Goose!

Rich Gossage makes the Hall. This makes me happy. I think he's a no-brainer, if for no other reason than because when my brother and I were kids and we used to play catch and pretend to be lights-out relievers, we pretended to be Gossage. Well, sometimes I was John Hiller, but that was just me trying to be difficult.

Tim Raines only got 24.3% of the vote. Trammell 18.2%. Blyleven 61.9%. They're all Hall of Famers in my book, but my view of the institution is that I'd rather have someone arguably deserving not make it than to have someone clearly undeserving get in (note: this is what keeps my law firm from making me partner too, but that's another story). Maybe there's no connection between the tough obstacles those fellows face and whatever it is that kept Jim Rice (72.2%) out, but I'm willing to accept their exclusion in exchange for Rice's too.

Of course Rice will probably make it next year. I won't lose sleep over that either, though, because this is the Hall of Fame, not ethics, metaphysics, or geopolitics. We can live with some wrong turns, even if we'd prefer not to.