , and Tim "I Only Slide Head First Not to Break the Cocaine Vials in My Back Pocket" Raines.

However, Bert Blyleven was ignored too. Yes, Bert has a beard, and was a part of that cheating 1987 Twins team , but he is one of the best pitchers ever to play the game.

Okay, don't believe me? Check out his numbers here. You should note that he is fifth all time in strikeouts. That puts him ahead of the following elite Hall of Famers: Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins, Cy Young, Tom Seaver, Gaylord Perry. Bert has also won 287 games, which is 26th all time (which also happens to be more than Bob Gibson, Bob Feller, Jim Palmer and others).

Now, yes, if it came down to one game, I want Bob Gibson on the mound over anyone else who had played the game. Also, he was only on 2 All-Star Teams, and never won a Cy Young award (actually his career Cy Young voting total equals that of Esteban Loaiza...yikes!). But, as Jayson Stark wisely put it in his article, you have to compare Blyleven against people of his era....which Stark (formerly a mustachioed man himself) did in his column. Below is the pertinent Blyleven stats from the article:

... I reminded myself to compare this man to the pitchers of his generation. When you do that, you find a pitcher dominating enough to rank No. 1 in complete games in the division-play era, second in shutouts (one behind Nolan Ryan), second in innings pitched (again trailing only Ryan), fifth in whiffs and seventh in wins (ranked behind only Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers).

How can Bert be overlooked year after year? He's never been a sexy or sentimental pick. He never played for the Yankees or Red Sox. But, dammit if he's not good. Wait, he did do this on live television:

But come on, that's not that bad. And bloopers like that happen all the time. I mean, look at this one (check the background):



See, none of this is right. Get Bert in the Hall, and let's keep the shockers (even the Wichita State team) off ESPN Gameday.

VIVA EL MUSTACHE!