Gossage, Williams and the 1984 Padres

As expected, much was made about Rich “Goose” Gossage and Dick Williams’ New York ties this past weekend during their induction into the Hall of Fame.
Gossage entered the hall wearing a Yankees hat, as he should have, although it’s worth mentioning he also played for both Chicago teams, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle.
And like Gossage, Williams, a Yankees scout for 10 years, made sure to give longtime Yanks owner George Steinbrenner a nice plug for the Hall -- which stole plenty of headlines in The Big Apple.
But what got lost in most of the mainstream media coverage of Sunday’s ceremony was the San Diego connection between Gossage and Williams.
Gossage actually played for Williams in San Diego during the mid-1980s and was a key acquisition who helped San Diego win its first pennant and reach the World Series in 1984.
Most of the blogosphere won’t remember it, but Gossage was the one who gave up that back-breaking home run to Tigers slugger Kirk Gibson (yes, he did more than hit big postseason bombs for the Dodgers) in the eighth inning of Game 5 to help Detroit wrap up the World Series.
During the induction ceremony, Gossage apologized to Williams for giving up the longball to Gibson. Turns out Williams wanted “Goose” to walk Gibson, but Gossage talked him out of it because of prior success against Gibson.
“I should have listened,” Gossage said.
Even with the loss to the Tigers, the 1984 season is still remembered as the finest in San Diego Padres history.
They set a then-franchise record for wins (92) thanks to the play of Gossage (10-6 with 25 saves), Steve Garvey, Graig Nettles, Kevin McReynolds and, of course, Tony Gwynn, who won his first batting title with a .351 average that season.
Gwynn was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year. I was lucky enough to sit down with “Mr. Padre” and talk about that 1984 season among other topics shortly before his induction. You can read a portion of that Q&A here.