A Battle For the Ages

With his supersize Fu Manchu mustache and seething scowl, former major league baseball pitcher Richard (Goose) Gossage scared the stirrups off hitters 30 years ago. Now 54, the Goose is firing 100 m.p.h. fastballs at a different set of heads: baseball writers who haven't voted him into the Hall of Fame. "I'll take on any writer, anywhere, on any show, and I will bury him," Gossage said in January after learning that Bruce Sutter, a star from the same era, got the Hall call. Gossage is still ticked. "These young writers have no clue," he told TIME. "They're completely wet. They're completely full of s___. O.K.?"

Like legions of baby boomers who have gone about as far as they can in their profession--or will soon reach that uncomfortable turning point--Gossage is after something simple: validation of a career, and life, well spent. He wants one last cheer, and his high-profile quest throws valuable light on some common nagging questions. Are up-and-comers out to steal our thunder? When we're not recognized for our achievements, does it pay to get angry? Am I living in the past when I still have much to offer and should be looking ahead? When is it time to move on?

Gossage, who was a relief pitcher, is a victim of baseball's battle of the ages. Today's game is more specialized. In Gossage's era, relief pitchers often threw three innings to close out a game and get credited with a "save." Says the Goose: "I was brought into situations God couldn't get out of, and I got out of them." Now closers get those all-important saves by pitching a single inning or less. So they are able to pitch in more games and build their statistics. Gossage isn't the only former big leaguer with a beef. Today's hitters, thanks to smaller ballparks and steroids, hit far more home runs. Gossage contends that players from the 1970s and '80s whose numbers don't compare with those of modern-era hitters like Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro (both of whom have denied knowingly using steroids) have been wrongfully overlooked--Andre Dawson and Jim Rice, to name a couple.

Throw in feelings of rejection and a desire for the ultimate career stamp, and you've got a Goose who is cooking. "It's not that they're better," Gossage says of today's players. "Do what we did, then compare who was the best. Barry Bonds stands up there. When's the last time Barry Bonds was knocked on his ass? Never ... The owners can save millions of dollars--take the pitcher off the mound and put up a tee. 'Cause what they're playing is tee ball. They pitch around him. If I was going to pitch around him, I would have saved four and just put one in his rib cage. You want to go to first? We'll do it easy."

It's fitting that Gossage carries the torch for spurned stars of yesteryear. He courted controversy throughout his 22 years in the big leagues, most famously as a New York Yankee. He once called Yankee owner George Steinbrenner "the fat man upstairs" and another time punched a teammate on the nose during a bathroom brawl. In 1986, after San Diego Padres owner Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, banned beer in the clubhouse, Gossage famously remarked, "She is poisoning the world with her hamburgers, and we can't even get a lousy beer."