FanHouse Goose Gossage

For better or worse, this is Jim Rice's moment in the sun. The former Red Sox outfielder was elected to the Hall of Fame in his final try last week, and now everyone wants to hear what he has to say about anything and everything, no matter how misguided it is.

Enter intrepid Newsday reporter David Lennon, who asked Rice about failing to win a World Series during his playing career and got an answer that seems both faulty and unbecoming of a guy about to be enshrined in Cooperstown.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

The 2009 Hall of Fame ballot was released Monday, and with it is certain to come heated debate right up until and after the voting results are revealed on Jan. 12, 2009. This year's class of candidates is similar to last year's, in that it's a shallow group.

There is only one sure-fire Hall of Famer among the 23 candidates, which means this is a critical vote for the borderline players who have been up for election on multiple occasions. Now is the time for those borderline guys to get over the top or make a big push to lay the groundwork for election in future years.

After the jump is a breakdown of the ballot, complete with what I think will happen and what should happen with this year's class of Cooperstown contenders.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Houston Astros (47-56) at Milwaukee Brewers (60-44) 2:05 PM ET

The addition of CC Sabathia was supposed to give the Brewers a chance to catch the Cubs in the N.L. Central by the end of the season. Their ascension has been much quicker ... as a 9-1 run combined with the Cubs going 3-7 in their last ten has but the Brewers in a deadlock for first with Chicago. To think that Ned Yost was once the guy we thought was on the hot seat. We were probably right, but it's how a well-timed trade will cool down that seat.

In my last post about Jose Contreras' trip to the disabled list, I marveled at the fact White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was able to string together 75 consecutive words without swearing. I'm pretty sure that's a career high for the Sox skipper. Though it also worries me because that's not the Ozzie Guillen we've all come to know and love.

Thankfully, even though Ozzie's cleaned up his language a bit, he has yet to stop holding grudges. Particularly against Texas Rangers, as Rangers closer C.J. Wilson joins a group that includes Buck Showalter and Vicente Padilla before him as somebody who just ticks Ozzie off.

A week ago today, in the last game before the All-Star break, Wilson came on to close a game in which the Rangers had a four-run lead. Well, after allowing three-runs to score, Wilson finally got the third out of the inning with the bases loaded and proceeded to celebrate as though he'd just won the World Series. Ozzie didn't like it and said something then, and now a week later with the Rangers set to come to Chicago, Ozzie would like C.J. to know he still hasn't forgotten it.

"You can be cocky, be yourself or have your own showtime," Guillen told Chicago reporters Friday. "But when you don't respect the opposition and do what he did, that's not professional. That's the reason I was screaming to him. When you're nobody and show people up like that. ... Wait till you're somebody in baseball, and then do whatever you want to do.

For a guy with a spectacular moustache, Goose Gossage is really a bit of a downer. He ripped Joba Chamberlain for pumping his fist after strikeouts because it wasn't the "Yankee way." I'm not sure what that way is, I've seen uber-Yankee Derek Jeter's fist move in a pumping manner before, but Gossage played for the team so he must have an idea.

He never played for the Mets, though that's not stopping him from taking aim at one of their players as well. He's got Jose Reyes in the crosshairs and pulls out the back in my day whupping stick.

"There's not enough mustard in the city to cover Reyes. He needs to act like a professional. I don't want this sport to turn into football where they dance after every play. I can't stand that - the dancing, the laughing - there's no place for that in the game. He's not the first great player to play - I wouldn't even say great because he hasn't won anything yet."

I won't argue too strenuously in favor of the dancing celebrations, I'm not a huge fan, but there's no place for laughing in baseball? It's a game, for heaven's sakes, not the coal mines of Appalachia. You'd think that a guy who won a World Series with Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner all acting like prepubescent twits would know that professionalism can sometimes be a little overrated.

(H/T Projo SoxBlog via BBTF)

Poor Joba Chamberlain. There he is, playing baseball with his typically intense body language -- fist-pumping and so on -- and because he's a young guy and not yet considered a True Yankee, he has to hear quasi-hypocritical nonsense from people that haven't played in ages. Case in point: Goose Gossage, who wants Joba to act like a "Yankee." Whatever that means (via BBTF):

"That's just not the Yankee way, what Joba did. Let everyone else do that stuff, but not a Yankee," Gossage said by telephone on Saturday. "What I don't understand is, the kid's got the greatest mentor in the world in Mariano [Rivera]. He's one of the leaders of the team, so you'd think it wouldn't happen on that team.

"But there's no one to pass the torch anymore, no one to teach the young kids how to act. The Mets did a lot of that [celebrating] last year, and look how it came back to haunt them."

What is the "Yankee way," exactly? Is it having a legendarily blustery owner, who gets to scream and shout and generally act like a jerkoff for 30 years? Is it having that owner but simultaneously decrying long hair, facial hair, and any semblance of individual personality among the team's players? Seriously, I don't understand. You're not a f----ing prep school. You're a baseball team. If Joba Chamberlian stops striking people out, then get mad at him. Until then, let the man pump his fist. It seems to have worked out OK for Derek Jeter.

Football may be America's new passion, but baseball is still the national pastime. Even if it's not democratic in nature most of the time, the sport at least boasts the hypocritical juxtaposition of capitalism (no salary cap) and equality (everyman's sport ... and seriously, we have plenty of room at the stadium). But it would appear that the ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to let everyone know exactly where they stand, by dividing up the Dodgers' stadium by class status.

T.J. Simers relays a reader email in today's L.A. Times, whereby a fifth grade teacher named Russell Wise scored tickets to last Wednesday's Dodger game for seats which he called "the closest I have ever been to Major League action". These seats, however, would not allow him the privilege of getting any autographs from the Los Angeles players, due to a new rule that the club put into effect this year.

Bothered by the shame of using PED's? Baseball's newest hall of famer sympathizes with you. He just wish you wouldn't be so gosh darn evasive about it.

Goose Gossage can understand why some players would try steroids. With major league salaries so high, finding a way to extend a career is an awfully tempting proposition.

"Chances are, I probably would have done it, too," Gossage said Wednesday. (...)

"I've been in that situation, trying to prolong my career with the money that was out there to be made at this time in baseball. I can't sit here and say that I would not have done it," he said. "But had I done it, I'm going to face the consequences. And the consequences are, that whether they belong in the Hall of Fame or not, the records can't stand.

"These guys downplay the significance of steroids. Don't even go there. I don't buy it at all," Gossage added at a news conference. "These guys are getting better the older they get? Nah. The body doesn't work that way. And baseball is a young man's game."

Gossage played enough into the 90's that he actually could have the opportunity to try steroids late in his career if he wanted to. Certainly a guy who plays until the age of 42 nowadays like Gossage did would raise at least a couple of eyebrows nowadays. But not only is Gossage's admission that he would have at least thought about cheating refreshing, but his acknowledgment that the explosion of money in the sport raising the temptation to cheat is a small reminder that there are larger problems than just names on a list.