by KYW's Bill Campbell
Sunday's entrance of Rich "Goose" Gossage into the Baseball Hall of Fame, while deserving, accurately describes the current game. It's become a battle of the bullpens.
Gossage is the fifth reliever to enter the Hall. Now, of course, the term is "closer," although Gossage and his collegues did pitch two and three innings on occassion.
It was the number of pitches thrown, the famous pitch counts, that brought relievers to glory, I think. Pitching complete games is unheard of these days. So is working every fourth day, which used to be routine.
The Phillies are going to honor Robin Roberts this coming weekend -- the master of complete games, who probably would have had trouble locating the bullpen. And I would be shocked if he was ever on a pitch count.
And in football, I always had similar thoughts about Brett Favre, a name that says "Green Bay" as loudly as that of Curly Lambeau or Vince Lombardi. His great, 17-year career has been tainted, in my opinion, by his immaturity. Just to think of him on another team borders on disbelief, for he is a major part of Green Bay Packer history.
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