Because we can’t possibly get enough of Goose Gossage moaning about the current state of baseball, the NY Post’s George King provides the former Yankee/Padres/Cubs reliever with yet another opportunity to vent. (link courtesy Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)

“It’s a different game now. The ball’s more lively, the ballparks are a joke; you can’t pitch inside. … The owners could save millions of dollars by taking the pitcher off the mound and just put a tee out there.”

“This is no knock against Mariano Rivera – he’s currently the greatest closer pitching on the planet – but have him do what we did. We’d come into a game for two or three innings, sometimes in the fifth inning, and we were always brought into the middle of jams. This was all season, not just late in the season.”

“There is nothing bigger and more powerful than strikeouts.”

“To say Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter of all time is totally ridiculous. It’s really a slap in the face to Hank Aaron.”

“God couldn’t get out of some of the situations that I was brought into. Why was I brought in? Because I could get out of them.”

Do a little math and you will see that in 1978, Gossage’s average relief appearance was 2.1 innings. This past season Rivera averaged one inning per appearance. In 1978 Gossage threw 56 more innings than Rivera did this past season, when he fired 78.3 innings.

“I’d love to see what my stats would be if I only pitched one inning,” Gossage says.