Congrats to the Goose!

When I was about 11 years old I found a list of addresses for current and former ball players in the back of a magazine. I proceeded to write very kind letters to each address and send away pictures I'd cut out of magazines, newspaper clippings, and yes, baseball cards when I had them. One of those addresses belonged to Goose Gossage and several weeks later the card was returned with his (presumably although I'm not holding my breath as to its authenticity) signature.

Since then I've always had a soft spot for the Goose (except during the 1984 playoffs of course) and considering that he's also a native of our adopted home in Colorado Springs not to mention arguably one of the top three relievers in the history of baseball (Hoyt Wilhelm and Mariano Rivera are at the top followed closely by Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers, and Dennis Eckersley), I was gratified to see him get elected with 85.8% of the vote.

It's too bad The Hawk couldn't have made it as well but he did eclipse his 2006 vote total and has risen to 65.9% making it likely he'll eventually make it. But I'd have to agree with Joe Sheehan (BTW, there are some nice moments on Hall of Fame debates with Joe, Steve Phillips, and Keith Law on ESPN that you can see here) that once Jim Rice is in (in my opinion not a Hall of Famer), there won't be any reasonable argument for keeping Dawson out.