I try very hard to keep this blog away from discussing drugs, steroids, gambling, public displays family domestic disputes or other such issues.

When one talks or writes about Mark McGwire, one can either focus on the steroids — how many other hitters and pitchers over recent years have used them without the public notoriety of a McGwire or a Barry Bonds and more?  Or they can focus on the player’s contribution to his team and to the sport.

McGwire’s then record-setting 70 homers in 1998 was a source of excitement, as a baseball fan, in my last year in the U.S.  I made Aliyah in March, 1999 and have been following baseball since, including Barry Bonds’ 73 dingers in 2001, from Israel.   Further, McGwire’s on-field and off-field demeanor and attitude toward the fans seemed generally personable.

Here is some of what Mike Lefkow of ContraCostaTimes.com writes regarding Mark McGwire;

Only two players — McGwire and Barry Bonds — hit 70 or more home runs in a single season between 1986 and 2004.

How many of those homers were hit off pitchers who were juiced? As a voter, it’s my job to determine whether a player’s career numbers justify entry into the Hall. McGwire hit 583 lifetime home runs. He broke one of the most cherished records in sports, a mark that had stood for 37 years when he surpassed Roger Maris’ single-season record of 61 homers in 1961.

If a voter can make the argument that McGwire doesn’t belong in the Hall based on merit, fine. He was a .263 career hitter. He clogged the basepaths. He captured one Gold Glove at first base but will never remind anyone of Steve Garvey, Keith Hernandez or J.T. Snow for his brilliance around the bag. He wasn’t an MVP.

But McGwire would be a certain first-ballot choice were it not for the suspicions — remember, we’re still lacking proof — about steroids. And a lot of those people campaigning against McGwire are being mighty self-righteous about it.

Many of us benefited from McGwire’s pursuit of the record — our newspapers, television and especially baseball. As the A’s beat writer for the Times in 1997, I recall the San Diego Padres opening up the left field bleachers earlier than usual so fans could catch bombs hit by McGwire and Canseco in batting practice. I’ll assume the Padres made a few extra concession dollars from the larger-than-normal crowds

At the time, no one gave much thought to steroid use in baseball. It was fun and games, tape-measure shots.

Over the last couple of years, there have been times when I have asked myself if I did a poor reporting job, being in the Oakland clubhouse day-after-day and not being aware of the supposedly rampant steroid use. I have discussed it with a former A’s beat writer who happens to be one of my closest friends. And I have wrestled with how I should vote.

I have come to this conclusion.

Not voting for McGwire means you had better leave Ripken and Gwynn off your ballots, too. They played during the steroids era. Ripken played in a record 2,632 consecutive games. Can we be positive Ripken didn’t use any banned substances to keep himself in the lineup day-after-day for all those years? Not voting for McGwire is singling him out, making him the poster boy for the 1,500 players or so that Gammons estimates used illegal substances between 1986-2004.

Not that it matters when choosing whom to vote for, but McGwire is a decent man whose image has taken a much tougher beating than he deserves. He was a doting father to his son, Matthew. I don’t ever remember him showing up late to games, not hustling or being arrested. He made the Maris family an endearing part of the 1998 homer chase.

In short, Mark McGwire deserves induction to the MLB Hall of Fame by virtue of the compelling fact of his performance, lifetime stats, the run-up to 70 homers in 1998 and the resultant contribution of all of this to the enjoyment and betterment of Baseball as a sport.

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In the late 70’s, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Dave Parker, with a sweet swing and athleticism both offensively and defensively, seemed to have all the tools for future Hall of Fame vestiture.  In the years between 1975 and 1979, he hit .308, .313, .338 and .334 respectively while clubbing 114 homers.  And of course, he clobbered Phillies pitching just as he struck fear in nearly every other pitching staff he faced.

He was a crucial cog with that great 1979 Pirates team known as “the Family” that won the National League East Division title, defeated the Cincinnati Reds (minus Pete Rose who went Free Agent and signed a 5 year deal with the Phillies that year) and went on to defeat the Baltimore Orioles in 7 games in the World Series after coming back from being down 3 games to 1.

Parker and Willie “Pops” Stargell supplied the main clout on those Pirate teams of the late 70s, particularly in the 1979 World Series when Parker went 10-29, including 3 doubles, 2 homers and 4 RBIs and “Pops” went 12-30 including 4 doubles, 3 homers and 7 RBIs along with 4 other Pirates who had 9 or more hits in that series.

In the 1980s, Parker had a number of injuries which cut down his production although he had his best all-round year in 1985 hitting 34 homers, driving in 125 runs for the Cincinnati Reds.

But then his production dwindled with age and additional injuries although he was a cog in those Oakland As teams of 1988 and 1989 which went to the World Series in both  years, winning the series in 1989 in 4 games over the San Francisco Giants.

Parker’s lifetime stats showed 2,712 hits, 339 homers, 1,493 RBIs and a .290 batting average.

MLB’s Ed Eagle wrote of Dave Parker;

There was a time during the late 1970s when Dave Parker was arguably the best player in baseball, and he seemed destined to one day be immortalized in the hallowed halls of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

An intimidating 6-foot-6, 235-pound right fielder with a sweet swing and powerful arm, there was nothing Parker couldn’t do on the baseball diamond during his prime. He epitomized the term “five-tool player.” In a 1978 poll of general managers, he was selected as the best player in the game.

However, after 11 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Hall of Fame ballot, the man known as “The Cobra” is still waiting for the writers to punch his ticket to Cooperstown. His highest vote total percentage was 24.5 percent in 1998, and Parker garnered 14.4 percent of the total on the most recent ballot.

A candidate must get 75 percent of the vote to gain election. Results of the 2007 BBWAA Hall of Fame election will be announced Jan. 9, and the induction ceremony will take place on July 29 in Cooperstown.

“Parker gave 100 percent effort in every inning of every game that he played,” said Chuck Tanner, who was Pittsburgh’s manager from 1977-85. “He was one of the greatest I ever managed and one of the greatest who ever played, in my opinion. He has Hall of Fame credentials.”

An assortment of injuries significantly reduced Parker’s production from 1980-83. During that four-year stretch, Parker batted .280 with an average of just 11 home runs and 56 RBIs per season.

“I wasn’t quite myself as a player,” said Parker. “There were times when I shouldn’t have been out there at all. But [former Pirates teammate Willie] Stargell impressed upon me to be a star and a leader. He said, ‘Seventy-five or 80 percent of you is better than 100 percent of someone else.’ I made those sacrifices because that’s what I was taught. Willie emphasized that to me as a young player and I believed it.

“There were a couple of years where my numbers probably weren’t what they should have been,” Parker added. “But for the majority of those 10 years, from 1975 to ‘80, I was probably the best player in the game.”

Despite being embroiled in the highly publicized drug trial that rocked the baseball world, Parker turned his career back around after signing a free-agent contract with his hometown Cincinnati Reds in 1984. Parker led the NL in RBIs and total bases in 1985 and finished as the runner-up to St. Louis’ Willie McGee in the NL MVP race that season.

Parker later went on to serve as an important cog on the Oakland A’s 1988 American League championship and 1989 World Series championship teams and appeared in the 1990 All-Star Game as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.

“I won two batting titles, should have won two MVPs, was in three World Series, was the MVP of the All-Star Game, DH of the Year twice, and won the RBI crown,” Parker said. “I did everything that you could possibly do in baseball and I’m not in the Hall?

“I should be in the Hall of Fame,” he said. “Ain’t no doubt about it.”

Good luck to Dave Parker, may the 12th year be the charm for the Hall of Fame.

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 Every year around Hall of Fame voting time, the great, but heretofore neglected names come out of the woodwork.  Previously, this blog had posts on Tommy John and Jim Rice.  Another largely neglected name until now is Richard “Goose” Gossage whose snarl and nasty 98-mile-per-hour fastball struck fear and awe in the hearts of opposing hitters for 22 seasons.

Gossage was a part of the early evolution of the closer as a role in MLB.  Rollie Fingers, who is a Hall of Famer, had similar stats to Gossage but in 5 less seasons.  But unlike Fingers who carried the role of closer for all but 2 of his seasons in baseball, Gossage  was not a closer during his first 3 seasons (1972-74) with the White Sox.  And after 26 saves in 1975, the ChiSox tried to make him a starter in 1976, but he finished 9-17.  In 1977, he returned to the closer role where he remained for rest of his career.   It should also be remembered that Gossage and Fingers were from the generation of closers who pitched multiple innings per game as opposed to today’s closer, such as Trevor Hoffman who pitches one inning or a part of an inning and receives credit for the save.

Here is a short comparison of Gossage’s stats with other prominent closers of his generation as well as all-time saves leader, Trevor Hoffman.
Richard “Goose” Gossage
124-107   22 yrs  3.01 ERA  IP 1,809.1  SV 310   1972-1994

Dennis Eckersley - In Hall. Final 12 years as a closer of 24 yrs.
197-171 (45-43 as reliever) 788 IP  390 SV  3.14 ERA 1987-1998 (Closer)
Rollie Fingers -   In Hall.
114-118  17 yrs  2.90 ERA  1,701.1 IP   341 SV    1968-1985
Trevor Hoffman
49-55    14 yrs    2.71 ERA      885.1  IP   482 SV    1993-2006
  
MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom writes this about the “Goose”;

 Rich Gossage is hoping that his eighth year on the Hall of Fame ballot will be sprinkled with some magic. Each year since the Baseball Writers Association of America has had the opportunity to vote for him, Gossage, one of the top relief pitchers in history, has been less and less optimistic about his chances.

“I’ve felt the best this year, though, about the possibility of going in,” Gossage said from his home in Colorado Springs. “I don’t know if that’s because of the feedback I’m getting from the writers who are calling me or what. The funny thing is, I always hear the good things. Nobody ever calls to tell me why they didn’t vote for me. I guess they never would, but I never even hear it through the grapevine.”

The man they called “The Goose,” who strode to the mound to close games with his spitfire fastball, was heartened by the fact that Bruce Sutter, another premier reliever from his era, was elected during the class of 2006. Sutter was preceded by Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley, three closers, like Gossage, who also started during their stellar careers. Sutter was the first reliever inducted who hadn’t made at least one start.

But Gossage still believes he separated himself from the rest.

“I don’t think anybody did it the way I did it,” Gossage said. “Power against power. There was no messing around. All those strikeouts I had, none of that is padding. Just about every one of them meant something because the game was on the line.”

The Goose’s baseball career line over 23 seasons is a road map of baseball stops around world: Chicago (White Sox), Pittsburgh, New York (Yankees), San Diego, Chicago (Cubs), San Francisco, Yankees again, Fukuoka, Japan, Arlington, Tex., Oakland and Seattle.

Gossage finished 124-107 with 1,502 strikeouts — nearly one an inning — and a 3.01 ERA. His 310 saves are 16th on the all-time list, but he never had more than 33 saves in a single season — reaching that mark in 1980 with the Yankees.

A power pitcher who snarled beneath his mustache and intimidated hitters with his 98-mile-per-hour fastball, along the way Gossage went from rookie closer to starter back to veteran closer and finally finished as a setup man. Near the end of his career, Goose set up for A’s closer Dennis Eckersley, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004 and may have broken some ground for relievers. Eckersley had the added advantage of spending the first 12 years of his career as a competent starter. 

The role of the closer has so dynamically changed since Gossage played that there’s no criteria for how writers vote.

But Gossage’s star has been rising among that privileged class. In 2006, when Sutter was elected, Gossage’s name was penned on 64.2 percent of the ballots, up from 55.2 percent in 2005 and a big rise from the scant 40.7 percent he garnered in 2004. A former player needs to be named on 75 percent of the ballots cast to be elected and has 15 years of eligibility.

Gossage would routinely pitch multiple innings in big games. Eckersley, with his 390 saves in 12 seasons as a reliever, Hoffman with his 482 saves, and Rivera with 413, usually were and have been restricted to one or two innings. Most of the time, the trio would be handed the ball with a lead to open the ninth.

“I think I had a lot to do with setting the bar for relievers and doing the job the way it should be done,” Gossage said. “I went and set up for Dennis (1992 and 1993), so I know the way he was handled, how pampered he was over there. Not to take anything away from these guys, to compare what I did with what they did … It was even a joke with the coaches. We joked with Eckersley all the time. He’s a good buddy of mine.

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