First off, I am glad that Gossage finally got in. There are some stats that important to consider is his 1002 games pitched, 310 saves, and 3.01 lifetime ERA. One is that he had 37 starts and 16 of them were complete games. This stat alone is not enough to get in the Hall, but with his other stats make for a good tidbit. Furthermore, my personal favorite stat that I heard during an interview on ESPN, over 50 of his 310 saves were for 7 outs or more. Thats a 2+ inning save, which now-a-days is onheard of. There are also the intangebles like how he intimidated hitters and such that show this was about time. His election is also important because it shows how the game is valuing bullpen pitchers more.
Going with that same thought, and the reason why I mentioned it, is why I am upset that Lee Smith was not inducted. Lee Smith had a 3.03 ERA, right along there with Gossage but more importantly in my opinion, is his saves record. He has 478 saves. When he retired, he was the all time leader. Hoffman recently broke that record but we cannot allow that to overlook Smith. He is also number 12 on the all time list for K/9IP. He would be going in because of his saves record, and hopefully he will eventually go in.
