At Baseball Hall of Fame, Links Are Cherished
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — It was a day of connections Sunday at the annual induction of the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Goose Gossage apologized to Dick Williams, his San Diego Padres manager, for ignoring orders to walk Kirk Gibson in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the 1984 World Series and surrendering a home run that helped Detroit win the title. “I should have listened,” Gossage said.
One of Bowie Kuhn’s stepsons, Paul Degener, thanked Gossage for being the last major leaguer to talk to his father, the former baseball commissioner, several months before his death in 2007. Peter O’Malley, speaking for his father, Walter, who took the Dodgers west, lauded Kuhn for protecting baseball’s integrity.
And Gossage and Williams lobbied for the election of one of their many employers, George Steinbrenner, to join the Hall in the near future.
nytimes.com
7/28/08
